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| Struggling with bust lock |
A 7.45 departure to arrive in plenty of time for the workshops picking up Yusupha (whom we sponsor) on the way. First problem – we can't unlock the classroom door – the lock is well past fixing.
20 minutes later, Joe finds another way in and then a college maintenance guy gets the door open anyway.
!0 minutes to prepare and off we go...
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| Teaching electronics |
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| Teaching chemistry |
In one room we have optical microscopy led by Pippa and Cathy, in the other us physicists and chemists. In our room we have 5 “stations” covering, electricity (Dan and Jayson), levers (Joe), radioactivity (Katie and Emma), chemistry (Sally, Ian and Andrew) and waves (me).
Each group of ~3 student teachers has 45 minutes at each station to experience some hands on science. My station is deliberately minimal as kit is so difficult to get here; we make an eye using the bottom 100mm of a plastics drinks bottle, corrugated cardboard iris, milk and two proper items, a lens and a wind up torch.
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| Teaching refraction |
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| Teaching about waves |
All the student teachers are very willing to learn and at the end of the day they each have 15 minutes to teach a class (the rest of their group) on one experiment from the day. It is interesting to see how their ability to engage and involve their students varies.
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| Potions with Prof Snape |
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| Potassium permanganate+glycerol - highly exothermic |
As a finale Bob poured glycerol over potassium permanganate to produce a purple flame and smoke, while Sally started soaking an egg in a chemical I missed. Is she trying to dissolve the calcium?
We were all pretty whacked after a long but successful day. Same again tomorrow!
PS Thanks to everyone who has sent such encouraging feedback by Facebook. It is so good to have your support.
# posted by Chris @ 22:56
