Chemistry in the kitchen

Teaching: An effective key to self-learning This project was funded by European Union.

PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION OF THE LESSON

• In January 2016, a new team for the international meeting was chosen. Most pupils were from class 7. A, one was from class 8. B

• They had no idea what to teach for a long time. They were choosing from topics: P. E., History or Chemistry

• We wanted to have fun so we studied books and videos with easy to do experiments

• We liked baking powder • It made nice effects • The experiments were cheap • It was easy to get everything

Part 1 – Why Chemistry in a kitchen?

• After the research, reading books, watching videos and looking at pictures it was time to make the next step

• We went to a shop and bought vinegar, lots of baking powder and baking soda, a bottle with washing liquid, a bag of flour, food colour

• We brought plastic cups, spoons • The last but not least were paper

tissues for cleaning up the mess

What happened next? Experiments!

• After trying a few experiments it was time to prepare our lesson• We knew that we would not be able to take our „chemicals“ with

us• We heard that the vinegar abroad is different• We wrote a letter to Ireland to check if they had 8% vinegar, they

answered: YES(That was not right, on arrival we discovered that their vinegar is only 6% and it was awfully smelly, it worked nevertheless)

• We did more experiments to see why sometimes baking soda is used and other times baking powder

• There was no difference the teacher said and bought the powder• There was a HUGE difference the students said: „The mess was

bigger!“

Growing interest in the experiments

Preparing our lesson • To drew pupils attention we decided to open the lesson with the

story about the magic pot which could cook porridge with no ingredients

• Out teacher wrote the script for Natali and Susan, they memorized it. Then they learnt to act it out and work with their voice

• Marketa and Adam were learning how to make a „Science show“ for introducing the experiments

• Another boy was helping but three days before departure he announced that he could not go

• (His replacement Vojta did his best and learnt how to work with the Irish pupils, but that was all)

• We needed a worksheet and to find out exact quantities of the ingredients for our experiments where we were using cups and teaspoons different from the books

• We did more experiments to get our procedures right

Rehearsals in our school• 3. A with 15 pupils – 14 April 2016

Everything went quite well but we had problems to get from one activity to the other without the help of our teacher. We spoke Czech and English – it was English lesson anyway. We had time to ask for feedback.

• 2. B with 21 pupils – 19 April 2016• We spoke English and Czech in their elementary Science lesson but still

struggled with connections• 4. B with 12 pupils – 19 April 2016

We were very happy, everything went well. We spoke only English in their English lesson

• 8. A with 16 pupils – 22 April 2016This was a disaster, we were missing the boy who had to quit more than we realized. And this try out was in front of the pupils who were older than our team. Nothing worked. We felt ashamed to speak English. We were ashamed to speak at all. At least the replacing boy could see the experiment and we taught him what to do and say

Qualitative feedback – letters A week later we got letters from class 3. A, all pupils enjoyed the lesson. Eleven pupils wrote more about their feelings and less about the experiments, two pupils concentrated on description of the experiments. Words describing the lesson: super (1), the best (1), fun (4), enjoyed (7), repeat (2), want to do at home (2), come again (3), nice „teachers“ (2), brave (1)Story about Magic pot: nice (1)Experiment 1: fun (1), better then next experiment (1), enjoyed (1)Experiment 2: fun (1), the best (1), enjoyed (2)„Teachers“: Adam was the best (2), all were best (1)Work in groups: I enjoyed (2)Suggestions for another lesson: use colours (1), basket (1)Negative feedback : None

Feedback from class 3. A

Part 2 – OUTCOME for MANUAL • Title: CHEMISTRY IN A KITCHEN• Subject: Science – Chemistry Target age: 6 – 10 Time: 1 lesson• Goal: To raise interest in chemical reactions• Objectives:• To introduce chemical reaction between an alkali and a base• To teach following procedures• To explain the results of the reaction which is gas CO2

• To teach key words for description of the reaction:alkali, base, acid, gas, foam,carbon dioxide

Lesson plan1) Introduction of the team2) Story about the Magic pot – Susan + Natali 5´3) Science Show – experiment 1 (Adam, Marketa) 5´4) Making 6 groups – organizer Adam, all Distribution of roles, experiment 1, writing results 10´5) Science Show – experiment 2 (Adam, Marketa) 5´6) Experiment 2, writing results 10´7) Conclusions – what is same, different, reacts, explanations 5´8) Proof - Experiment 3, revision and checking understanding 5´9) Finishing worksheets, writing feedback, cleaning 5´

Who took part in the lessons?• 6 Czech student „teachers“: 13 - 14 years old• Michael Čep, Adam Holuša, Vojtěch Pinkava, Natálie

Bakošová, Markéta Štefková, Zuzana Zieczowská • 52 pupils from 2 classes in Ireland: 6 – 10 years old• 4 teachers: 2 elementary teachers (IR), 1 school

career counsellor and class teacher of Czech pupils (CZ), 1 Math and English teacher (CZ)

When and where • School: primary school St. Colmcilles B.N.S.,

Kells, Ireland, place: classroom• Date: 26 April 2016, Tuesday• Lesson 1 (class 3): 10:15 – 11:05 • Lesson 2 (class 2): 11:30 – 12:20

• Lesson plan, worksheets, feedback worksheets• Plastic cups, spoons, pencils • Vinegar, baking soda, flour, washing detergent

Which means are necessary?

1) BEGINNINNG of the lesson

• The first activity was introduction of our team and Erasmus+ project aims

• After this our team shortly introduced our country and the topic of the lesson based on reaction of acid (vinegar) and alkali (baking powder) with a visible reaction – foam filled with CO2 bubbles

2) Motivation – story „The Magic Pot“

• To catch attention of children we chose story about the Magic Pot

• Procedure:• 1) writing the script with 2 characters – a little

girl Susan and her mother• 2) memorizing, learning to act• 3) making a worksheet with illustrations and

preparing costumes

Pictures speak for the themselves

The Magic pot Porridge

Task: Make a magic potQuestion:

• Do you think that it is possible?• OK, to cook porridge with no ingredients

sounds like a miracle.• But we can try to make the porridge grow and

grow.

3) Science Show – Experiment 1

• What you need: • a pot, a spoon, • a try, 3 cups• 8% vinegar 1 dcl• Flour• baking powder • or baking soda

4) What you do: 1) Pour vinegar (1 dcl) into a cup

and add flour. Make thin dough. 2) Then add baking powder or

soda and mix. 3) When the reaction stops, you

can start it again by adding more vinegar and baking powder into the mixture but the dough will be thinner.

4) Measure how long the reaction lasts.

5) Science Show – Experiment 2• What you need: • a pot, a spoon, • a try, 1 cup• 8% vinegar 1 dcl• washing detergent• baking powder • or baking soda

6) What you do: 1) Pour washing detergant (1 spoon) into a cup and

add baking powder or soda. Don´t stir. 2) Then add vinegar (1 spoon).3) Finally mix the ingredients. When the reaction

stops, you can start it again by adding more vinegar into the mixture.

4) Measure how long the reaction lasts.

7) ConclusionsWhat happened?

• Baking soda is an alkali and vinegar is an acid. • They react together and neutralize each other.• One of side products of this reaction is gas

called carbon dioxide. This gas is very common.

• Carbon dioxide is present in the air and we also breathe it out.

• Carbon dioxide made little bubbles in our dough and made it grow.

Stating a hypothesis:

• How long did the first reaction last? How long did the second reaction last?

• Compare both experiments. What was different? (flour, washing detergent)

• What was the same in both experiments? (vinegar, baking powder).

• Let´s see what will happen if we mix only vinegar and baking powder.

8) Proof – experiment 3• Put some baking powder in the cup and pour

little vinegar. • Be very quiet. Can you hear the sound? • What makes it? Many little bubbles. • Do you remember what is in them? It is gas called

carbon dioxide (CO2).

Revision – checking understanding• At the end of the lesson children drew the experiments and

wrote down what they needed.• They wrote comments to explain the procedure of each

experiment.• Finally, they answered these questions:1) Which ingredient is an acid?2) Which ingredient is an alkali?3) What is the side product of the reaction?4) What happens during the reactions?5) Why is baking powder important for pastry?6) Can you name some products made pastry?7) What can we see in these products?

9) Feedback:What do you think about the lesson?

• Did you like the experiments?• Did you learn something? What was it?• What was the best part?• Did you understand your „teacher“?• Did you have a task? How did you feel about it?• Did your group worked as a team? • Did you feel well in your group?• Do you have other comments or

recommendations?

• We did not prepare any evaluation for our rehearsal in our school, but we talked with the pupils. They enjoyed the lesson and were happy that they understood our English instructions. Class 3. A even wrote letters to us with pictures.

• For the first time we prepared an evaluation form for this lesson and Irish pupils filled them at the end of our lessons. And we could see and hear the responses of Czech pupils and Czech student „teachers“. They enjoyed themselves.

• The evaluation questions for team members were part of the final evaluation form of the meeting.

Part 3 - EVALUATION

Czech „teachers“ wrote: I need to learn

English.

It was fun. Now I am exhausted.

I enjoyed teaching these children. I would like to do it again.

Irish pupils wrote:• I liked it. 1• It was awesome. 1• It was great. 1• It was brilliant. 3• Ten out of 10 4• It was fantastic. 1• It was cool and funny. 2• It was very, very fun. 1• It was really fun. 2• I enjoyed as it was. 1• It was very, very good. 1• They were well organized. 1

• I liked the experiments. 1• It was cool, thank you Adam. 3• I very, very loved it. It was nice

and cool. 1• I think they did a great job

spending all that time for us. 1• I absolutely loved it, It was like

are vinegar volcano. 1• They have done very well

trying to speak English. 1• Thank you very much for

coming. I enjoyed it very much. 1

Teachers said: • Czech teacher: It was great fun to work on this

lesson in all phases. I think Czech students did a great work and they taught something the Irish pupils. And all enjoyed doing the experiments and mess.

• Irish 2nd grade teacher David Hannify wrote: The lesson on acids and bases fitted perfectly with our 2nd class curriculum. We recently studied volcanoes. The chemical reaction and the „explosion“ was a great way for the students to see science in action.

Part 4 – DISSEMINATION1) We told about our lesson and the whole meeting

in Ireland to classmates in form 7. and 8. in May and June 2016.

2) We believe that some pupils mentioned this project at home.

3) We updated our school website and the school notice board.

4) In April, we rehearsed our lesson in classes: 2. B, 3. A, 4. B, 8. A (64 pupils)

We taught this lesson:class pupils town country Language date

3. A 15 Ostrava Czech Republic

Czech, English

14. 04. 2016

2. B 21 Ostrava Czech Republic

Czech, English

19. 04. 2016

4. B 12 Ostrava Czech Republic

English, Czech

19. 04. 2016

8. A 16 Ostrava Czech Republic

English 22. 04. 2016

3rd 29 Kells Ireland English 26. 4. 2016

2nd 26 Kells Ireland English 26. 4. 2016