FUTURE PROGRAM
myIDEA Out of the Box and into the Classroom:
A Teaching Experience
Evelyn Covés-Datson, ecovesda@umich.edu, French and Microbiology dual major, 2012
Angelical Martin, iamme@umich.edu, Biochemistry major and Spanish minor, 2011
OVERVIEW
Conducted two experiments over the course of four
weeks. The first, a murder mystery lab, was
recommended by the teacher we worked with and the
second, a hydrates lab, was a topic of our choosing
that we felt would be of great interest to the kids.
We worked with Dr. Cynthia Salhi’s three General
Chemistry classes of roughly thirty students per
classes.
Our overall goal with both labs was to build an interest
in chemistry by connecting chemistry to live sof
students. We are sure that we have been successful in
our endeavor as many of the students have asked us to
return as well as decided to explore more chemistry
courses in their school and when they go to college.
TIMELINE
The labs spanned over four weeks, once a week on
Thursdays, three of which we attended. The Murder
Mystery Lab took three days to complete and the
Hydrates Lab took one day of lab to complete.
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
We conducted a Murder Mystery Lab in which the
students were responsible for finding who killed the
victim by figuring out the murder solution, by use of
Double Displacement Reactions, and associating a
molarity of the solution to the killer, using Molarity
concepts. The primary goal was to provide a real-life
application of familiar chemistry concepts.
The last lab we designed and implemented and was
about hydrates. Our goal was to create a fun lab that
demonstrated the uses of chemistry, concepts of
molarity in particular, and to associate their everyday
lives with these concepts that they learn in class.
WHAT I LEARNED
We have learned many lessons through FUTURE, but
one of most importance is the lesson of responsibility
and influence.
Once we truly connected with our students, their
transformation into attentive, open, and therefore
vulnerable, people was startling. We recognized
immediately the daunting realization that we were a
strong influence on these kids, stronger than we would
have imagined or anticipated. So strong, in fact, that
their productivity depended on our enthusiasm for the
lesson, our approach to teaching and willingness to
educate. This power to influence change and spark
interest became a responsibility we placed on
ourselves.
To have this impact is no light matter and our ability to
affect change and see its outcome is something that we
will cherish. The communication skills and lesson of
patience is also something that we will use in all of our
future ventures.
Partner Information: Angelical Martin and Evelyn
Covés-Datson
School Information: Cass Technical High School,
Detroit, MI
Teacher Information: Dr. Cynthia Salhi
Project Coordinator: Mary Starr
ProjectSupport Staff: Cesar Delgado, Morten
Lundsgaard, Justin Lomont, Tracy Lent