This year, I was lucky enough to be sent to the NSTA conference in Nashville, Tennessee. While there, I attended various workshops on Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy. I was most intrigued in the Physics-based car crash project and decided to implement it. Below is my account of how things went with my students and this project:
Project Based Learning
Project Based Learning with Chemistry Games!
As a close for the year/as a start to the year, I thought I might discuss a successful mini PBL (project based learning) I tried out before the winter break began! My students have just about finished chemistry and I thought it might be fun to have the students come up with the review game for a change! Below you will find a summary of the week(ish) long project as well as some examples of what they created!
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Gamification of the Classroom
Everyone likes to play games. Games make things fun! Games help to pass the time! Games allow us to turn an otherwise dull task into something exciting! A lot of it might also be the competition. How else do you explain why spelling words with little wooden tiles can be so entertaining?? If you asked me to do that by myself as an assignment or task: no-thank-you! If you asked me whether or not I could do it better then someone else: challenge accepted!
I have found that incorporating play into everyday routines in my classroom has allowed my students to enjoy tasks and participate more in things that they normally would not. It has also created buy-in when it otherwise would be very difficult to achieve. The following are ways in which I have incorporated play and competition into my classroom:
The Ardent Teacher 