Kinesthetic activities are one of my favorite ways to engage students in their learning.  We utilized several methods in modeling the art of balancing chemical reaction equations, but one of my favorite activities was balancing reactions using beads.

The activity required students to string plastic pony beads on pipe cleaners to form molecules that appeared on both sides of a chemical reaction equation.  The goal was for students to understand that coefficients apply to an entire molecules when balancing a chemical equation, not just an individual atom within them.  As such, each time a coefficient changes, an entire new molecule must be made on one side of the reaction, which in turn impacts the other side as well.  The physical act of building the models perfectly demonstrated this.

InTASC 3  learning environments supports an activity such as this.  It was performed  in student pairs, allowing for independent group work as well as self pacing.  It is difficult not to be engaged in learning when something is placed into your hands.  However, not all of the students chose to complete the activity as outlined, and I was fine with that.  I feel that allowing students options in their education is key, and when there is insistence upon completing an assignment in one and only one way, there is a loss of individualized instruction.  I encourage students to take ownership in their education, and choice allows for that.  InTASC 8’s modeling slant also can be applied to this activity as it showed a physical modeling aspect of a concept.

HLPs 3-6-9-13 were used in this activity.  I chose to use this activity to break a misconception that students possess that only a single atom is affected when balancing an equation, as it models the correct idea that an entire compound or molecule is impacted when coefficients are used.

This activity was adapted from: http://teachers.sduhsd.net/ccollins/Balancing%20Equations%20Beads.pdf