Diareli Bustamante

RDG 323 Section: 83630

Vocabulary Task

For my vocabulary task, we will be exploring the greek roots hetero and homo. These
two roots show up when we are covering chemistry and biology units, and learning about them
will be helpful to students as they build their knowledge in these areas. To start off the activity, I
will begin by asking students what they think the root hetero means. At some point one student
will say that it means different, so I will then proceed to saying “If hetero means different, then
what must homo mean?”. Students will then respond that the root means sameness. After this, I
will provide students with a double-sided halfsheet. One side will be titled “homeogenous
mixtures” and the other side will be titled “heterogenous mixtures”. Essentially, students will be
completing an exclusion brainstorming activity because each side of the handout will contain a
list of substances or solutions and students will be tasked with crossing out the ones that do not
belong. The goal here will be for students to come to the conclusion that homogenous mixtures
have the same appearance and composition throughout, while heterogeneous mixtures are made
up of visibly different substances or phases. About five minutes or so will be provided for them
to complete this task individually, before we discuss the correct answers as a whole class.
Once we have gone over the correct answers, I will provide each student with two Frayer
model concept maps. Having students complete these concept maps will help them further
extend their understanding of these scientific terms. In the center they will write the type of
mixture and in the outer squares they will write the definition, characteristics, and examples of
the term. Rather than having students fill in the fourth square with nonexamples, I will instead
have them draw a picture that represents the vocabulary term. This is important because when
doing experiments, students should be able to tell which type of mixture they are working with
just by looking at it. During this activity, students will be able to work in pairs and turn to their
textbooks if they need additional help filling out their concept maps.