What do you guys think of whole brain teaching?

[Revenant]

[Hyperion]

What other techniques would you suggest for improving a high school chemistry class? I've only taught physics until this year, so I'm open to suggestions.

[Revenant]

Well...one of the more interesting (and difficult to design) types of problems would be synthesis problems for organic chemistry. Split into groups of 3 or 4, give out a synthesis problem and have them attempt to solve the puzzle to maximize yield. It takes a crap-ton of work to put together and grade though.

[Hyperion]

For organic I mostly just teach the basics like carbon rings, the different alcohols, and an easy synthesis. The state doesn't test for organic so I just sprinkle it on at the end for bonus points.

Also, I lol at our schedule. The state test is distributed 1 1/2 months before school ends, so we basically give a crash course for a few days on specific heat and gas problems.

[The Dharma Bum]

[HeatherG]

i think the whole brain approach is a great idea. i think it is a little unrealistic to say that you can make every child interested in every subject. If you have to "trick" then into learning the material and they are liking the class...i dont see anything wrong with that. i think spending your time trying to get them to love a subject they dont would result in failure. I HATED science when i was in high school, if my teacher approached it in the way you did i probably would have done a lot better and retained more...but i would still hate the subject...hope this all made sense lol.

[HeatherG]

@Emerald,

i think there is a way to do this teaching style with high school kids that would not be lame, you just have to adapt the style to fit the age and the group of students. As teachers, you get a new batch of kids every year (or multiple batches per year) and you have to come up with a model that is going to work for each batch of kids. Some will work for most, but when they dont it is your job as a teacher to manipulate your style to fit your kids. in my opinion high school kids are jerks and i plan on never teacher middle or high school so mad props to all of you who do! its a very hard job!