I love collecting teaching resources for imaginED.

Not only am I learning a ton in the process, but when I find good stuff I am left so totally engaged that I feel like running over to my neighbour’s house and telling the entire family about the wonder of BORON or the MOLE. This is, of course, IMAGINATIVE EDUCATION at work 🙂 (Learn about Imaginative Education and what tools you can use to maximize learning in your classroom.  Options:  IERG website, the Tools of Imagination Series OR any post on the imaginED blog!)

This week’s recommended links/resources for Science teachers focus on CHEMISTRY.

#1

From BuzzFEED (If you are on twitter you can follow @BuzzFeed). This wonder-full resource humanizes and story-shapes all the elements in the periodic table.  There are so many options for students to then employ their own bodies to evoke the meaning and significance of these elements! Check it out here: 112 Cartoon Elements Make Learning The Periodic Table Fun. The article is by Donna Dickens. The artist of all these wonder-full characterizations of the elements is Kacie D.

#2

Do you know what one of the most important day/time of the year is for Chemistry?  (Source: Imaginative Chemistry teacher Judy Dabideen-Sonachansingh!)

Imagine your alarm is going off, it’s wildly flashing and buzzing, waking you up  at 6:02 AM.  You bolt upright in bed.  You have a SHOCKING case of bed-head.  It is 6:02 on October 23.  This date/time is FANTASTIC. Of course, this is a mnemonic for helping to remember the value of a MOLE of anything.

Cognitive tools: story-form (Depending on how you introduce the topic and connect to the significance of the MOLE you would tie up together the literate eye, mental imagery, the HUMAN story of those involved in defining the MOLE etc.)

Here’s an additional suggestion from Judy for employing the cognitive tool of collecting/hobbies when teaching the periodic table: “Students could see the Periodic Table as a collection of relative atomic masses for the individual elements and molar masses as collections of relative atomic masses of the elements in the particular compound. They could organize the calculations into sets of (a) masses (b) molarity (c) number of particles and (d) volume of gases.” (Note, this is a direct quote from Judy–I assume you Chem teachers out there understand it?!)

#3

Thanks Mental Floss for the next 2 imagination-focused resources.  I recommend your site to all our imaginative science educators!  Here are the 2 pieces I want to share this week:

Neanderthals Used a Chemistry Trick to Start Fires 50,000 Years Ago  Author: Michele Debczak  Some of the cognitive tools at work:  Sense of Mystery, Sense of Wonder, Heroic Qualities.

#4

24 Unintended Scientific Discoveries (From Mental Floss). Some of the cognitive tools at work:  Humour/incongruity, the literate eye, sense of mystery, sense of wonder.

What are cognitive tools?  Find out about Imaginative Education and you can transform your teaching

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