Reflecting on writing my blog over the last two years, one
of my observations was that publicly writing down my intentions of trying
specific new things in my classes encouraged me to actually carry them out.
Call it some form of self-imposed accountability. I’ve hinted multiple times at
having a chemistry class themed around Potions, possibly even writing a
“textbook” about how magic relates to chemistry. Maybe I need to build this
into one of my classes.
Next semester I am teaching a section of Chemistry and
Society, one of the courses aimed at non-science majors fulfilling their core
science requirement. Last year, I themed the class and final project around
Water, more specifically the science and pseudoscience related to water
products. A previous iteration was themed around forensics back in the heyday
of CSI. I’ve also taught a version related to my interests in the origin of
life. Perhaps I could do one on Potions. I think the students would get a kick
out of having the first Harry Potter book be optional reading for the course!
The idea of course is to get students involved, and somehow
combine that with getting an early version of a textbook written about
chemistry and magic. So here’s the idea I have been toying with. We learn the
basic chemistry principles as usual, but with a strong theme towards why this
is important to create potions. Fairly early in the semester, I query students
on what Potions they think should be created. (I did this once in one of my
classes. Here were the results.) The final group projects would be to write
Potion recipes for the desired potion using the principles of chemistry they
have learned. They would need to justify why their chemical mix might have the
desired effect, how they would obtain their ingredients (which might require
more chemistry), and what reaction conditions will be needed to produce the
desired potion. In the meantime, I will write early sections on the “theory” of
potions that relate to the chemical principles needed to help them with their
final project. Just thinking about it makes me excited!
What platform should I use? I don’t like the clunkiness of
our gargantuan LMS, Blackboard, so I would like to avoid it. I haven’t actually
used the wiki feature (although I have used Blackboard in several classes), so
perhaps it is at least worthy of investigation since students have some
familiarity with it in their other classes. My first thought was to use
MediaWiki. I haven’t personally used it. Back in the day, my research group
used AirSet, and we had a useful wiki on how to use the computational packages,
basic tutorials on Unix, tips and tricks for text editors, more tips and tricks
on how to optimize one’s computations, etc. Too bad the site went under. My
wife (a librarian) mentioned the possibility of a LibGuide, and she also
suggested Wordpress (which I have yet to use). There’s also Google Docs. Wise
readers, if you have a suggestion with good reasons why I should use a
particular system – please let me know. (Most of you readers know who I am, so
just send me an e-mail. Or you can leave me your e-mail address on a comment to
this post and I’ll contact you!)
Having students contribute to the textbook will hopefully
increase their motivation. (Future classes could work on improving the book!)
They would also get to work on their potion of interest, and hopefully learn a
lot of chemistry about a particular desired phenomena and how it might interact
with the chemistry in your body. There is also a “creative” aspect – they get
to propose something novel (and fictitious) without being too bogged down in
all the constraints. This is somewhat like the final project in my current
General Chemistry class to design a new element.
Okay, now that I have written down this idea in this blog
post, maybe I will have the motivation to carry it through. In the meantime,
this semester isn’t over yet so I still need to focus on finishing well, both
for my students and myself.
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