Chemistry in everyday life

On Monday, October 26, I asked several students in 2nd and 3rd hour to write down, on a notecard, three things that they think of when they hear chemistry. The most common responses were chemicals and labs or experiements. I was hoping for responses like materials (e.g. plastics, synthetic fabrics) or food, things that the students encounter on a daily basis.

Now that the students have begun covering chemistry basics, my plan is to focus presentations on the chemistry that they encounter in their everyday life. I gave my first of such presentations today on water treatment (which is part of the field of environmental engineering). I made some connections to myself and what I do as an environmental engineering and emphasized why water treatment is important to their lives; I think the students got the point that I was trying to make. No one thinks about water treatment, they just expect that the water from the faucet will be safe to drink, and by safe I mean won't make them sick. Most people doesn't know what happens to things that go down the drain.

Attention

Some of the students who are struggling with the material and seem to only work when they receive individual attention. For journal questions and worksheets, if I see that a student has paper and pencil in front of them but aren't working, I'll ask them if they understand how to do the work. Usually they don't so I'll take the time to explain and walk them through the problem(s). For worksheets I'll stay with the student long enough to make sure that they can do the work on their own, then I'll move on to someone else and I'll return to make sure that they continue working on the assignment.

Both physical science classes, second and third hours, have spent the first month and a half of the school year going through the basics, such as lab safety, the scientific method, units, and measurements; all of which are important, but I don't think Ms. P wanted to spend that much time on this material. It is clear that some of the students are struggling with the material and others get it right away. How do you find the right pace?

Second hour is a difficult class to work with. There are 35 students in the class, which is too many, and a few of them are very disruptive and disrespectful. On the other hand, there are students in the class who come to learn, and several of the students should not be in physical science; they should be in physics or chemistry. Third hour is easier to work with; it's a smaller class, and the combination of personalities is much calmer. The students in third hour stay focused longer and they get more work done in class.