Searching for skills and understanding....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Found a really cool activity from the Flinn elearning series.  Bob Becker does a great activity in dimensional analysis and moles.  He has several mole problems in which not only do students have to do the correct dimensional analysis, but then they have to get the material and bring it to him.  He measures it and gets instant feedback.  

     Here would be a sample question.  "Find 1.80 moles of water and bring it to the instructor."  Think about this..the other way of doing this might state the problem, "How many grams is 1.80 moles of water?"  Students would simply do the conversion and be done.  The new way students would have to ask, "What unit would the answer be in?  How would I go from grams to milliliters?"  Also, they would have to have a skill of carefully measuring out the milliliters.  Students bring the volume of water up to the instructor in a cup.  The instructor pours it into a graduated cylinder and checks.  There is a spreadsheet the he or she can check which has the group number and then volumes that are exact, within 2%, 5% and 10% (fewer points are given to the least accurate).  This new method incorporates the actual process of dimensional analysis, the skills of measuring and immediate feedback.  It is a "power punch"  of good teaching.  I hope to give it a shot tomorrow...I will let you know how it goes....