天天動(dòng)態(tài):Chemistry and ESS at ISNS | 化學(xué)與環(huán)境系統(tǒng)和社會(huì)學(xué)解析

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Chemistry

at ISNS

“Chemistry is all about what our world is made of. It"s about the different types of materials that make up not only our world but also the whole universe.”

At ISNS, we plan and teach science in a fun and engaging way to ensure that our students from G6 all the way to G12 are fostered their critical and creative thinking about research and design, as well as the identification of assumptions and alternative explanations. This week, we interviewed our High School Chemistry and Environmental Systems and Societies’ teacher Juliet Keister to learn more details about the two subjects.

Framework of Chemistry

Lower MYP

When we start talking about chemistry to the 6th graders. Their understanding is basically the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.

And then each year they build more and more chemistry knowledge. For example, the 7th graders will learn about mixtures. They have some fun activities like making crystals and investigating all about solutions.

In grade 8, we introduce the periodic table, which are all of the different known elements of the universe.

Upper MYP

By grade 9 students are able to learn more about elements, molecules and compounds. It is very practical and hands on. We do a lot of different labs. It really combines the practical skills with the theoretical knowledge.

Then in grade ten, there are still practical but it"s more knowledge based. Students are going to talk about what nuclear chemistry is, how scientists use chemistry to generate energy. They do experiments using calculations to predict what they expect to see and then compare their calculations to what they actually get in the laboratory.

All of this is to prepare them if they choose chemistry as their DP subject. In DP chemistry, students would be learning even more content and they will have the opportunity to do their IA which is internal assessment.

Environmental Systems and Societies in DP

Environmental systems and societies is a really good interdisciplinary course. Students can take it to fulfill their INS credit or their science credit. It"s actually a hybrid. It brings together sciences of the natural world with focus on ecology and some chemistry, married together with what humans are doing, why they are doing it, what the causes are and any effects. We do look at a lot of global problems but it"s very solutions focused.

“When I teach, I really try to promote what we can do about it, what people are doing now and what you could do. It is a highly relevant course. It takes the systems approach looking at things in the big picture. “

If a student is really invested in science, then they might take this as their Individual and Society (I&S) credit. If they are using it for their science credit, they have to have a different I&S. They can"t get both.

How MYP transit to DP

In grade 9 and 10 we have it set up, where students are exposed to content from each of the four different DP classes.

By the end of grade ten, students should know which one they really want to dig into deeper, then transitioning into DP. There is a greater focus in DP on test taking skills: how to do well on a written assessment. We are focusing on how you succeed on a test and also enjoying doing experiments. It is really pushing the student"s conceptual understanding to the next level.

For example, in grade 9 we focus on their collaboration skills in a chemistry project. Students collaborate on is a unit about soil chemistry. They will be given their dependent variable and the tool to measure the dependent variable but they have to discuss with their partner what they want their independent variable to be, which also requires creative thinking. This experiment is different than other ones they"ve done, because every group has a different independent variable. The variables will lead to different outcomes. It"s good for the students to realize when you do a real experiment, you actually don"t know what"s going to happen. It is about agency. The grade 9 and 10 students are old enough to learn no matter what happens, as long as you learn something it"s a success.

Chemistry summative assessments

Chemistry has summative assessments throughout MYP and DP. Students need to do at least one strand of each criterion instead of always doing full criteria. For example, the lab that we just did with my 10th graders. Students are given the background information and the research question and procedures. For criterion B, they just had to write their own hypothesis and do calculations and then proceed. They will only be assessing the evaluation not on a graph. In that way, they are able to practice each type of skill in each unit and they will complete each strand twice throughout the year, but no pressure on doing a full ABC and D in every unit.

“Tips for learning chemistry

“Whenever you feel lost, remember the most important difference between one type of thing and any other type of thing is the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. The other advice that I always give is remember to take breaks. If you feel confused or overwhelmed, you should either ask for help or just take a break and try again later.”

--Juliet Kiester

MYP Chemistry and Environmental Systems and Societies’ teacher

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化學(xué)

ISNS

“化學(xué)是關(guān)系到我們的世界是由什么構(gòu)成的。它是關(guān)于不同類型的元素，這些元素不僅構(gòu)成了我們的世界，也構(gòu)成了整個(gè)宇宙。”

在ISNS，我們以有趣和引人入勝的方式規(guī)劃和教授科學(xué)，以確保從G6到G12的學(xué)生都能培養(yǎng)他們對(duì)研究和設(shè)計(jì)的批判性和創(chuàng)造性思維，以及假設(shè)和替代解釋的識(shí)別。本周，我們采訪了我們高中的化學(xué)與環(huán)境系統(tǒng)和社會(huì)教師Juliet Keister，深入的了解更多關(guān)于這兩門學(xué)科的內(nèi)容。

化學(xué)課程框架

中學(xué)低年級(jí)

當(dāng)我們開始向六年級(jí)學(xué)生提到化學(xué)時(shí)。他們的理解基本上是物質(zhì)的三種狀態(tài)：固體、液體和氣體。然后每年會(huì)積累越來(lái)越多的化學(xué)知識(shí)。

例如，七年級(jí)學(xué)生會(huì)學(xué)習(xí)混合物。同學(xué)們會(huì)有一些有趣的活動(dòng)，例如制作晶體和研究所有有關(guān)解決方案的方法。在八年級(jí)，我們介紹了元素周期表，學(xué)習(xí)宇宙中所有不同的已知元素。

中學(xué)高年級(jí)

到九年級(jí)時(shí)，學(xué)生能夠更多地了解元素、分子和化合物。我們的學(xué)習(xí)單元非常實(shí)用且易于實(shí)踐。我們會(huì)做很多不同的實(shí)驗(yàn)，將實(shí)踐技能與理論知識(shí)結(jié)合起來(lái)。

然后在十年級(jí)，仍然有實(shí)踐，但更多的是基于知識(shí)積累。學(xué)生們將討論什么是核化學(xué)，以及科學(xué)家如何使用化學(xué)來(lái)產(chǎn)生能量。他們通過(guò)計(jì)算來(lái)進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)，以預(yù)測(cè)他們期望看到的結(jié)果，然后將計(jì)算的結(jié)果與在實(shí)驗(yàn)室中實(shí)際得到的結(jié)果進(jìn)行比較。

如果學(xué)生們選擇化學(xué)作為他們的DP科目，所有這些都是為了讓他們做好準(zhǔn)備。在DP化學(xué)中，學(xué)生將學(xué)習(xí)更多內(nèi)容，他們將有機(jī)會(huì)進(jìn)行內(nèi)部評(píng)估。

DP環(huán)境系統(tǒng)和社會(huì)學(xué)

環(huán)境系統(tǒng)和社會(huì)是一門非常好的跨學(xué)科課程。學(xué)生可以用它來(lái)完成他們的個(gè)人與社會(huì)（I&S）學(xué)分或科學(xué)學(xué)分，它實(shí)際上是一個(gè)混合體。它匯集了自然界的科學(xué)，重點(diǎn)是生態(tài)學(xué)和化學(xué)，結(jié)合了人類正在做的事情、他們?yōu)槭裁催@樣做、原因是什么以及造成的影響等等。我們會(huì)關(guān)注很多全球性問(wèn)題，但同時(shí)也非常注重解決方案。

”當(dāng)我教授這門課時(shí)，我會(huì)去主張學(xué)生們思考我們可以為此做些什么，人們正在做什么以及你個(gè)人可以做什么。這是一門高度和現(xiàn)實(shí)相關(guān)的課程。它采用系統(tǒng)方法，從大局著眼”。

修大學(xué)預(yù)科學(xué)分，如果學(xué)生真的對(duì)科學(xué)感興趣，那么他們可能會(huì)將其作為個(gè)人和社會(huì)學(xué)分。如果他們將其用于科學(xué)學(xué)分，則他們必須選擇其他的個(gè)人和社會(huì)課。你不能用一門課， 修兩者兼得的學(xué)分。

MYP與DP的銜接

在九年級(jí)和十年級(jí)，我們?yōu)閷W(xué)生設(shè)計(jì)的內(nèi)容，可以接觸到所有四門DP科學(xué)課程。

到十年級(jí)結(jié)束時(shí)，學(xué)生們應(yīng)該知道他們真正想深入研究哪一個(gè)，然后過(guò)渡到DP。DP更加關(guān)注應(yīng)試技巧：如何在書面評(píng)估中取得好成績(jī)。我們專注于幫助學(xué)生在測(cè)試中取得成功，同時(shí)享受做實(shí)驗(yàn)的樂(lè)趣，這樣確實(shí)將學(xué)生的概念理解推向了一個(gè)新的水平。

例如，在九年級(jí)時(shí)，我們會(huì)重點(diǎn)培養(yǎng)他們?cè)诨瘜W(xué)項(xiàng)目中的協(xié)作技能。其中一個(gè)學(xué)生協(xié)作的單元是土壤化學(xué)。我給他們因變量和工具測(cè)量因變量，他們需要與小組討論他們希望自變量是什么，這也需要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造性思維。這個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)與他們做過(guò)的其他實(shí)驗(yàn)不同，因?yàn)槊總€(gè)組都有不同的自變量。變量會(huì)導(dǎo)致不同的結(jié)果。在做真正的實(shí)驗(yàn)時(shí)，讓學(xué)生意識(shí)到你實(shí)際上并不知道會(huì)發(fā)生什么，這是有益處的，因?yàn)檫@是能動(dòng)性學(xué)習(xí)的體現(xiàn)。對(duì)于九年級(jí)和十年級(jí)的學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)，不管實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果如何，只要你學(xué)到了東西就是成功的。

化學(xué)總結(jié)性評(píng)估

化學(xué)在整個(gè)MYP和DP中都有總結(jié)性評(píng)估。學(xué)生需要至少完成每個(gè)評(píng)估的一部分標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，而不需要總是完成所有的。例如，我剛剛與十年級(jí)學(xué)生一起做的實(shí)驗(yàn)。學(xué)生們可以根據(jù)提供的背景信息以及研究問(wèn)題和步驟。對(duì)于評(píng)估標(biāo)準(zhǔn)B，他們只需編寫自己的假設(shè)并進(jìn)行計(jì)算，然后再繼續(xù)完成這個(gè)單元。只有這個(gè)部分會(huì)被評(píng)估，他們不需要繪制圖表。通過(guò)這種方式，他們能夠在每個(gè)單元中練習(xí)每種類型的技能，并且他們將在一年中完成每個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)兩次，而不需要每個(gè)單元都完成完整的四個(gè)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)ABC和D。

“學(xué)習(xí)建議

“當(dāng)你學(xué)習(xí)遇到疑惑時(shí)，記住，一種物質(zhì)與任何其他物質(zhì)之間最重要的區(qū)別是原子核中的質(zhì)子數(shù)不同。我經(jīng)常給出的另一個(gè)建議是注意適時(shí)休息。如果你感到困惑或壓力過(guò)大，可以尋求幫助或休息一下，調(diào)整好再來(lái)。”

--Juliet Kiester

MYP化學(xué)與DP環(huán)境系統(tǒng)與社會(huì)學(xué)老師