Week 5 Blog

This presentation was about the composition of matter. It was created as a beginning to matter in the 8th grade. Many of the students have studied matter and the composition of matter but always need a refresher course in the main aspects of matter. When a student is asked "What is Matter?" They will often answer with liquid, gas, solid, and plasma. Although this is the correct answer, there is much more information they must know in order to move into a more detailed investigation of chemical science.


I have never used transitions in my PPTs. I do not like them because it takes my students so long to take notes from lengthy presentations. I try hard to provide to my students the easiest note-taking experience but its not always possible. For this presentation, I like that my colors are easy on the eye and the material is brief but heavy. Also, in the PPT, I created instances where the students are required to collaborate and then come back as an entire class. This is always important at the middle school level. I did find two slides where I can use transitions to provide the necessary material and they worked great.

I would like to provide real life examples (pictures or video) of how the students should be separating their mixtures. I would also embed a video into the PPT but for this particular lesson, there was no time to add a video.

My students didn't realize they were being presented with notes and information. I had many facts in the presentation that were interesting and well-taken. My students also seemed to like the collaboration within the presentation. It helped to keep their attention when a normal note-taking assignment would be met with groans of pain!

I use PPT with my students whenever I can. I try to use all forms of Microsoft Office including Publisher with my students. I allowed my students to use PPT when creating their science experiment but only if they were not interested in showing at the district science fair. I am not a fan of multiple black on bright colors or transitions and my students know this. Some of them, because of this expectation, like to do their work on poster board.

One final thing I would like to mention about my PPT. I did not use a lot of photos. I once read that sensory overload diminishes the learning capabilities of the student in the classroom. I use as little photos as possible but instead fill in moments of collaboration between my students and videos that can increase student knowledge.