Last year, we as a faculty at Hudsonville were given the task to create one word http://getoneword.com/ that would define our year. My word was "passion" and after four conferences this summer, I truly feel I embraced this word and so you can say I have a passion for chemistry and learning about chemistry and sharing all things related to chemistry. Which leads me to my new word "collaboration" for this year. I love collaborating with others to learn what's new, what's better and yet also share my knowledge so I can do the same for them.
This past week I introduced my students to the build a boat challenge. I had gotten this activity from a fellow chemistry teacher friend and decided to use it to build a culture of collaboration amongst my students. The results were incredible. The students were given a list of materials and 15 minutes for design and then 15 minutes to actually build the boat. The goal was to determine the best ratio between cost and the boats capability to float as many pennies as possible. What I witnessed was newly formed lab groups brainstorming, making designs and decisions, experimenting and most of all talking and collaborating. Of course this had turned into a competition with myself and fellow teachers from other parts of the U.S. again for the purpose of collaborating on what worked and what didn't.
Well it was great start and I really hope to refer back to my one word of collaboration for the remainder of the year. In my eyes, everyone was a winner, all the boats floated, everyone decided they could build a better build having seen everyone else's design and well having learned from one another in class. Isn't that the culture we want to establish? My students all agreed! Great 1st week!
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