I'm all about the cross curricularity

Actually, I'm not sure that's even a word. But I am running with it.

In my quest to be a Renaissance teacher, I like to maintain a passing acquaintance with other subject areas. Of course, this is fairly easy in Maths (since I use it all the time to teach, you know, my subject) and English. That's because I'm a writer *cues flappy hands of creative expression*. I like to know what's happening in Technology. But I love love love Social Science.

Here is my latest obsession of intellectual glee. Sociological Images. They use images to explore assumptions about gender, class and ethnicity, with a short, rigorous commentary. I love it. For example, just today I learned that marriage between cousins is prohibited in 25 states in the US. *blinks* My maternal grandparents were first cousins. Perhaps I shouldn't admit to that on the internet.

We're all about health. And science. Yeah

The other day, I stumbled across a fascinating post featuring a periodic table of the elements represented by cupcakes.

Here, have a gratuitous picture of the sugary goodness:



Nice, huh?

One of the things I have found in teaching chemistry, and, in particular, atomic structure, ion formation and ionic bonding, is that students have real difficulty with the idea that removing electrons makes an ion more positive.

Yes, I am also a maths teacher, and this does make me worried.

So, I'm thinking cupcakes of the first twenty and the few extras we use. Some nice icing. Valence electrons represented by little sour jube lollies - if you remove valence sour jubes, the cupcake gets sweeter. I think this could be a really simple, if not particularly healthy, way to get the idea across.

Bring on the Chemistry!

Cookie-cutter science? Please, I hate chocolate chip

So, one of my colleagues sent me this link, in response to my description of our new junior science scheme. Apparently, he thinks we’re going to be teaching cookie-cutter science. I am faced with the unpalatable thought that I failed to communicate effectively, or the equally unpleasant alternative that my colleagues think I have instituted an intellectually barren scheme of work.

Personally, I think that describing our scheme as cookie-cutter is, at best, unkind. We're getting rid of several student learning outcomes and changing our focus from content - facts in low context - to scientific literacy. I'm going to think more about exactly how we're ensuring high academic rigour.