Brainfood

Ran across this site called brainfood that has logic puzzles and it reminded me of how I used to start my class periods. Many times I would have a logic puzzle on the board or a question of the day. It gave the students something to think about while I took attendance and put their focus on what we were about to do. Especially in my chemistry classes where logical thinking got you further than memorizing the periodic table.

This gets me thinking again about the skill based approach. What should I have been more concerned about as a chemistry teacher? I did make it a habit of telling my students that they should take chemistry because it taught you how to logically think through complex problems and find abstract relationships. I don't know how I came up with that, or where it came from, but I remember saying it a lot. I would tell my students that it really wouldn't matter for most of them if they could "do chemistry" later in life - what mattered was if they could connect the type of thinking we were doing to other things in their life.

I see a connection to the 21st Century Skills but when I look at them - I feel like there is stuff missing. I know - that is a very insightful and helpful statement. As I have been saying I am still trying to work my way around this whole philosophy and I just havent had time to work it all out yet...but it is coming.

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