Chemistry at Home: Accessible Experiments and Science Literacy

This case study is a snapshot of one week of practice where high school students are given the opportunity to do chemistry in their kitchen and make meaningful connections to a chemistry phenomenon. In general we design our experiments to be accessible to students by using common household items, while encouraging alternatives based on what is available in student’s homes. We then support students to make connections between the experiment and real world phenomena through science articles adapted for different reading levels.

In this particular week students were challenged to put an egg into a liquid of their choice: vinegar, coca cola, juice, and more. They were then asked to collect data over several days until we had a Zoom call to group our results by the different kinds of liquids students used and compare. Students were then challenged to read about an environmental chemistry phenomenon called ocean acidification. The article was from Newsela. Newsela provides articles on current topics rendered accessible and adapted for different reading levels. After reading students were asked to draw connections between what they learned about ocean acidification from their reading and their egg-liquid experiment. Going further, students were supported to create a chemistry explanation connecting the results of their experiment to ocean acidification. Feedback was given individually to students through Google Forms using both multiple choice questions with immediate feedback and later feedback we provided on short answer questions.

This is our first year teaching together. During “normal times,” we plan together every other day for an hour, deciding collaboratively on lesson plans, activities and assessments. Once we moved to a remote work environment, we developed a new routine where we each took responsibility for different portions of the weekly learning. Twice a week, we have Zoom planning sessions where we brainstorm ideas for topics, loosely following the topical sequence of a normal year. Generally by the end of one Zoom call, we have the general gist of the next week’s lessons. Over the next two days, Gavin generally takes responsibility for developing the experiment lesson, compiling teaser videos, student instructions and a Google Form for collecting student input about their experiment. Mary finalizes selection of an article connecting the topic to a real-world phenomenon and generates a Google Form to collect student responses on the article. All of these materials are housed in a shared Google Drive folder where our co-teachers can access them for additional modifications, including Spanish translation, preparation of visual vocabulary aids, and sentence frames for scaffolded open-ended responses. These modifications are distributed via Google Classroom to bilingual students, ELLs, and students with IEPs or 504 plans requiring additional supports. Assignment deadlines are flexible, allowing all students the time needed to complete assignments around other obligations in this time. A final Zoom meeting with all teachers on Friday afternoon confirms that assignments are ready for Monday morning posting in Google Classroom. Our Zoom meetings are a critical component of our approach to cooperative planning, maintaining the synergy that truly only comes during real-time interactions where we play off each other’s thoughts and ideas.