young_hip_chem_teacher
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Help - Designing new class
(Moderators I hope that this is suitable spot for this post)
I am starting to design a new class for high school juniors.
The course will count as their Chemistry class, but my admin. wants it to be part of a forensic/criminal justice learning institute.
This means that students take this course will also take 1-2 other courses that have a criminal justice spin (i.e a psychology, or goverment and law
class. this is still up in the air as this is the early planning stages)
I would LOVE any suggestions you may have.
These are the topics that I cover in the College Prep. Chemistry class I currently teach. Suggestions for labs/activities/ideas that emphasize the
basics are greatly appreciated. I also teach biology so please feel free to include bio-chem / organic concepts.
(Holt Modern Chemistry)
Chapter 1 – Matter and Change
Chapter 2 – Measurement and Calculations
Chapter 3 – Atoms Building blocks of matter
Chapter 4 - Arrangement of electrons in Atoms
Chapter 5 – Periodic Law
Chapter 6 – Chemical bonding
Chapter 7 – Chemical formulas and chemical compounds
Chapter 8 – Chemical equations and Reactions
Chapter 9 – Stoichiometry
Chapter 10 – Physical characteristics of gases (decrease emphasis)
I hope to also include
Drugs and Forensic Toxicology
Forensic serology – immunosays
DNA / protein tech
Chemical residues
Computer forensics
Other suggestions?
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roamingnome
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i just cant help myself with this one.....
Lab # 1
Bob Marleys dred locks send him to jail.....
Lab # 2
These maggots tell us youve been dead for 46.3 hours....
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12AX7
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So basically, the pseudoscience they show on programs like CSI, but using real science instead, and in a lecture format?
I don't have any suggestions offhand but the chemistry classes around here apparently use modules with different themes, probably to give the liberal
students some poor excuse to connect what they're learning to real situations.
Some examples: blue LEDs (semiconductor physics), global warming (greenhouse gasses, sources and sinks), soil (solution equilibria, solubility,
ligands, and just about everything else in chemistry), etc.
As you might guess from my tone of voice, I never cared for these module things. I would prefer learning the damn thing. If the instructor wants to
hint at uses and examples and stuff, that's good, but making the whole section a theme is just...meh.
Just some thoughts.
Tim
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young_hip_chem_teacher
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| Quote: | Originally posted by 12AX7
As you might guess from my tone of voice, I never cared for these module things. I would prefer learning the damn thing. If the instructor wants to
hint at uses and examples and stuff, that's good, but making the whole section a theme is just...meh.
Just some thoughts.
Tim |
Tim,
Thank you. This course is meant to be a chemistry course for students that are interested in going into law/forensics. It is going to be an elective,
and will not be replacing our chemistry course.
Thanks again for your suggestions. Please keep tem coming!
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Ozone
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Will your students be required to take general Chemistry as well? If so, a grounding in the basics would make a course with a CJ focus much more
interesting. For example, If I was teaching a course like this in university, I would make it 4000 (senior/graduate) level and require general,
organic and analytical prerequisites. I suppose intro biochem could sub in.
Forensic Chemistry seems to me to be more of an application field, where a general knowledge base in Chemistry, Biology and physics would be required.
Barring this, *if* this is to be merely a hook to get students interested in Chemistry, I would advise using the SaA (shock and awe) principle. Here,
interesting experiments are broken down and explained in terms of the basic chemistry, physics and biochem involved.
A great example would be Luminol (using, say, cow blood or hell, some synthetic iron-fortified blood simulacrum). Here you get the "CSI" experience
(imagine the stuff glowing *without* the black light--a common boo-boo in CSI---Luminol involves a triplet transition state which yields blue
phosphorescence, directly) and can use this to explain the gnarly aspects pertaining to how the stuff works--organic chemistry, REDOX (Fe-H2O2), and
electronic transition states (singlet fluorescence-fast decay, triplet phosphorescence-slow decay, etc.).
What sort of equipement do you have available?
Cheers,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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chemrox
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It seems to me that a broadbrush coverage of methods of analysis might be appropriate for a junior level class. A lab comparing immunoassay with
GC/MS and/or HPLC ...might be useful and fun
(what is commonly used for visualizing fingerprints? I've seen ninhydrin and I2 vapor)
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young_hip_chem_teacher
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Ozone
Will your students be required to take general Chemistry as well? If so, a grounding in the basics would make a course with a CJ focus much more
interesting. For example, If I was teaching a course like this in university, I would make it 4000 (senior/graduate) level and require general,
organic and analytical prerequisites. I suppose intro biochem could sub in.
Forensic Chemistry seems to me to be more of an application field, where a general knowledge base in Chemistry, Biology and physics would be required.
Barring this, *if* this is to be merely a hook to get students interested in Chemistry, I would advise using the SaA (shock and awe) principle. Here,
interesting experiments are broken down and explained in terms of the basic chemistry, physics and biochem involved.
A great example would be Luminol (using, say, cow blood or hell, some synthetic iron-fortified blood simulacrum). Here you get the "CSI" experience
(imagine the stuff glowing *without* the black light--a common boo-boo in CSI---Luminol involves a triplet transition state which yields blue
phosphorescence, directly) and can use this to explain the gnarly aspects pertaining to how the stuff works--organic chemistry, REDOX (Fe-H2O2), and
electronic transition states (singlet fluorescence-fast decay, triplet phosphorescence-slow decay, etc.).
What sort of equipement do you have available?
Cheers,
O3 |
O3,
Thank you for the suggestions! The class is its early development, but it will be a course that students can take in place of College Prep chem. I am
working on having it spread over two years.
Students will have to apply, but it will be open to all levels of students (honors, college prep, and general). All students taking this course will
have a year of physical science, and biology under their belt.
The first year composing of the previously mentioned Forensic Chem class (w/ lab) being paired with students also being required to take a
specifically paired social science course (yet to be determined)
Year two would continue on the forensic theme, but the emphasis will be placed on biotech/DNA tech genetics type course (w/ lab) being paired with
students also being required to take a specifically paired social science course (yet to be determined)
We are hoping to combine these 4 courses (spanning 2 years) with an outreach component (state police, local uni, pharma connections)
EQUIPMENT
Chem - about average. . . hoping to work with uni to have students work on gc/ms etc, but this is not def.
Biotech- above par. than most schools in the area (gel boxes, micro centr., thermocyler, micro pippetes, etc.)
Thanks again to everyone so far. . . . and roaming gnome if you have any Marley hair; maybe. . . .just maybe we can make that lab a reality!
-young_hip
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roamingnome
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well that might be a bit of a stretch i know...
but i can almost see cotton balls died brown being handed out to the class....
how about...
analytical discovery lab#3
this chinese food product is making peoples hair fall out.....
i find that if i can put students into a, im playing a game mode or role playing that running formulas or making graphs becomes less "boring"
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gregxy
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For homework have the students watch the old CSI episodes and write down and look up any chemicles that are mentioned on the show to see if they are
real and are being used correctly. The CSI series actually does pretty well on this.
Mythbusters is also a good source for experiments (probably better for physics than chemistry).
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asciiwhite
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Hello,
I'm not sure the physics/maths levels of your students. But after reading this post it reminded me of an exercise we had in a Engineering Mathematics
unit. The specific example calculated the time of death of a body.
Using Newton's law of cooling and First ODE you can calculate the approximate time of death of a body.
In fact you can skip the ODE and just use the equations.
The Example...
A body is found in a room with a constant temp of 30C at 9.40pm. The body is found to be 36.1C. After further tests at 11pm the body is measured to be
34.2C. Assuming the normal body temp is 37.5C at time of death. Find the time at which the person died.
Given that
T0 = temperature of body
Ts = temperature of surroundings
T0= Ts + Ae^kt
When TS = 30, at 9.40pm. t= 0, T0=36.1
36.1= 30 + Ae^0
A = 6.1
Thus T0 = 30 + 6.1e^kt
At 11pm t = 80 (mins), T0= 34.2
32.4 = 30 + 6.1e^k*80
0.393 = e^k*80
ln (0.393) = 80k
k = -0.0047
Thus
T0= 30 + 6.1e^-0.0047t
We want time before 9.40pm when T0=37.5
so
37.5 = 30+6.1e^-0.0047t
again..
ln ( 1.23 ) = -0.0047t
t = -42.8 mins
Thus death occurred approximately 43 mins before 9.40pm
I've summarised the example a bit. If you would like I could write up the total question including the ODE stuff. But you could turn this into a
laboratory exercise by making students measure body temp of a dead animal. And using these equations figure out the time of death...
ascii.
[Edited on by asciiwhite]
[Edited on by asciiwhite]
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