Connecting monomers, polymers and stuff you can actually see…

Three weeks in, many labs, simulations, movie clips and notes into the unit, I was dismayed to hear some of my more academic students were still really unclear about what polymers were. Instead of shooting myself, tempting though that felt, I figured a card sort might rescue us all.

Here’s the result – the activity sheet is first and the plethora of images from the web follow. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. But let me know through comments if not.

8. Mix and match molecules to models, monomers to polymers

Kids had to connect what they’d been learning about through out the unit AND with stuff they know about nutrition and the units on cells and genetics from 7th grade. There were some clues on the cards too. But I had to circulate pretty often to help them out – what belongs, what they need to re-classifiy. Then have them sort it from monomers to the macroscopic after they had the categories worked out.

I got a good sense of who needed coaching and who got it pretty quickly. It was a fun and interactive way to give some students extra help.

Wrapped it up with a class card sort – everyone got a couple of color printed cards (ooh, aah) to sort, then went over it and they took notes.

It SEEMED like it was helpful. We’ll see. A test is coming up…