It's not easy teaching chemistry to anyone especially 10th grade students who think that it’s hard and have already made up their mind that they are not going to be interested in the subject. The first unit in chemistry is fairly easy because it involves measurement. We begin to get into unfamiliar territory when we start the unit of atomic structure. The atomic structure unit deals with the basics of chemistry, basic particles, and the periodic table. In order to help me teach and enrich the unit on atomic structure, I will use three books: Napoleon’s Buttons 17 Molecules that Changed History, Robert Boyle Pioneer of Experimental Chemistry, and Uncle Tungsten Memories of a Chemical Boyhood. Also, I will use the websites http://www.sciencegeek.net/index.html and http://misterguch.brinkster.net/helpdesk2.html.
Tradebooks:
Couteur, P. L., & Burreson, J. (2004). Napoleon's Buttons, 17 Molecules That Changed History. New York: J P Tarcher.
ISBN: 1-58542-331-9
Lexile Readability Estimate: 1340L
Napoleon’s Buttons 17 Molecules That Changed History is a book that explains how certain molecules were created. This book is awesome because it gives the account of how molecules such as silk and nylon and other everyday items, were discovered. Within the book, the chemical structures are given and explained. Also, this book illustrates how science involves a great deal of experimentation. Scientists don’t just come up with a product; they have to complete many experiments before their results are accepted.
I would use Napoleon’s Buttons to get the students interested in chemistry and see the importance of chemistry. The book would allow students to see the different applications of chemistry. I would have the students to write a paragraph on how they think chemistry has impacted their lives. I would also use this book in the following unit of molecules.
This book would not be assigned all at once; instead, I would only have the students read two chapters. I would assign one chapter and they would have the freedom to pick a chapter of their own. The chapters would be two that students could mostly relate to. For example, right now, I’m interning at an all girl’s school. So one of the chapters that I would assign would be the chapter on silk and nylon. This is because girls wear nylons or stockings. I wouldn’t assign this entire book to a 10th grade class because the lexile measurement is 1340 and that is equivalent to 11th and 12th grade.
Gow, M. (2005). Robert Boyle, Pioneer of Experimental Chemistry. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Pub Inc.
ISBN: 0-7660-2501-2
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Estimate: 9.9
Robert Boyle, Pioneer of Experimental Chemistry gives the history of Robert Boyle’s life. This book explains experiments that he conducted during his time. Discussed in this book is how Boyle’s Law is applied today. For example, why an individual’s ears pop as they climb a mountain, or why it is important for a scuba diver to know about Boyle’s law.
According to Flesh-Kincaid readability, this book is on a 9th grade level. I would assign this book to my students because although they are in the 10th grade they may not all be on the same reading level. I would assign the students chapter 6, The Sceptical Chymist, to read because it discusses how chemistry and element is defined. This book is difficult to include in the unit of atomic structure. However, I would really love to use it for the gases unit where we learn about Boyles Law.
Sacks, O. W. (2003). Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood. New York: Vintage.
ISBN: 0-375-70404-3
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Estimate: 12.0
Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood is about a neurologist who gives account of his childhood memories, such as going into his uncle’s lab to watch experiments, his love for metals, and questioning his mother about everything. Sacks also discussed his passion for science. This book is estimated to be on a 12th grade reading level. Since this book is estimated at 12.0, I would only give passages from this book.
I would use this book to do an activity on the periodic table and its trends. The students would be broken up in groups. Each group would be assigned different passages. Based on the passage, I will have each group identify different characteristics of the periodic table. For instance, I would ask one group to give the characteristics of the alkali metals after reading page 245. This activity would be a jigsaw activity.
Websites:
Mister Guch’s website is wonderful. It contains explanations of difficult concepts of chemistry. This website also has links to other websites in order to offer more help and free tutoring. A vocabulary list of majority of the chemistry vocabulary is also offered on this website. The best part of this website is that it offers worksheets that the students can use for practice. With the worksheets are the solutions to the problems, so that the students can check their work.
This website would be for 9th grade and up because the vocabulary used is very simple. I would use this website to help to enrich the atomic structure unit by assigning practice problems from the website.
This website is an excellent source for students to come and get a better understanding of a concept if he/she is still a little confused about material that was presented in class. There are very clear PowerPoints on the units discussed in chemistry. Before presenting the unit of atomic structure to students, I would instruct students to view the PowerPoint from this website about the unit, just to get a little background information. I would also use this website in my instruction by having the students complete the interactive review activities. By completing the activities, the students will be practicing what was taught in the classroom. This website has review activities for almost all of the units covered in chemistry.
Even though students would be given the opportunity to view the PowerPoints ahead of time, I would still use the PowerPoint from this website in my lecture about atomic structure, as a reference. The explanations on the PowerPoint are not hard to comprehend. Also, the PowerPoint has excellent graphics. These graphics would really help my visual learners. Overall, I would rate this website as being for 9th grade and up because of its easy use.
Readability Estimates:
Robert Boyle, Pioneer of Experimental Chemistry
Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Readability Estimates:
Robert Boyle, Pioneer of Experimental Chemistry
Robert’s education began at Lismore. He was tutored at home, learning to write and speak French and Latin. Robert showed “a more than usual inclination” to study. After a few year of homeschooling, the earl sent Robert and his brother Francis to Eton College. Eton is in England, near London. The earl knew the head master there. Robert and Francis were accompanied by a private tutor, who rented their rooms purchased their clothes, and handled many of the details of their lives for them. Their tutor, Mr. Carew, regularly reported to the earl. Robert “prefers learning above all other virtues or pleasures,” Carew wrote.
At the same time, the earl had arranged a prestigious marriage for Francis. On October 24, 1693, in London, a grand wedding celebrated the marriage of Francis and his bride, Elizabeth Killigrew. King Charles I attended the festivities. Four days later, twelve-year-old Robert and sixteen-year-old Francis left London with Marcombes to continue their education in Europe. Elizabeth was left behind to wait for her husband’s return.
Boyle had a sincere desire to Christianize native populations outside of England. One way he tried to achieve this was to translate and publish the Bible and other religious works into the languages of people he hoped to reach. While he was at Oxford, he paid Dr. Edward Pococke to translate a religious book into Arabic. Boyle paid for it to be published and distributed in Arab countries. He paid for the gospel to be translated into Malayan. He gave money to pay for religious translations into Turkish and contributed to publication of Welsh and Irish Bibles.
Readability Estimate: 9.9
Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
(Errors, surprises, could certainly occur, and Uncle Dave told me how phosgene, carbonyl chloride, the terrible poison gas used in the First World War, instead of signaling its danger by a halogenlike smell, had a deceptive scent like new-mown hay. This sweet, rustic smell, redolent of the hayfields of their boyhood, was the last sensation phosgene-gassed soldiers had just before they died.)
The bad smells, the stenches, always seemed to come from compounds containing sulfur (the smells of garlic and onion were simple organic sulfides, as closely related chemically as they were botanically), and these reached their climax in the sulfuretted alcohols, the mercaptans. The smell of skunks was due to butyl mercaptan, I read—this was pleasant, refreshing, when very dilute, but appalling, overwhelming, at close quarters. (I was delighted, when I read Antic Hay a few years later, to find that Aldous Huxley had named one of his less delectable characters Mercaptan.)
Thinking of all the malodorous sulfur compounds and the atrocious smell of selenium and tellurium compounds, I decided that these three elements formed an olfactory as well as a chemical category, and thought of them thereafter as the “stinkogens.”
Flesch-Kincaid Readability: 12.0
