I was listening to a bird hunting podcast about how to train your bird dog, and I realized that they might as well have been talking about chemistry students! Without disparaging them too much, there are some similarities. Short attention span on the things we want them to focus on. Long attention span on strange new things in their environment. Lots of energy. But they also want to sleep all day. You get it. The list could probably go on. But here’s the deal. You are their trainer. Your career is made on the fact that you can take teenagers, most of whom don’t really care about chemistry, and make them understand it.
There was one point that the podcaster brought out about training hunting dogs that really struck a chord with me. He said that training your dog in the same park over and over gets boring for them. But one of the bigger disadvantages is that you don’t become a better trainer either. When you go to a new environment, there are new things for the student to learn, but there are also new ways for you to train. As I was thinking about my teaching, I realized that in some cases, I’m just returning to the same park to train. I always use turn and talk. I always quiz in the same way. I always lecture about this topic and always have an activity for that topic. I’m training in the same field. Let’s become better trainers by changing the field that we are taking our students to train. Below are some ideas about how to do that. I have left them open so that you can choose your own best path. Happy hunting.
Flip or unflip the classroom
I’m not here for a discussion of the merits of a flipped classroom. But if you only teach flipped, what if you unflipped a unit? Do you have a lecture based class? Flip it. The kids will see you, their peers, and possibly themselves in a new light. And you will become a better teacher by seeing the other side of the equation that you don’t often see.
Do the lab first
We all have our favorite labs for particular units. What if you led off with that lab instead of working through the unit to get there. Or do you always start with the same lab? Maybe their understanding of that first lab is lower because they don’t have enough data yet. Change it. Let them experience it in a new way. But more importantly train yourself to teach in this new field.
Use games
I know, I know, you are reading this blog on a website that sells games. This might feel spammy. It’s not. I played games on scraps of paper for years. If you never use games, try it. You will see a different intentionality when they want to win. You will hear new conversations about content that didn’t use to be there. That doesn’t have to cost money. But, if you are interested, there are some pretty cool games for your chemistry classroom on this site. Just saying.
Let them teach
I was not a chemistry major. Not even a minor. I took enough chemistry to get through my biology degree. Once I was tasked with teaching chemistry, it got real. I had to understand what I was saying. Teaching has a way of doing that. It forces you to be ready. What if you had kids teach a topic. It forces them to be ready. Obviously, there have to be constraints around this one, but they will understand it much more deeply if they teach it.
Change the order of chapters
Why do you teach your chemistry class in the way that you do? Is it because the last person taught it that way? Because the book has the chapters in that order? Consider changing the order. There are obviously some prerequisites that can’t be changed but be creative. I used to teach in the order of the textbook. Now this is the order of my chapters; 1-2, 3A, 3B, 4, 5, 3C… You see my point. AP chem goes chapters 1-3, 15, 19… Why? Because I tried a new field and it worked for the students and I became a better trainer.
Get other voices involved
I am spoiled. I have an amazing department. I would trust any teacher in my department to come in and offer another voice. I am lucky that I get to do that as the department chair. I will show up in a classroom just to hang out, or because they are doing a lab that I’m interested in, or because I need to borrow materials. The other day, I was able to offer another voice into a lesson that was going on. Hearing it from a different person helped a few of the students. Are you willing to let another voice in? Better yet, are you willing to invite another voice in?
If you are still reading this, you are the type of teacher that would consider training in a new way. You are creative. You care about your students. You want to get better yourself. And I applaud you. Your kids appreciate that you are this type of teacher. Even though it feels like they are chewing on the couch sometimes. You are a good trainer. Take them to a new field and run that energy out of them. It’s what they were made for. It’s what you were made for.
PS: I use AI tools to make the images for the blog. And I laughed out loud when I I got this picture of a "bird dog hunting in a field". Though there might be that one student that seems to have a gun-tail...
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