Using Diver to Teach High School Chemistry

KMDI2006

Dorian Stoilescu & John Bolan

December 19, 2006

Overview

This Design envisages using the Diver video technology to teach chemistry within a high school environment. Specifically, the design is intended to be used during chemistry lab activities. Both teacher presentations and student activities will be taped, and commented on. The pedagogical approach will involve Constructivism in Science, Knowledge building flow, Knowledge building community, Blended e-learning (both face-to-face and online). The intent is to use the Diver technology to enable students to build their knowledge in chemistry. In addition, it is hoped that allowing teachers to review video of the students experiments would allow more detailed analysis and individualized commentary of student lab activities.

Why Use Video?

To enable distributed communities of learning
To provide interactive commentary on a shared body of video material
Students can produce a video report showing their actual lab activity in place of the traditional written report that summarizes their activity.
To allow the teacher to view and comment on the actual lab activities of all students

Design Details

How will the participants, both students and teachers, participate?

They will engage themselves in studies of chemical reactions in the lab setting, while being videotaped
They will discuss the result among the team members
They will have the ability to both view, analyze and comment on the videos ('dives') - both their own dives and their peers dives
They will comment on their own dives, and the dives of their peers, attempting to demonstrate and build knowledge of the chemical processes displayed on the video. This will include explaining both why certain actions did work (i.e. produce the expected result) or why they did not work
Teachers will also guide them and give them basic directions in person and on video during the lab period

Knowledge Media and Technology Required for this Design

DIVER & WebDIVER
Quicktime, Snapz Pro & Office
5 Video Cameras
Chemistry lab with five tables
6 PCs connected through a network, ideally with an Internet connection

The Knowledge Community

     Grade 12 chemistry students, in a lab environment
     A instructor who is confident using the Diver technology
     The class, and the community, should have a Knowledge building orientation

WebDIVER Features & Requirements

Five cameras - to cover the entire lab
Guided Noticing is a key aim
Ease of use-crucial
Tool for building collective understanding

Activities

Starting Points

First students will listen to screencasts or videos
They try to start the tasks
Periodically, they will survey the videos and interact online giving comments about their work

Lesson Plan- Students Tasks

Students follow screencasts containing starting points and hints about current topic
Read previous notes and discuss them
They will post new notes
They will download/upload documents about their tasks, accessing linked documents/page.
They will analyze dives registering their work and teammates' ones.
Learning will be constrained or directed at first by P2P interactions, then student -instructor interaction.

Teacher Tasks

Create screencast summarizing the initial topic and finishing with some questions and tasks to be accomplished
Survey and analyze the WebDiver videos of the students conducting their lab activities
Read the notes from Diver
Discuss, both online and face-to-face with students

Example Experiment: Preparation of Polymers

Preparation of Polymers
    Students prepare three polymers to take home that illustrate the chemistry behind addition and condensation polymers and polymer crosslinking. Addition polymerization is illustrated by formation of a polystyrene cast; students are encouraged to bring something of interest to embed. Condensation polymerization is illustrated by synthesis of nylon. To illustrate the effects of polymer crosslinking on physical properties, students prepare slime form polyvinyl alcohol and sodium borate.
    * Polystyrene: Casts are prepared in polyethylene scoops like those used to measure coffee or Kool-Aid. Styrene monomer free of inhibitors and catalyst (containing methyl ethyl ketone peroxide) come from Iasco. Eight drops of catalyst are mixed with 13 g of styrene in a 3-oz. paper cup (we use Dixie bathroom cups). Because the styrene is so thick and messy, we measure it out for the students using a top-loading balance protected from drips by a sheet of glass or plastic. You should use something disposable when handling it, because you can never clean it up. The mixture is poured into the polyethylene mold. When it is sufficiently firm, a second batch of styrene is mixed and a few drops are added to the mold. The item being embedded is added gently and the rest of the mixture is poured into the mold, which is allowed to cure in the student's drawer for a week. A little rolling and tapping easily dislodges the final cast.
    * Nylon: Students put 6 mL of 1,6-diaminohexane solution (0.5 M in water) into a 20-mL beaker. Then they carefully add 6 mL of adipoyl chloride solution (0.2 M in petroleum ether or hexane). Formation of a film is evident at the interface. They grasp the film with forceps, lift it straight out, and drape it over a test tube. The test tube is used as a spool to roll out a length of nylon. The crude nylon is rinsed for at least ten minutes in running water before handling. Other diamines or acyl chlorides would probably work as well. I haven't tested other nonpolar solvents for the acid chloride, but I am told they work as well (e.g. methylene chloride), though be sure the denser solution is added to the beaker first to prevent unwanted mixing.
    * Slime: Students examine separately 10 mL of 4% polyvinyl alcohol and 4 mL of 4% sodium borate. They may add food color to the polyvinyl alcohol for effect. The borate is poured into the polyvinyl alcohol and the solution is mixed thoroughly. It quickly sets to a clear gel which may be manipulated safely by hand. It is stored in a resealable sandwich bag.

Learning goals: Students develoop an understanding of the chemistry of addition and condensation polymerization, as well as the molecular basis for the physical properties change that occurs when the slime is made:

How the Diver design will aid the achievement of the learning goals: Students will show their results to the instructor by means of a video report, that, when taken together with the comments contained in the report, will demonstrate that the students have built an area of knowledge on the relevant topic. Students will be asked, in their video comments to identify aspects of the processes occurring on the video, and comment on the chemistry of addition and condensation polymerization, and to explain the molecular basis for the change in physical properties when the slime is made.

Assessment/Evaluation Plan for the Design

Questionnaires and interviews with teachers
Intended to be formative, with feedback guiding redesign
Lab experiment - the area makes assessment somewhat challenging. Would have to rely on teachers' assessments of the learning.

How Will the Technology Will Be Used to Assess/Analyze Learner Experience

   The teacher will view the dives from each group to see how they conducted the experiment, and how well they understood the chemistry involved
   The teacher will view the diver comments to assess whether the students could correctly identify the what was happening at each stage of their experiment
   Learners will be encouraged to revise their contributions based on the assessments.

Interactions

face to face as well as online, via the dives and notes
it is hoped that some form of social tagging could be added onto the design in the future

What are the implications for application of this design?

The design, because it involves extensive video taping, has numerous privacy implications that would have to be addressed prior to real world use.

Strategy for Future Developments

Incorporating Handhelds or electronic boards
Incorporate social tagging of video through diver
Shared resource between schools for students and faculty
Assessment could be selected in different ways (dive OR paper OR screencast)

Possible Pitfalls & Reflection and Redesign Strategies

More emphasis on a single shared space?
Would this enhance the KB orientation and discussion?
Interface too complicated?
Too time intensive? Better to require a video report only? Or only a screencast?