Love those Flinn Fax - Chromatography

Chromatography sample set up

Earlier this school year as I was planning out my lesson on matter for my science seminar class, along comes the Flinn Scientific -Flinn Fax flyer in my school mailbox. What perfect timing! I had planned on doing chromatography, a method for separating mixtures, and here is a nice new twist on the technique.



Sample set up

I started the students on day one with simply asking them to set up a test paper with all the different brands of pens that I had available. The following day I gave them designs to copy. They had to use their findings to determine which pens to use. Everyone was successful as you can see by the pictures below. In the future I might even use different solvents to see if they can get results that differ from those they got here (we used water as our solvent but I gave them both water soluble and non-soluble pens).

Chromatography samples running

 I am continually amazed by what activities students are most fascinated by. This one was a huge success. Many simply tried to make interesting patterns of their own.




Student Sample 1

I placed my samples in plastic bags so that they wouldn't get wet. You can see here the student's work to copy my example.  I will now have these samples to use again next year which will save me a lot of preparation time.

Student Sample 2

Included in this photo you can see the sample disks that the students had completed on day one which show the pigment patterns generated by each type of pen available for use.

Freezing and melting of water with Vernier Labquests

In my Science Seminar class, we are taking a look at how energy works. Energy is the capacity to do work or give off heat. All matter has kinetic energy because the atoms of a substance are constantly in motion, the measurement of that motion is what we often call the temperature of a substance. Yesterday we discussed how matter changes state when heat is applied to a substance and the relationship between kinetic and potential energy during this process. Today we conducted an experiment to verify that by completing Vernier's Freezing and Melting of Water using their LabQuest equipment. I've used this lab before and get good results. I would highly recommend purchasing their lab books if you have access to their equipment for use. I also use their probeware whenever a lab calls for a thermometer or pH probe. The equipment is easy to use and helps to develop student lab skills by the use of technology in the classroom.

Here are some pictures showing the various stages of this experiment.


The set up showing the students freezing the water.



Once the ice is frozen as shown the next step is to collect data as it is melting.



Last step in the melting process - LabQuest unit shown here.

Botany Scavenger Hunt

In the spring one of my favorite activities is to take out the students for a Botany Scavenger Hunt as a culmanating activity/assessment. I challenge them to find examples of: fungi, pteriophytes, bryophytes, gymnosperm, and angiosperm (both monocot and dicot). What is so difficult for me to understand is how little experience students have with the outdoors. Many are very unfamiliar with common types of plants which grow in their back yards. They love to ask to go outdoors but often complain once they get out there about the temperature, the sun, or the bugs. They are more apt to want to be on their phones texting their friends who are back in the building. I guess the more we get them outdoors the more adapted they will be. 
There are some who are genuinely interested in learning more about the world around them. When we returned indoors I had them mount their specimens onto paper and label. It was more amazing to see them arranging their samples and creating works of art - at least I think they are works of art. Here are a few examples for you to enjoy.

Characteristics of Living Things

Living things to observe
and jump start thinking.

 As an introductory activity to my ecology unit, I wanted students to start thinking about what makes a living thing living. To aid with the brainstorming I provided them with a live plant, a preserved animal (but told them to imagine it as living), and a packet of seeds. What characteristics, processes or needs did these three items possess that leads one to know that they are living? As you can see from the list on the white board they came up with quite a few ideas. Each year I get a different list of things. When the students are having a good day I get really complex answers like: reproduction, die, make waste (feces or urine), are made up of cells, require or consume energy, grow, require nutrients, need water, use oxygen, and the list goes on.

Once that list is generated we work on looking for commonalities between the three items in order to generate a list that all living things have. That list is generally smaller since not all living things have blood or eyes. My next step is to introduce the concept of biotic and abiotic factors. This allows us to build up the necessary vocabulary for studying the components of an ecosystem.

Lists of the characteristics, processes,
and needs of living things.

Observations vs. Inferences

On the opening day of each new school year I get students thinking about the steps of the Scientific Method. Of course all science begins with observations. I show them the following item.


Observation bag

I hold up the bag and walk around the room showing it off, even making sure they get a view of the bottom of the bag. With a student at the white board to act as a scribe, I begin to solicit observations of the bag. Students say the following: brightly colored, pink, yellow, green, has flowers, has designs, there's a ribbon, there's a handle, there's white tissue paper inside, and the list goes on. Sometimes it's difficult to get the flow of ideas going but once someone starts it tends to get easier.

Eventually one student may make a comment like: "It's a present" or "It's for a girl." That's when I can discuss the differences between observations and inferences. Because we've had previous experience with something when we observe something new we filter our ideas through those experiences and draw conclusions. It's an opportunity to discuss how our culture influences our inferences. What if we lived somewhere where pink items were not associated with femininity?

Third step, ask students if they have questions about the bag. I usually get: what's in it, is it heavy, is it a present, who is it for, etc.

I ask for a volunteer to come up and put their hand in the bag and using only their sense of touch describe the object. They usually know what it is but are not allowed to say so to the class. Then another student is invited up to look in the bag and give only observations of what they see. I will let the class begin to ask questions of myself or the other two students, that is besides the obvious - what is it. After a few of those are answered someone usually gets the answer. And there you go in a quick, easy activity the students have been introduced to the scientific method.



Mystery item inside

Invasive Species Brochures

Invasive Species Brochure - Example of Student Work

After studying different ecological impacts the students put together an informative brochure about various invasive species. Using the Top 100 Global Invasive Species Database the students started their research and went from there. I have included two examples here. Part of the project was to focus on the origin of the organism, what regions had it been introduced to, what damage was it doing to these ecosystems, what steps were being taken to combat the invaders, and what if any research was being done on this particular species.

I was impressed by the work produced by the class.

Invasive Species Brochure Example of Student Work