20 to Watch: Brett Wilie

Brett Wilie is from the Dallas, Texas area and has been an educator for 13 years. He has been a science department chair for the past five years and has taught chemistry, AP Chemistry, and Forensic Science as well as 5th/6th grade science. He was a presenter at the recent Flipped Classroom Conference held in Woodland Park, Colorado. Brett flipped his chemistry classes by using Camtasia Studio, Moodle LMS, and various other Web 2.0 technologies.

An Interview with Brett

Question: What led you to flipping your classroom?

Answer: The process of flipping my classroom began when I found AP Chemistry videos produced by Aaron Sams and Jon Bergmann on iTunes. I was looking for tutorials and found their videos. When I saw them, I began realizing the possibility of flipping my classes by having the students watch the lectures at home, and then being able to use class time for enhancement of the course. I then discovered that was exactly what Jon and Aaron were doing. I followed their basic model of flipping the classroom and mastery learning.

Question: Is there a difference in the way that students interact with your content at different levels (chemistry v. honors)?

Answer: I flipped both my regular and honors chemistry courses. I found that in both levels of the course, the students benefited, but in different ways. With the regular students, I could spend more time with those that needed extra help in the math skills of the course while others in the class were able to spend extra time on lab and group activities. The honors students were already motivated to work hard and didn't really have any skill deficiencies, so we were able to move at a much quicker pace (due to more class time available) and cover more material, which will help them if they choose to take AP Chemistry next year.

Question: How much more content have you been able to get through since your lecture style changed?

Answer: Because we have been able to have much more class time than before, I had no problem in completing the entire curriculum while at the same time, having more time for enhanced class activities including more labs, group discussions, and projects that I haven't had time to do in the past. All of this and I saw an overall increase in student scores over the academic year.

Question: Do you have any advice about customizing your content for different types of students?

Answer: The potential for being able to customize the content of a class is great. Using the mastery model allows me to assess each student on an individual basis. I can take the student that struggles and not only spend more individual time with him/her, but I can also take the student that excels and push them to higher levels. I can do all of this in a single class!

Question: Are there any examples of your projects that you'd like to share?

Answer: I am always looking for methods of making the course relevant to the students. This year, because of flipping and the extra time now afforded to me in class, I was able to take a unit from the American Chemical Society's curriculum "Chemistry in the Community" and use it in my course without the need to adopt the entire curriculum. We took the first unit "Water: Exploring Solutions" and covered the material as an additional resource. This brought a real world scenario to the class and allowed us to apply chemistry concepts to everyday problems.

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Ali White is the Social Media Intern for TechSmith. She studies Professional Writing at Michigan State with a minor in Theater. Follow her tweets at @DesignLightning or check out her Tumblr.