Project #2 for media class - An Educational Podcast

A project I had to make for one of my Master's Classes

I used 286 pictures to produce this clip.
Teaching about: Elements, Compounds, Mixtures and Pure

I will do a video on how I made this project, all on an Iphone 3GS!

Intro to me and Whole Brain Teaching

My name is Alvin Moses, I have been teaching science for the last 8 years and been using technology in my classroom since the start.

I just started a Master’s of Education program in Instructional Technology, to take my classroom to the top!


I also started using the WholeBrainTeaching teaching techniques with my classes for the first time this year, and I think it one of the greatest things I’ve done to enhance the student experience in my classroom. A quick search on YOUTUBE for “Power Teaching”, it’s former name, you’ll see many an example. To see my class, after only 8 days check out the video below:


For more info please visit www.wholebrainteaching.com

Two kinds of 'classroom technology'

In my classroom, I would say there are two types of technology, with overlap between them. The generic 'instructional technology' are going to be those things in your room that require electricity, even if its batteries hence the name of this blog!

In science class we use equipment, tools, and/or devices. With the digital revolution, much scientific equipment has gone digital in the real world, and now that can also be brought into the classroom.

For instance, a common chemistry lab is to take water through the three common phases, solid, liquid and gas. This is accomplished by 'cooking' ice and measuring the temperature on regular intervals, then take the data and plot temperature versus time. My video above shows I've incorporated technology, updating the experiment.

Original : Hot plate set on some number like "7" or high
Digital : Hot plate has digital readout showing you the temperature it is set to

Original : A red alcohol filled thermometer is used to 'estimate' temperature
Digital : A thermal probe is used to measure the temperature to 1/100 of a degree Celsius

Original : stopwatch or wall clock used to check time to take temperature every 30-60 seconds
Digital : data acquisition software reads temperature probe every two seconds and displays time and temperature, simulates thermometer and plots the data

Original : students work with items over the boiling point of water, high chance of injury, broken class, and student error in data collection
Digital : LCD projector projects data on whiteboard for students to record as if it were their own apparatus, in real time, minimal chance of injury or student error

Setup time reduced 8 fold on average, reset time between classes, also greatly reduced

My students are issued laptops, but haven't received theirs yet. Had they possessed them, they most likely would have been required to use the 21st century skill of making the graph using something like a spreadsheet, instead of pencils and graph paper.

Critics might say, they aren't touching the equipment, getting the learning experience. The majority of the hands-on portion of the lab is stirring the contents of the beaker, I don't feel I have cheated them, but instead let them see modern tools in use.