Teaching & Curriculum

Chemisty Certification

Greetings

• My name is Dan Harris 

•  My Undergraduate degrees are in Chemistry and Psychology

•  Decided that I wanted to pursue a career that combined the two fields

• Currently I am not teaching and I am trying to learn as much as possible before I begin

• I have three boys ages 16, 12 and 3 who amaze me all the time in their ability to understand complex ideas

My Strengths as a Teacher

• Empathy - As this is the start of a good teaching interaction between teacher and student

• Patience - Taking the time to make sure the students questions are answered in a way that makes sense to them

• My experience in the working field of Chemistry has given me insight into what practical knowledge is needed to problem solve 

• Worked with young people from many different background

Teaching Style

• Based on the scientific method

• Inquiry based learning - Question and answer as much as possible

• Focus on relations between areas of study

• Use of these relations to reinforce concepts and build

Example Lesson

• This lesson will use a spring to begin a inquiry based discussion 

• A spring when compressed will produce heat and has the potential to do work

• The heat loss can be measured and the spring can perfom some action 

Compress (Work)

Heat

Action

Simple Experiment involving:   (Work, Heat & Action)

Start Simple and Build • The student that compresses the spring uses biochemical

energy to do work on the spring

• Biochemical transfer of energy was possible because the student gained energy through eating food

• Food, which ultimately comes from plants, grows due to light energy from the sun

•  The students begin to see that the result of transferred energy to a system is work or the potential to do work plus heat