WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?
HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?
Came down with a cold...wife left for a week to help her sick mother....played Mr. Mom and tried to teach stoichiometry....long week.
Here is what I know about stoichiometry....most of my students hate math. So here is the deal...every day we did either mole to mole, mass to mole or mass to mass problems. Each student was assigned a different problem and they HAD to show work with labeled numbers. It was like pulling teeth but they finally started doing it. Then we did this activity in which at each table I had a salmon colored card with a balanced equation of two reactants and two products. Yellow cards had the molar mass relationships of each substance and the blue cards had the molar ratio of each substances. One red card gave the amount students were starting with and a white card provided what unit and the substance of what they needed to solve. They had to find the correct cards and put them in the correct order and then write down the problems. I felt like they were "getting it" because as they went from table to table they needed less time to decide which cards they needed and in what order. I like the fact that I provided them too many cards on purpose and they had to decide what was important, what was not and in what order.
Here is what I know about stoichiometry....most of my students hate math. So here is the deal...every day we did either mole to mole, mass to mole or mass to mass problems. Each student was assigned a different problem and they HAD to show work with labeled numbers. It was like pulling teeth but they finally started doing it. Then we did this activity in which at each table I had a salmon colored card with a balanced equation of two reactants and two products. Yellow cards had the molar mass relationships of each substance and the blue cards had the molar ratio of each substances. One red card gave the amount students were starting with and a white card provided what unit and the substance of what they needed to solve. They had to find the correct cards and put them in the correct order and then write down the problems. I felt like they were "getting it" because as they went from table to table they needed less time to decide which cards they needed and in what order. I like the fact that I provided them too many cards on purpose and they had to decide what was important, what was not and in what order.
In Accelerated Chem we did a great project developed by Margaret Stone. Students were provided with an alphabetical listing of some elements along with three properties. They had to make a CLAIM about a pattern or trend, provide EVIDENCE and then state their REASONING. It was perfect...the internet was down. They got the claim and evidence...but the reasoning or "WHY" part was the challenge...and ironically perhaps the most important part.
Well, my wife just got home (YEAAAAAA) and their papers are due Wednesday.....I will keep you posted.
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