Maria Latorre Capstone

Topic Summary:


My goal for this project was to be able to develop a course curriculum for Advance Chem. I also want to be able to understand the effect that a teacher puts into his or her curriculum. I decided to do Advance Chem. because I really love Chemistry. It’s one of my top courses that I would love to major in once I’m in college. I thought that this would give me insight into what a class structure would look like and what are the big points that a student needs to get out of the course. I didn’t know how hard this would have been because as a student we don’t really think of all the work that goes into making a successful curriculum that every student can understand. I didn’t think it would be easy but I also never thought it would be this hard.


Project Abstract:


The initial inspiration behind this project was that I really wanted to be able to say I did something that no one else has ever done. I wanted to be different one of a kind and that is what I got. I have always loved science and that was my second inspiration. I just never thought that this could be the hardest thing I could do. I had a hard time keeping up with my capstone, a healthy social life and good grades. Sometimes I would over work myself or stay up until late just to write up two or three labs; but all in all I think that this is great I was able to get things done. I also learned that a teacher life isn’t as easy as people may think.


Link To My Project Portfolio.

Capstone Bibliography


Hall, James ed. Experimental Chemistry Seventh Edition. Boston Massachusetts: Hartford, 2007. Print.

This is a very good source, I really like this source because it has a lot of information and this information is really useful to my capstone. I the reason is very simple, in the book there are different types of work that can be done in class and that is very important to know. Like the “Idea Gas Law” this is one of the topics that I will be going over because for a Advance Chemistry class this something that everyone should know or should learn when taking this class. This source has short description about the topics that are written inside and then it gives you work that you can do and things that you can explain to the students. Also if I could understand what is happening in the book then the student might understand, too.


http://www.esciencelabs.com/files/product_pdfs/Chemistry_Version_4_Ideal_Gas_Law_Sample_Lab.pdf

I selected this source because it has background information that can support one of the many topics that I will be going over in my Capstone. This also has definitions that we can go over in my class curriculum. I feel like this will work out for me because I learned a lot and I think that this will be really cool and the information is very interesting. I hope that by using this source I will be able to put it together so that I can help the student get the general gizzest of what is happening in the class.


Janet L. Kolodner, Joseph S. Krajcik, Daniel C. Edelson, Brian J. Reiser, Mary L. Starr, eds. Project-Based Inquiry Science Living Together. New York: Jones, 2009. Print.

This is one of the sources that can be help with understanding and teaching. I think that it will be useful to my capstone because this has a lot of facts and information that a teacher should know and that they can teach the student. I think that this is something every important because it was able to teach me new things and if I’m learning something new then that means that maybe the others don’t know it too. This is just to reinforce what I know and what I can teach others for my capstone.


Myers R. Thomas, Tocci Salvatore, Oldham B. Keith, eds. Chemistry Teacher Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2004. Print.

This resources is a book about advanced chemistry. It’s a manual that helps teachers teach students the principles of advanced chemistry. The book tells of different teaching techniques and the best way to execute them to students. This can be helpful due to the fact that I want students to learn something new. I think that this will help me see what a student know and what they don’t know. Since I’m a student I can tell because if I don’t know it then the other students might not know it.


"Next Generation Science Standards." Next Generation Science Standards. Next Generation Science Standards and the Associated Logo Are Registered Trademarks of Achieve, Inc., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nextgenscience.org/>.

This source is used to understand what a student at grade k-12 should learn in science class. I will be looking at the grade 6-12 because this is when chem comes into play. I think that this will be used a lot in my capstone because this can help me structur out a class that can work out. It shows the necessary basics to start of a class and also what they should know and learn. There is a lot of information you can get out of this website. You click on one of the topics and it shows you “Science and Engineering Practices”, “Disciplinary Core Ideas” and  “Crosscutting Concepts”. Once you clicked one of the topics it takes you to another website that give you useful information.


"Small-Scale Acid Rain Lab." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q6k822lSm4>.

This is a very useful youtube video. The reason for that is because it talks about a lab that I plan to have in my capstone, and it also has a teacher explaining how he would set up the project in his class. I think that this can be very useful because of that fact. This is a great way that I can compare with. Thus why I have it as a source. This also shows you about what you'll need for the lab. Like every chemical and what we are going to do with it. He also explains what had happen when the acid rain was around minerals and organisms .


"Support Materials." CEA Rewarding Learning. N.p., 2014. Web. 31 Jan. 2014. <http://www.rewardinglearning.org.uk/microsites/chemistry/revised_gce/support/>.

I found this source useful because it this one pdf source that I can used. It’s called Clarification of Terms in CCEA GCE Chemistry this can be very useful because it’s good to know terms; and I was planning to go over some terms that are explained in this pdf. I can also hand it to the students so that they have something that isn’t just google to find a definition for science words that they don’t know or do not remember.


Thompson, Robert Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments All Lab, No Lecture.: Alison Kendall ed. Sebastopol CA: Dale, 2008. Print.

When I reviewed this source I thought that it was reliable and a good source to look at. I was able to find a variety of labs that could work well for my capstone. I thought that it was very informative and had great process guids to do the lab. Though I might need to change some chemicals that they asked to use because we might not have them in school so we have to think of something that is close to being the same chemical. In all this is a very useful source that I plan to be using throughout my capstone.


"Understanding by Design Exchange by ASCD." Understanding by Design Exchange by ASCD. ASCD 69th Annual Conference & Exhibit Show, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.ubdexchange.org/>.

I selected this source because of the information that it had provided. It helped me know what is needed to make a class. Like the basic understanding of the class what a student should know and what the plan is to make them better. I feel like this could help a lot because it helped me see that the teachers need a ending goal and also how to treat other students because some are slower than the others and sometime a student won’t ask for help so I would need to know when that is happening and also I have to be aware of the students reaction to the work. To make sure that they could learn and understand.


Wiggins, Grant. "Authentic Education - Welcome to Authentic Education." Authentic Education - Welcome to Authentic Education. Authentic Education, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. <http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/>.

This source will just be used to support the other sources that I have because this will only have information on how to make a class; and what is need to make this class.

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