A Gooey Lesson

Last week in class we did a simple experiment studying what happens when you mix glue and starch. When I first started this assignment, all I could think about was how gross it was (see below)! I did not want to touch it because I thought it would be disgusting and stick to my hands, but everyone else was doing it and it was apparently working much better when it was literally “hands-on”, so I sucked it up and did too. Once I started digging in, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then the more I messed with the two substances, the more I started thinking about why chemical reactions happen and started connecting it with all the things we are learning about chemistry in my science course right now. It surprised me that I started drawing connections from that class to this one, two subjects (education studies and chemistry) that I would not normally think would have too much of a relationship. Just sitting there thinking about homework I had in science lead me to thinking about chemical bonds, valence electrons, and how all that works. Of course, I don’t fully understand (or even more than partially understand) how all of it works but it was still neat to make the connections.
This experience helped build on my understanding of constructivist learning and the importance of interconnectedness between subjects. Inquiry also came into play because we worked within our group discussing best ways to thicken or thin our substance, color it, stir it, etc.
I also think this activity was very successful in hitting all the levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy, all the way down to evaluation. In that category we measured, judged, tested, compared, etc. each of our substances.
All five standards for authentic instruction were met because the higher thinking skills were obviously covered and then the experiment helped me build upon my knowledge from my chemistry class, and obviously, science is connected to the world beyond the classroom. We were also able to converse within our group and provide support and helpful suggestions to each other. So overall, this quick (but messy!) experiment provided us with yet another example of something simple we can do to create a more exciting, yet still educational, classroom.