Video 1. What Does It Mean To Measure?
Explore what can be measured and what it means to measure. Identify measurable properties such as weight, surface area, and volume, and discuss which metric units are more appropriate for measuring these properties. Refine your use of precision instruments, and learn about alternate methods such as displacement. Explore approximation techniques, and reason about how to make better approximations.
Video 2. Measurement Fundamentals
Investigate the difference between a count and a measure, and examine essential ideas such as unit iteration, partitioning, and the compensatory principle. Learn about the many uses of ratio in measurement and how scale models help us understand relative sizes. Investigate the constant of proportionality in isosceles right triangles, and learn about precision and accuracy in measurement.
Video 3. The Metric System
Learn about the relationships between units in the metric system and how to represent quantities using different units. Estimate and measure quantities of length, mass, and capacity, and solve measurement problems.
Video 4. Angle Measurement
Review appropriate notation for angle measurement, and describe angles in terms of the amount of turn. Use reasoning to determine the measures of angles in polygons based on the idea that there are 360 degrees in a complete turn. Learn about the relationships among angles within shapes, and generalize a formula for finding the sum of the angles in any n-gon. Use activities based on GeoLogo to explore the differences among interior, exterior, and central angles.
Video 5. Indirect Measurement and Trigonometry
Learn how to use the concept of similarity to measure distance indirectly, using methods involving similar triangles, shadows, and transits. Apply basic right-angle trigonometry to learn about the relationships among steepness, angle of elevation, and height-to-distance ratio. Use trigonometric ratios to solve problems involving right triangles.
Video 6. Area
Learn that area is a measure of how much surface is covered. Explore the relationship between the size of the unit used and the resulting measurement. Find the area of irregular shapes by counting squares or subdividing the figure into sections. Learn how to approximate the area more accurately by using smaller and smaller units. Relate this counting approach to the standard area formulas for triangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms.
Video 7. Circles and Pi
Investigate the circumference and area of a circle. Examine what underlies the formulas for these measures, and learn how the features of the irrational number pi (ð) affect both of these measures.
Video 8. Volume
Explore several methods for finding the volume of objects, using both standard cubic units and non-standard measures. Explore how volume formulas for solid objects such as spheres, cylinders, and cones are derived and related.
Video 9. Measurement Relationships
Examine the relationships between area and perimeter when one measure is fixed. Determine which shapes maximize area while minimizing perimeter, and vice versa. Explore the proportional relationship between surface area and volume. Construct open-box containers, and use graphs to approximate the dimensions of the resulting rectangular prism that holds the maximum volume.
Video 10. Classroom Case Studies, K–2
Watch this program in the 10th session for K–2 teachers. Explore how the concepts developed in this course can be applied through case studies of K–2 teachers (former course participants who have adapted their new knowledge to their classrooms), as well as a set of typical measurement problems for K–2 students.
Video 11. Classroom Case Studies, 3–5
Watch this program in the 10th session for grade 3–5 teachers. Explore how the concepts developed in this course can be applied through case studies of grade 3–5 teachers (former course participants who have adapted their new knowledge to their classrooms), as well as a set of typical measurement problems for grade 3–5 students.
Video 12. Classroom Case Studies, 6–8
Watch this program in the 10th session for grade 6–8 teachers. Explore how the concepts developed in this course can be applied through case studies of grade 6–8 teachers (former course participants who have adapted their new knowledge to their classrooms), as well as a set of typical measurement problems for grade 6–8 students.
Reactions in Chemistry
A video workshop for high school teac guide, and Web site.
Reactions in Chemistry is an eight-part workshop or the professional development of high school chemistry and physical science teachers. The workshop blends chemistry content, history, and technological applications with a range of classroom lessons to provide teachers with updated knowledge and new approaches to pedagogy. Teachers will see diverse classes doing hands-on lessons and labs and will hear teachers reflect on their own practices. The on-camera teachers meet in roundtable discussions about teaching strategies and the particular challenges of helping students connect the content to their own lives. The programs also present the work of industrial and forensic chemists and researchers.
Produced by Hadassah College, Jerusalem, in collaboration with the Educational Film Center (EFC). 2003.
ISBN: 1-57680-611-1
Individual Program Descriptions
1. Workshop 1. Atoms and Molecules
This program deals with teaching the very first steps of chemistry. It introduces the basic building blocks — the atoms — which, through their properties, periodicity and binding, form molecules. The program offers different ways to represent these basic concepts by creating useful models in the minds of new chemistry students. It follows the development of these concepts through history and their use in modern technology.
2. Workshop 2. Macro to Micro Structures
This program deals with the conceptualization of micro processes and environments. It involves teaching chemistry through macro phenomena, which can be observed, and micro processes, which occur on the molecular level, and can only be imagined. Conceptual change must occur in order for students to understand chemical phenomena. Teaching for conceptual change poses a great challenge to teachers, because they must create imaginary and physical models in order to help students visualize microenvironments and processes that occur within them.
3. Workshop 3. Energetics and Dynamics
This program emphasizes the importance of learning about energetics and dynamics in order to improve students’ understanding of basic principles of chemistry. The complexity of teaching concepts such as the collisions theory, reaction kinetics, and electronic energy levels is introduced using a variety of teaching strategies. These concepts are related to everyday phenomena through topics such as nuclear and solar energy, which are brought about as examples for nuclear chemistry.
4. Workshop 4. Theory and Practice in Chemical Systems
This program shows how a theoretical understanding of the driving force for chemical systems can lead to further development of new technologies and to the discovery of new phenomena, in practice. In teaching, this is done through the creation of a close relationship between the science and mathematics of chemical processes, through problem-solving activities. These activities, which are based on a systematic interpretation of chemistry into mathematics, make the connection between theory and practice. These basic skills form the foundation for learning about chemical systems.
5. Workshop 5. Chemical Design
This program deals with basic concepts that are required for the understanding of chemical design. The idea is brought about by experiences from everyday life, such as the stoichiometry of baking, the ingredients of soft drinks, the components of drugs, and the chromatography of markers. The tools of the chemical designer — the chemist — are found in the laboratory, and the procedure which leads to the development of new materials is based on scientific investigation. These tools are applied to chemistry teaching in the classroom and to the facilitating of laboratory learning.
6. Workshop 6. The Chemistry of Life
This program discusses the chemistry of the wonders of life. It starts off with the way life began, and goes on to deal with the structure and function of biological molecules. It emphasizes the value of relating chemical principles to biology studies, and states that living organisms are huge chemical systems in equilibrium. Thus, learning processes are based on the chemistry of life, and this program shows how effective classroom strategies aim at enhanced learning.
7. Workshop 7. Chemistry and the Environment
This program introduces the chemistry of the environment. It addresses selected topics such as water quality and purification, recycling, and the hole in the ozone layer. Bringing the students to awareness of these topics helps them understand important issues in the world around them. In studying chemistry, environmental studies or anything else, the classroom climate is an important issue as well, and the teacher can influence it a great deal.
8. Workshop 8. Chemistry at the Interface
In the last program, cutting–edge technologies are presented, where chemistry is at the interface with other disciplines: tissue engineering, deciphering of the human genome, and agricultural resources for new materials. The future of technology is incorporated into the chemistry classroom, motivating the students with exciting real–world applications and contributing to teaching. The workshop ends with a discussion: What is quality in teaching and how does it influence chemistry students and teachers?
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