I started teaching the Gas Law unit lacking inspiration. I have always considered the Gas Laws to be rote and uninspiring. My first period unit opening lesson was less than engaging. After class Mr. Smith asked me how I thought it went I said that it was less than ideal. After some discussion, and finding a vacuum pump, I scrapped my lecture plans in favor of performing Gas Law demonstrations.
We began the Gas Laws unit with a gallery walk preassessment to see how much, if any, knowledge the students had regarding the Kinetic Molecular Theory. All eight postulates of the theory were written on the white boards around the room. Students were grouped into pairs and given dry erase markers and asked whether or not they agreed with the written statements of:
Chemistry I students last discussed the states of matter in sixth grade, but they are also used as a discussion lead in to thermodynamics in chemistry. Because students have experience with states of matter, I wanted to find an engaging way to activate previous knowledge and begin our thermochemistry unit. I generated a list of eight properties of each of the three common states of matter, printed them on colored sheets of paper, cut them into slips and mixed them together in a bucket. Then I divided the class into three teams and assigned each team a state of matter to represent and asked them to pull eight random slips from the bucket. The teams were to discuss amongst themselves whether or not each of the eight slips they pulled out matched their state of matter. If the group found that some of the slips descriptions didn’t define their state, they were to trade with another group until they found descriptions that did, but not to have more than eight slips at once.
There was an advanced group of students developing in one section of Chemistry I that began to act out in boredom in class during the Gas Laws unit. I used pregnant pauses, proximal discipline and even stopped my instruction in an attempt to quell their behavior. Over one weekend I really thought about how best to approach the situation and I came to the conclusion that that particular group of students simply needed to be given work and then set loose to complete their required assignments. What was really needed was an equitable assignment for all students, but in multiple versions. My second attempt at differentiated instruction had begun.
I always enjoy any activity that involves authentic laboratory work, so when it came time for the solutions unit in Chemistry I, I decided to allow students a choice for their end of unit assessment. Either assessment was worth the same number of points, but there would be an option of either completing a traditional paper and pencil test, or performing a lab practical exam that involved making actual solutions. A rubric was constructed to grade the outcome of the practical: Solution Lab Practical Rubric as well as a modified testing instrument: Solutions Practical Exam
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