First three days at NYC site 1, teacher 1

I spent three days observing AP teaching 4 classes each day at NYC site 1. Her curriculum does not include photosynthesis normally, so she integrated the intervention into her unit on chemical change instead. She looked over the materials available to her, and decided to combine the photosynthesis PPT (available on our PW teachers site) that includes the game images of water, carbon dioxide and glucose, and the first linking activity Marian gave to teachers--Molecule in Motion, an activity in which kids take on the role of the different atoms involved in photosynthesis, first forming water and carbon dioxide and then forming glucose and oxygen.

On the first day, she showed the PPT up to the slide that shows the animation of water and carbon dioxide changing into glucose and oxygen. She left that slide up and did the Molecules in Motion activity with each class. In each class she provided more and more structure for the activity, which was a bit chaotic. The students seemed to understand forming water and carbon dioxide (the reactants) but everything fell apart when they had to form glucose and oxygen (the products). Actually, pairs of kids could form oxygen, but it was difficult for the others to form glucose.

The second day she reviewed the PPT quickly, and then had them do the activity again, but this time with more direction from her. By the end (basically on the 8th try) she kept the glucose production process slide up on her monitor, she started with water molecules on one side of the room, carbon dioxide on the other, noted how many of the molecules there were and how that compared to the slide, then played the role of the sun and broke them up. Next she had the oxygen pairs go to one side of the room and had the glucose kids at different levels--carbons were standing, the oxygens attached to carbon were sitting in chairs and the hydrogens sat on the floor. She then pointed to each atom on the slide and asked which kid represented each atom. She realized that for the activity to make sense, it had to be structured, and the kids needed to understand clearly the process they were supposed to be acting out.

Finally, on the third day she had the student play the flash animation of making glucose and then had the kids answer a quick questionnaire, asking then a number of things, including what are the four molecules in photosynthesis. After reviewing the responses to the question about the molecules, she noticed that a number of the student in each class put the atom names rather than the molecule names. So, she went BACK to the glucose production slide and clarified which are the molecules, and which are are the atoms, and that molecules are broken up into atoms that then recombine into different molecules.

This seemed to me a very creative and effective way of pulling together a number of resources we made available to the teachers, in a way that we had not thought of. I thought it was especially useful to put up a visual representation of the glucose production process as the kids were supposed to enact it in the Molecules in Motion activity, and to refer back to that visual at different points to clarify what the kids were representing.

First three days at NYC site 1, teacher 1

I spent three days observing AP teaching 4 classes each day at NYC site 1. Her curriculum does not include photosynthesis normally, so she integrated the intervention into her unit on chemical change instead. She looked over the materials available to her, and decided to combine the photosynthesis PPT (available on our PW teachers site) that includes the game images of water, carbon dioxide and glucose, and the first linking activity Marian gave to teachers--Molecule in Motion, an activity in which kids take on the role of the different atoms involved in photosynthesis, first forming water and carbon dioxide and then forming glucose and oxygen.

On the first day, she showed the PPT up to the slide that shows the animation of water and carbon dioxide changing into glucose and oxygen. She left that slide up and did the Molecules in Motion activity with each class. In each class she provided more and more structure for the activity, which was a bit chaotic. The students seemed to understand forming water and carbon dioxide (the reactants) but everything fell apart when they had to form glucose and oxygen (the products). Actually, pairs of kids could form oxygen, but it was difficult for the others to form glucose.

The second day she reviewed the PPT quickly, and then had them do the activity again, but this time with more direction from her. By the end (basically on the 8th try) she kept the glucose production process slide up on her monitor, she started with water molecules on one side of the room, carbon dioxide on the other, noted how many of the molecules there were and how that compared to the slide, then played the role of the sun and broke them up. Next she had the oxygen pairs go to one side of the room and had the glucose kids at different levels--carbons were standing, the oxygens attached to carbon were sitting in chairs and the hydrogens sat on the floor. She then pointed to each atom on the slide and asked which kid represented each atom. She realized that for the activity to make sense, it had to be structured, and the kids needed to understand clearly the process they were supposed to be acting out.

Finally, on the third day she had the student play the flash animation of making glucose and then had the kids answer a quick questionnaire, asking then a number of things, including what are the four molecules in photosynthesis. After reviewing the responses to the question about the molecules, she noticed that a number of the student in each class put the atom names rather than the molecule names. So, she went BACK to the glucose production slide and clarified which are the molecules, and which are are the atoms, and that molecules are broken up into atoms that then recombine into different molecules.

This seemed to me a very creative and effective way of pulling together a number of resources we made available to the teachers, in a way that we had not thought of. I thought it was especially useful to put up a visual representation of the glucose production process as the kids were supposed to enact it in the Molecules in Motion activity, and to refer back to that visual at different points to clarify what the kids were representing.