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Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Doug Ragan and I have been a high school chemistry teacher for fourteen years. Three years ago, I was approached by my high school principal and the conversation went like this,
Principal: "You are one lucky guy."
Me: "Really, why?"
You may have read Sarah Kong's recent blog post on inquiry on this site. I thought I would give a description of one way I incorporate inquiry learning into one of the chemistry courses I teach.
Who is Sarah Kong and why is she starting a blog for Chem Ed X about Inquiry?
Students will proceed through a pre-lab engagement activity, organize element cards based on similarities & trends, discuss trends with the class and then produce a periodic table that includes the trends discussed within the lab.
Students choose a topic and select items to incorporate into a periodic table. Students explore trends related to their own topic and relate to the trends on the actual Periodic Table of Elements.
Having some experience in using and creating inquiry activities, I am getting questions from teachers looking for ways to add inquiry to their curriculum. My first tip is to take baby steps. I will continue to blog about ideas to help outline some of those steps. First, I am sharing some inquiry ideas from the last unit I taught in my high school general chemistry course along with providing some ideas for using the resources provided with a subscription to ChemEdX.
Atmospheric pressure causes the collapse of a metal can.
