How Can We Use Chemistry Videos and Photographs to Improve Teaching and Learning

Using Videos and Photographs to Supportthe Teaching of Chemistry

By Emma Baker

The CD resource and materials have been produced by Emma Baker as part of a Gatsby Teacher Fellowship, made possible by funding from Gatsby Technical Education Projects (GTEP). Responsibility for the materials lies with the author, and GTEP cannot accept any liability for the content of these materials or any consequences arising from their use.

These materials are protected by copyright. You may use the material freely for educational purposes, research and private study but may not, for profit or any other purpose, reproduce or transmit it in any other form or by any means, or store it in any retrieval system of any nature without the written consent of the author. Requests should be addressed to Emma Baker, Advanced Skills Teacher, The Downs School, Compton, Newbury, RG20 6NU.

Contents

Page
Introduction / 3 + 4
How can video and photographic resources be used? / 5
Specific Examples of ways of using video and photographic resources

Supporting teacher demonstrations.
As a substitute for a practical demonstration
To improve pupil observation.
As a substitute for a practical lesson.
To demonstrate the desired observations.
As a plenary.
As a revision tool.

/ 5
5
6
6
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Safety Consideration / 7

Introduction

As a Head of Chemistry and an Advanced Skills Teacher, I have, over the last few years become increasingly interested in how videos and photographs can be used to improve the learning of students within my classroom. During 2006/2007, I was awarded a Gatsby Teacher Fellowship to produce video and photographic resources with the aim of supporting the teaching and learning of chemistry. To me, chemistry teaching is about using the magic of colours, smells and sound to engage students in trying to explain the material world around them. Some of this magic can be portrayed in a video, but it is far better for students to experience this first hand through their own practical work or by teacher demonstration. The success of a practical or teacher demonstration can be measured by the depth of student understanding of the observations made. As teachers, it is our job to guide students to explain their observations using their chemical knowledge. One of the best methods of doing this is by asking appropriate questions based on our own in depth knowledge. The attached CD resource is not intended to take the place of student practical work or teacher demonstration. It is hoped that the resource will complement existing chemistry teaching, act as a revision aid, help students with their observations and may help and support the planning of demonstration and practical work.

The attached CD-ROM contains a set of videos, photographs, Word documents and PowerPoint resources, which can be accessed via a web browser. These can be viewed on a desktop computer or alternatively the images can be projected onto a display using a data projector. With this latter use in mind, the videos have been edited to be bright but you may find that the light levels of the data projector need to be manually adjusted. To view the resource, open the file ‘home page.html’ which will launch the web browser. Once launched, you will find a number of different links. The index page contains a written link to each individual video resource page but you can also use the KS3 and KS4 index page or Salters AS/A2 index page if you would prefer. Each video resource page contains a small video preview window and a link to the full screen high quality version. There is little explanation on the videos themselves because I believe that this may reduce their versatility. The video resources pages frequently contain links to a Word document or PowerPoint documents. The Word documents contain relevant chemical information, photographs captured from the video and questions which could be used to guide students towards a better understanding. On some video resource pages there are links to presentations which summarizes observations made during the video using photographs. When opening the Word or PowerPoint resources it is important to right click and open the document as a new window if you wish to remain in the web browser. Alternatively, you can select the ‘save as’ option if you wish to save the resource to a different location.

This booklet has been written to highlight some different strategies that you might want to adopt when using the resources. However, as chemistry teachers we are highly inventive and I am sure that many of you will find other ways of using them.

Emma Baker 2007

How can video and photographic resources be used?

As a preparation for teachers, prior to a teacher demonstration or student practical.
As a substitute for a practical demonstration when time, lab access or fume cupboard access is restricted.
As a substitute for a practical lesson when students have missed out due to absence.
As a plenary to a practical lesson to recap observations made by students.
As a plenary in which the teacher is able to probe and improve student understanding by accompanying the practical observations with careful questioning and explanations.
As a plenary to a practical lesson when students have been unable to either finish the practical or make detailed observational notes.
As a plenary when perhaps the practical has not been successful in yielding the observations that might be expected.
As a revision resource at the end of a topic of work when practical lessons can be revisited quickly.
As a stimulus to probe students understanding or ability to explain observations and reasoning.

Specific Examples of how different video resources may be used:

To support the development of teacher knowledge and practical demonstration skills.

The resources may be particularly useful for a teachers’ preparation for a student practical or demonstration. Having seen the observations, the teacherwill be more able to ask questions of students during the practical or demonstration to further their understanding. The resource may be particularly useful for teachers new to A Level chemistry and for those teaching chemistry out of specialism. The videos could also be used by experienced chemistry teachers to show a practical or demonstration to a less experienced teacher, without taking up the time that a teacher-to-teacher demonstration may involve.

As a plenary to a practical lesson.

I have used a number of the videos at the end of a student practical lesson to revisit the practical work undertaken. This is especially helpful when students have failed to complete the practical or perhaps have had insufficient thinking time to fully understand what has taken place. By showing a video, I have been able to summarize the observations that students have made and direct their explanations with careful questioning. For example, CD1 encompasses a number of different practical experiments that undergo a colour change. When students have conducted their own practicals I have used the videos at the end of a lesson to recap their observations and to elicit their ideas about why there is a colour change in each one.

As a substitute for a practical demonstration when time, lab access or fume cupboard access is restricted.

This is not my preferred use of the resources because I believe that all students should be given the opportunity to experience practical work for themselves. However, if lab access or fume cupboard access is unavailable, a video is a better substitute than a textbook or verbal description.

As an aid to improve pupil observation

Quite often I demonstrate halogen displacement reactions, but with 30 students attempting to peer at test tubes waved at the front it is difficult for them to observe the colour changes. In this case, the video could be used or, better still, a video camera connected directly to a data projector (a cheap webcam or ICAM would also do the job). This allows students to see large images of the tubes projected onto a screen whilst the demonstration is being carried out.

As a substitute for a practical lesson when students have missed the practical lesson due to absence.

Many of the videos can be used by students especially at KS5 – the resource has not been written with direct student use in mind but I have frequently shown individual students a video when they have missed a practical or demonstration. Watching a video viewing is a quick way for students to catch up missed work. In addition, I have found that many of my students are keen to have the resource themselves so that they can re-cap work at a later time.

As a plenary when the practical has not been successful in yielding the observations that might be expected.

There are times when a practical doesn’t yield the results that one might expect. For example, I personally find that the experiment involving a rusting sheet and nails with ferroxyl indicator is rather unpredictable. The video is a useful tool to demonstrate a perfect set of observations.

As a revision resource - practical observations can be revisited quickly.

The videos and presentation resources can be used to review work prior to an examination. For example, the observations of the reactions of Copper(II), Iron(II) and Iron(III) with sodium hydroxide and ammonia could be recapped using the PowerPoint resource included on the CD-ROM. This presentation could also be modified to form a test if the captions were removed.

Safety

If the experiments demonstrated are repeated it is assumed that they will be performed in suitably equipped laboratories and/or work areas with adequate supervision by trained personnel and that good laboratory practices will be observed, and that as a minimum, the recommended precautions will be followed.

It is recommended that teachers undertake their own risk assessments of each practical before use and that students do not undertake any of these practicals without consulting with their own teachers for advice.

For each resource there are references which give information advice on how to conduct the experiment - it must be stressed that the videos do not demonstrate all aspects of the practical and the safety precautions adopted may not be visible