Rubric 5
Use of new science content knowledge in designing instructions
Two reflections in this rubric demonstrate the application of new scientific knowledge in the design of teaching materials, lesson plans, and/ or assessments used in my own classroom.
Reflection 1: Average atomic masses of elements (Chem. 636)
Reflection 2: Arrangement of electrons in atoms (Chem. 507)
Reflection 1: Lab Activity: Average atomic masses of elements (Chem. 636)
Enduring Understanding: The professional educator incorporates pedagogical strategies and content knowledge learned through the MCE program into their teaching practice.
1. WHAT, WHY, HOW.
The lab activity I present in this reflection was created to satisfy the professional development requirements for Chem. Ed. 636. Doug Balmer and I prepared a broad set of manipulatives to explain chemical concepts. I used this activity in my classroom this past April. My students successfully found the relative abundance and calculated the average atomic mass.
2. Baseline Reflection.
This baseline evidence is a lesson plan covering isotopes, atomic number, and mass number. In one of the learning goals (#4), I explained isotope and defined atomic number and mass number but I did not cover calculating the average mass in my lessons before taking this course.
Lesson plan #3
Clearly the concept was only defined and no practice and real application was enforced, as seen in the evidence below.
Lesson plan: defining concepts
I presented my manipulative to calculate the average atomic mass of elements where it is clear to students that elements occur in nature as a mixture of isotopes. By the end of this lesson, students were able to calculate the relative abundance of each isotope.
3. Later Reflection
Activity to calculate the average atomic mass
4. Evidence of Growth.
I used four types of beans (dark brown, white, light brown, dotted brown) to represent four types of atoms to calculate the average mass of the bean. The growth I experienced was in simplifying and relating concepts to real life through using examples similar to each concept. By using four simple steps and repeating it for each type of bean, calculating the average mass became simple.
Reflection 2: Arrangement of electrons in atoms (Chem. 507)
Learning quantum numbers, mathematical relation between speed of light, wavelength and frequency, and the electromagnetic system.
Enduring Understanding: The development and implementation of appropriate curricula, aligned with district state and national standards, also coordinates teaching practice, student learning, and assessment.
1. WHAT, WHY, HOW.
This reflection demonstrates my growth in assembling complete organized lesson plans according to states standards and regulations. My teaching practice experienced intensification in implementing curriculum material and assessment tasks.
2. Baseline Reflection:
The lesson plans I used for my chemistry class (some of them are still hand written) are all combined in a binder organized by numbers (lesson plan 1, lesson plan 2, etc.) according to chapters in the textbook I use. I worked on them by staying in the order of chapters I chose to teach to cover the standard requirements.
The baseline evidence I present below is lesson plan 6 chapter four; Arrangement of electrons in atoms. I only included a fair sample of the lesson plan to help see the growth in later evidence. The first page refers to the chapter in the textbook, starting date, assessment date, and learning goals. This page is pretty much the same for all my lesson plans.
Lesson plan 6
Day 1: Page 1 and 2 are samples of my focus in class, my notes, key ideas, what to remind students about, what to copy from the board, and what page in the textbook to go to.
Day 1: Page 1 & 2
I also included (two evidences below) Day 3: pages 7 & 8 to show more of my plans for day 3 for the same lesson plan.
Day 3. Page 7 Day 3. Page 8
3. Later Reflection
The way I demonstrate the application of scientific knowledge is the new design of my lesson plans. Here I choose to present part of the Unit Plan for the same chapter that I showed for baseline evidence.
First page includes the title/concept, the objectives, duration of the plan, direct instructions, guided practice, independent practice, assessments based on objectives, and the next class preparations.
Notice how direct instructions include describing, defining, and explaining concepts. Guided practice for this lesson plan is a POGIL that students worked on as instructed. Special attention paid to the critical thinking questions because they are the heart of the concept. Independent practice included homework to be handed in before starting next class to be assessed and finally a worksheet activity preparing students for next class.