Play This, Learn That

This is a journal-style post that will evolve over time, as reflections are added from different readings in the book.

PART 1: Contextual Transposition

As a chemistry teacher, there are a number of concepts in my curriculum that students have to grasp without being able to actual see what they are learning about. Atoms are too small to be say all but the most powerful microscopes, and electrons, which are the focus of a substantial part of the curriculum, are far smaller than the smallest atoms.

So, when it comes to discussing the way electrons move in orbitals and energy levels, I have used a number of contextual transpositions to make the concepts more concrete.

In the case of electron orbitals, we discuss the fact that an orbital is really an area of space where an electron is likely to be most of the time. We can't say where the electron is exactly, but we can say that it could be found within a certain area 90% of the time. This uncertainty is confusing and causes anxiety for many students. I have tried get students to better understand this concept with a fairly simple exercise. Student take out a piece of paper and write down all of the places that they have gone in the past week (as much as they can recall, at least). We then draw a rough map of the town and surrounding areas, with their school and home as two points on the map. Then, we quickly plot the number of places that they have been during the week. It quickly becomes obvious that most of their time is spent within the small sphere around their house and school, with occasional excursions for sports, work, or other activities. I bring this back around to electrons by pointing out that, at any given moment, I couldn't say with certainty where any of my students might be, but I would be fairly certain that if I searched the area around school and home, I would find them most of the time. NOTE: I could certainly see using mapping apps and smartphones to make this activity more like a quest and also get a more detailed view on an actual map. I would have to address privacy issues, of course.