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.
Continue reading Balancing Chemical Reaction Equations Using Beads
Stoichiometry is the heart of chemistry, but is often a challenging concept for students to grasp. My goal was to generate an informational organizer for students to use to assemble all of the necessary pieces of information in order to successfully solve a gram to gram stoichiometry problem. The resulting algorithm organizer was introduced to students during the stoichiometry unit:
Tollen’s Test is a laboratory test used to detect the presence of an aldehyde or keytone functional groups by an oxidation reaction. The result of a positive test is a precipitation of silver on the inside of the reaction vessel.
All three of our courses used Tollen’s Test to silver the inside of Christmas tree ornaments during finals week using this technique. It was a welcomed break from the rigor of finishing the crunch of assignments for the semester, and a nice memento from our time together. I do understand that this is a Christian holiday, and that we must be culturally responsive to all religions. As such, this may not be an activity appropriate in all settings, or may need to have vessels to silver for students who do not celebrate Christmas.
InTASC standards 5-7-8 were put to work on this task as content was planned for and applied. HLPs 6 & 13 were also used by the station work and partners that were integral to the success of this lab. Students really enjoyed completing this lab, and it was a welcomed break from the hectic bustle of Finals Week. Lots of them decorated the ornaments as gifts, or as mementos from our time together at Alexandria.
We administered our first end of unit assessment in our Chemistry I course and were met with a little worse than typical bell curve results in the distribution of scores, with 16/65 (25%) of students scoring Ds and Fs. There seemed that no time quite like then that could be better for setting some attainable academic goals, especially for our underperforming students. I used Locke and Latham’s goal setting theory in hopes of increasing the overall academic performance in our Chemistry I course.
Locke and Latham have studied the goal setting theory for the majority of their careers, and have determined that in order to be successful, goals must have five main components, often referred to as SMART objectives:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
Below is my 5E lesson plan incorporating their techniques.
Oftentimes, the last school day before a break is a day of lost instruction. My goal in forestalling this before Thanksgiving was to plan a lesson based around the science of things found on a Thanksgiving Day table.
Continue reading Science Behind the Thanksgiving Day Table
Mr. Smith talks to our students about reading techniques on a regular basis. We have only a classroom set of textbooks for Chemistry I, so we don’t request required reading of them very often. However, we do ask them to preview a chapter after an exam, or when there is time after laboratories. When we ask students to read the textbook, we give them specific techniques with which to preview the text:
1) Look at the pictures and figures first.
2) Read any boldface vocabulary words.
3) Skim for key phrases/vocabulary.
4) Read for content.
We give them a specific reading technique, because reading a science text is not as straightforward or easy, as reading for leisure is.
Continue reading Reading Fix-Ups Strategies for Better Lab Experiences
Students complain that school isn’t relatable. Employers complain that we don’t generate problem solvers. Problem Based Learning answers the complexities of both of these issues in one fell swoop, all the while being aligned to state curriculum standards.
Alexandria received a grant of $335,000 from the state of Indiana as part of the Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program to help with the demolition of eyesore properties around town. The question remains: was this a good deal for the city? A slideshow outlining the entire project may be viewed at: https://www.emaze.com/@AFRWRLTW/razed-and-rising
The origin of this activity stemmed from myself graduating with a degree in chemistry, without ever calculating or making a 1.0 M solution. I felt that this was a disservice to myself, and vowed that my students wouldn’t have the same experience.
October 23 is recognized and celebrated by chemists worldwide as a day of celebration for the unit of measure specific to our field: the mole. We voted to spend the day doing activities reinforcing the mole concept. A link to the full list of activities from that day may be found here.
When our Chemistry I classes were initially studying the unit of the mole, I wanted to find an activity using real life materials to further relate the mole concept. Initially I thought of using aluminum foil, and found a quality control lab that I liked, so I modified it to include mass measurements and mole conversions. Click here for the complete file download of this activity.
