What am I doing to help kids achieve?
How do I know when they are there?
What is the evidence?
Fortunately, I am blessed to work with some fantastic people who, after a number of years, understand my nerdiness and have accepted it. A great colleague passed this along. I jumped on it. If you go to this site on Etsy (Que Intersante. Where Geek Meets Art) you can get a great project for you kids for not too much money. Essentially what this site sells are Crayon labels. They are not just ANY Crayon labels...they are labels that go on colored Crayons or pencils and, instead of having a name such as "orange", it has the chemical symbol or the compound or element that makes up that color. I got the labels. Next, I went to a local craft store, got a big box of 64 Crayons, some colored markers, a canvas and a hot glue gun. Thanks to coupons in the Sunday paper I did not have to spend more than $20. I had some kids that needed some extra credit. They transferred the labels onto the crayons and markers. They then hot glued the crayons and markers to the canvas (making sure the labels were showing of course). Now, whenever we are talking about transition metals or compounds with transition metals I can show them the board and say, "Here is how we get these colors in nature." Way cool project, cheap and easy. Also, you wind up with a nice educational tool that you can refer to throughout the year.