My latest attempts....

Blogs from here on out are posted here...
http://www.chemedx.org/blogs/chad-husting

From Cookbook to Inquiry

Check out my latest post...

http://www.chemedx.org/blog/going-cookbook-inquirymessy-worth-it

Flipping

Check out my latest post at...

http://www.chemedx.org/blog/flipping-classroomthe-good-bad-and-ugly

Thanks to the Lady from Texas.

Here is a really cool place where you can pick up my blog.

http://www.chemedx.org/blog/thank-you-lady-texas

The Best of Times...The Worst of Times....Why I Blog

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I get so excited about the beginning of the year.  Who wouldn't be?  I love teaching and I love seeing the kids come in.  I think the first day of the year should be a national holiday.  It is a day of hope and promise.

     Slowly, reality creeps in.  I still believe in hope and promise.  However, I start to learn about the kids and they start to learn about me. If I have 100 different kids, they come in with 100 different stories and ability levels.  On top of that there is the never ending stream of meetings and demands, new programs, testing schedules and unfunded mandates.  Also, each year I like to try some new labs and ideas (can anyone say "ChemEd 2015?).  Finally, I also have to balance all of this with my personal life.

     In other words, it gets overwhelming really fast.

     So what do I do when it gets to be too much?  Focus on what matters....students, learning, teaching and staying positive.  Essentially, that is what this blog is about.  Despite all of the demands, each week I force myself to sit down and make sure that I attempt at least one positive action in a sea of chaos.  I know it might sound stupid.  As teachers we should be doing this every day. There have been times when I have been swimming against such a heavy current of "stuff" that I am not really sure how any of it honestly deals with education.  The three questions above are my road map each week to get me to the next week and hopefully help me organize my time and stay in a positive direction.  No complaining or negativity....

     So what happened last week?  We spent time on Gas Laws in Academic Chemistry and were starting to consider a test.  I did a quick "exit" ticket.  I gave the kids a post it note.  I told them they could either write one item they are sure of or write a question.  Post the question on the question mark paper on their way out or post the item they are sure of on the light bulb paper on the way out.  Here is what I found.....

     The good news is that there are more post it notes on the light bulb side.  I quickly checked them.  I wanted to make sure there were not "misconceptions".  Sometimes my kids think they have the answer but it is a misconception.  The "?" paper had few post it notes but it was all on the gas law equations.  I decided to stop tomorrow and jigsaw a series of gas law problems on white boards to give students a little extra practice with the equations.  I find that universally, my students struggle with the math.  So we went to a "plan B" and the first test scores were fair.  I think math will be something we struggle with the whole year, but it is good to know that.

"What's the Matter?"

     Next, we started Amanda Vilardo's TIMU activity on the "Classification of Matter" called "What's the Matter?"  I had to "tweak" a few things.  Amanda uses colored magnets to show the different atoms and elements.  I substituted paper circles that were different colors (a tip I got from Kim Cooper, my colleague and a great teacher).  For the most part, the students were engaged and asking good questions.  A seven to 10 page packet can be intimidating to grade so I told the students they had to get two teacher "checkpoints".   These are build into the activity.  As I was going around, the same questions popped up so at the end of class we took a 10 minute break to clarify some terms.  The "assessment" portion is the last page that I have not given them yet.  They will be able to use there packets to answer the assessment questions on the last page at the end of class on Monday. All of this hits the symbolic and particulate well.  We will get two the macroscopic on a separation lab we do this week.   I will report back how it goes...  Until then, remember the best thing we can do to help kids is to love what you do, stay positive and have fun teaching and learning.

A Quick Assessment with Google Forms and HTML 5

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     We were in the middle of gas laws.  I wanted to do a quick assessment after some demos, labs and POGILs.  The Concord Consortium has a number of nice tools but it is a bit overwhelming.  I found out that if when you search their site, if you click on "browser-based" they will list all of their HTML-5 simulations and these play on almost anything.  They also have a "New Molecular Workbench".  I essentially converted one of their simulations, "What makes a Weather Balloon Pop" into a google form.  It was quick, fast and easy.  More importantly, when the student's took it I could quickly uncover a problem they were having...they seemed to be struggling with applying Boyle's Law.  I think I am going to try to incorporate more of these from time to time.  By the way, if you have not heard, Flubaroo is the absolute easiest way to grade anything in google forms with the click of a button.

     This week in science?  Hopefully I am going to try to an inquiry lab.  If you were provided a tube, a graduated cylinder and a metal cylinder, how would you find the density of the cylinder with out using a balance?  Find out if it worked...next week....

The Goal for this week....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Here is the goal...so far, we have done Gas Laws in Academic.  I hit them with Charle's and Boyle's.  We even attempted a Charle's law experiment.  There was a question on the pre test about how much a model of a gas gets smaller if it cools a small amount.  Almost everyone missed it.  Hopefully, the Charle's Law experiment might help clear up misconceptions.  If I could do it again, I would use a test tube with a one hole stopper in hot and cold water and then just get two points.  Students got the idea.  The data was not great but it hit home the point that 0 Celsius does not work well.  We have done the symbolic (quantitative problems) and now we are going to the particulate with a POGIL.

     Another idea I am going to attempt is to try to build an electronic cloud chamber.  A blaring misconception that students have is they think all nuclear material is dangerous.  Hopefully, a simple cloud chamber with some autunite might help change that misconception.

     In Accelerated, we did two types of water density experiments.  The first one I told them just to get the mass and volume.  The second one we paid much more attention to significant figures.  It worked farely well, but if I could do it over, I would have done the same idea with the BB's.  It shows the differences in accuracy and precision much better.  Hopefully, I will remember that for next year.  This year I am going to have them find the density of a metal three different ways and figure out which is the best.  The big question...how do we define best?

Goals for this week in science.....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I have to say that I am cautiously hopeful.  I administered both Lawson Tests and the MOSART test to all my classes.  It was quick, painless and provided me with unbelievable information.  I actually have a handle of what students do know, what they do not know and some misconceptions they may have. Regardless of how they do on their SLO's, I think I will probably always do some form of this.  I even found some scoring guidlines for the Lawson test that is helpful.

     The goal for this week...we will be doing Gas laws this week in Academic.  We have already done the particulate level with "scientists tool chest".  I found a great Charle's Law lab that is quick and easy.  I hope to hit the students with the Legos idea we used last year and do a POGIL with the two labs we are doing.  In Accelerated, we are going to hit measurements and sig figs but I also have a POGIL we are doing with Sig Figs.  So far...so good...but it is only the second full week of school....

Assessment Nirvana.....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I never thought I would ever put those words together...."assessment" and "Nirvana".  If you were to have asked me last year, I would have described it as the book title, "Alexander's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day".  Thanks to the timu program and a perfect storm of stuff, it actually might work out that something i did worked well.

     

     Here is the scoop.  First, i used the mosart test from harvard and some multi tiered questions on modeling.  I put them into a google form (with permission).  Kids took it on a wide variety of devices.  I got the results and graded it with "flubaroo".  I pasted the raw data and flubaroo results into a pre existing spread sheet that I created.  The spreadsheet did a couple of things.  First, it color coded all the answers based on if they were right, wrong or a documented misconception.  at a quick glance i can tell what kids know, do not know, or think they know but don't.  next each question was put into a category ("bonding", "periodic table", etc).  Finally, i linked each question to a site i created that has a list of pogil, timu or amta activities i can use for that topic.  the results have also started a great conversation with other teachers.

     also, thanks to bob worley, i think i might have a hoffman apparatus that works.  i made it with lead electrodes, some cheap tupperware, marine epoxy and , thanks to cincinnati bell, a modem charger that gives 12 volts.  I will keep you posted on this one.....

Gearing up for 1 more mile

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

  Just got back from chem ed 2015.  Friday morning I went for a run in the hot, humid, atlanta weather.  I was debating as I was getting closer to the hotel...do I go for 1 more mile and push myself a bit?

     Kelly Ramey from Tennessee showed me how she does modeling on a budget.  The assessment she gives provides drawings and then asks for a description and then she provides a description and says show me the drawing.

    I was thrilled to talk to the vernier people.  Graphical analysis is now a free chrome app.  once you input the data, just click and drag and it will provide the equation and statistics of the line.

     Erica posthumas adams had some great stuff on modeling.  I learned how to do gas laws but then to do a grid.  The top row has the variables.  the first column has "I" ( initial), "F" (final) and "E" (effect).  Kids see the relationships on multiple levels and looks like an "ice" table for gas laws.  She talked about "for every statement".  Instead of saying "1.8 g per milliter" it is always 1.8 grams for every one milliliter.  In "what makes an atom stick" students use electricity to see if water breaks down, if compounds and elements conduct in different situations.  If that is the case, whatever makes atoms stick must have something to do with electricity.  It is also a really cool way to tell if when you do the copper II chloride and Al reaction, what the "red" stuff is.  If it conducts, it might be a metal, if not, it could be a compound????

     Bob Worley showed some amazing ways to do microscale chemistry that I had never seen before.

     Above all else, Project TIMU came to a close.  We all did 15 minute presentations.  It was standing room only.  The reception was overwhelming positive.

     So the question is....as I am running Friday morning and during the year...do I go the extra mile?

     Absolutely.....

Never would have guessed this....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     You know....this time of year I will take good news anywhere or anytime.  The end of the year is particularly  difficult.  Closing things up, transitions, grades, exams, grades, people complaining about grades....you get the idea.

     Two things happened.  First, just by accident, I compared two classes exam grades from this year to almost the two same classes and exam from last year.  I happened to have found the spreadsheet where I put the old scores in so I could take a look at standard deviation and averages.  What I saw was a bit shocking.  The scores from this year were significantly higher than last year.  If you had asked me, I never would have guessed that.  This year I felt like we had a million more snow days,lost days to testing, interruptions, etc......Also, the kids were fantastic but I felt that last year I had a harder time connecting with them.  Far more blank stares and looking into their cell phones.  So what do I think was the difference? The second thing that happened which has to do with the above picture.  One of my students made a ceramic model of a salt crystal (you guessed it....the particulate nature of matter).  This year I made a more concerted effort to discuss not just the macro scale and symbolic but the particulate as well.  I never did a huge big project or assessment.  I just mentioned within the context of every unit and tried to show examples.  Maybe someone was listening...

Rounding Third, Heading for Home....hopefully

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

 I know that I have not written lately. The end of the school year has been a grind. The above picture is the titration of mustard. The cool part of this lab is that the indicator and acid are in the mustard. A simple dropwise titration with a standardized base and you can figure out the percent by mass of acetic acid, vinegar, in mustard.

As cool as I think it might be, the it is a struggle when the students have checked out. Regardless, it does not mean that I won’t stop trying. So….what are some major ideas that I have learned that I hope to work on in an attempt to help students next year….

1. Technology - I am going to try to “flip” the classroom as much as possible. I will hope for the best but plan for the worst. With all of the testing and interruptions I think it would be easier to have the flipped classroom and then work with kids when they do show up instead of not having a backup plan and allowing the interruptions to derail the lesson.

2. Formative Assessment - It is still my hope and dream to develop an all in one SLO, formative assessment using technology that is efficient, effective and helpful. I think I can do this through google forms and a linked site with researched based activities.

Looks like it will be an interesting summer….I will keep you posted….

What to do when you have a bad day...keep on going..

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     So we got slammed with crazy schedules, PARCC testing and in the middle of this, good weather and stoichiometry.  Needless to say, the stoichiometry test went terrible.  So what do you do when most people bomb the test?  First, I could look for excuses but instead I went back and said, "O.K....look at these, try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it as well as what you would do differently next time."  Most kids told me they did not study.  Summer fever is hitting early...

     I think an important part of having bad days is to try to make the next day better.  We were starting acid base chemistry.  Before I did anything, I went back to what I know works...formative assessment.  We did a quick 5 minute survey in which students were given some solutions and told to tell me if they are acidic, basic or neutral.  They did not have to put their name on it.  The good news is that I got some pretty valuable information.  Despite what they may or may not have had in the past, they are starting at ground zero when it comes to acid base chemistry.  I learned a lesson.  When in doubt, do what the research says works...

Hits and Misses.....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     When I started this blog,one of my number one rules was..stay positive.  There is too much negativity in the world and in education.  It is certainly o.k. to vent...sometimes it is healthy.   However, it does not help kids.  The end of the year crunch has been worse than in recent years.  SLO's and PARCC testing put a new wrinkle on things.  I can (and have) complain about these but it won't do much good.  Instead, I keep telling myself, "What can I do under these circumstances to deliver a quality education to the kids when they walk in the door?"

     Here is the goal....a blended classroom.  If things are going to be so crazy with the schedules and testing, I have to ask myself, can I still deliver an education with the use of technology?  Is it ideal?  No.  Is it better than the alternative?  Probably.  I think I just found my summer project.....

Stoichiometry that might work...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     So I did a quick stoichiometry starter.  Given 61 students, kids had to calculate the exact amount of packages of Hershey bars, marshmallows and gram crackers that I would have to buy and how much it would cost.  Students pretty much nailed it.

     I then did a lab "No Leftovers" by Stephanie Kimberlan.  It is a TIMU lab.  Students have several mole to mole and gram to gram ratios they must calculate (Al and Copper(II)chloride).  To make a long story short, the calculations went well and so did the lab.  It was very visual and many kids succeeded who typically say they hate math.  I "tweaked" it a bit (instead of grams I made a solution of the copper(II)chloride and had them calculate mL as well).  I told them they could calculate the ratios using cross multiplication, proportions or factor labeling....as long as I could see and understand their work.  It was extremely visual and really steared the kids to the mole to mole concept in the balanced equation. (The above pictures are "before" and "after").

     This is a tough time of year to teach.  We are done with tests, students are getting ready for summer and freaking out over AP tests.  We had a star party Thursday night.  It worked out amazingly well.  We saw Venus, Jupiter and had some great shots of the moon.  I had some kids I could barely pull away from the telescope and they all tried to take pictures through the eyepiece with their cell phones.  Not the traditional kind of science but I will take anything I can to get kids excited.

     Coming up next...Hess's law and more stoichiometry...I'll keep you posted....

Not bad so far....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I started doing heat diagrams as suggested by the American Modeling Teacher's Association.  Essentially, students identify energy as thermal, chemical or phase energy.  They examine and endo or exothermic reaction and draw where the energy is going.  They can also do the same in reactions where there is a phase change.  Why do I mention this?

     Every year when we do the heat of fusion of ice and the specific heat of a metal labs I almost always have a handful of students use the wrong mass or temperature change in the heat equation.  They would constantly get confused between the system and the surroundings....until now.  I went through the heat bar diagrams and this time I have not had one student use the wrong mass or temperature.  I would like to claim credit, but honestly I am not that good.  The AMTA curriculum is.  Lesson learned....

     This week in academic we are starting with stoichiometry.  First, they will have to tell me how many marshmallows, chocolate and gram crackers are needed for everyone to get a smore.  If they get it right, then they each get a smore.  I'll keep you posted....

How to See what the Metal is doing...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     So here is the plan....for the most part, the ice lab went well.  Students did a good job of finding the heat of fusion of ice.  So here is the next challenge.  I told them that provided with certain materials, they must find the specific heat of a metal.  Tomorrow, we are going to go over their possible ideas and see if they can get data to find the specific heat of a metal.

In Academic we are doing types of reactions, classifications and balancing. They are doing particulate models and the models are going better than the classification. That is the first time I have had this problem and it is a nice problem to have. I have been using the curriculum from the American Modeling Teachers Association and it is working well. It will be really interesting when I use Stephanie Kimberlin's TIMU activity for stoichiometry to see how it goes. I may also follow up with AMTA material. I'll keep you posted. I have decided the most important thing now is to keep plowing ahead no matter how crazy it gets during 4th q....

Iceberg Part II

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     So I started the heat of fusion lab.  I had students get data.  Then I posed the question, "How could you figure out how much energy it takes to melt some ice with this data?"  I asked students what they would need to know to use the data to solve the problem and we came up with a list of questions.  Now we started using the American Modeling Teacher's Association heat model with the bar graphs.  Students i.d. the "system" and look at what is happening with the energy due phase, chemical or thermal energy.  Hopefully, after doing this they won't confuse which mass to use in Q=MCdeltaT.

    A piece of good news...I had student build "lego calorimeters" from a current J. Chem. Ed. article.  One student who did a really good design explained that on the way home he lost the resistor so he ripped apart an old transistor radio for a similar resistor and then thought it might be nice to have a switch so he pulled that off another broken device.  I was pretty impressed with his ability to scrounge and get it done.  Building your own chemical instrumental device and scrounging to make it work is in the spirit of a true analytical chemist.

Working on a Need to Know basis....A

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     A couple of observations....we did the IMF lab.  Students found data for the change in temperature for five chemicals.  I then asked, "What information do you need to predict how the last untested chemical will evaporate?"  It actually worked well.  The majority of the students did a great job with a tri fold and accurately predicted how pentane would evaporate.

   So I thought I would try it again.  We are going to "melt ice" with hot water and take data.  So the question will be, "How much energy does it take to melt ice?"  What do you need to know to figure this out with the data?  Once they do that I am going to pose a problem....If I have a set amount of water at a certain temperature, a mass of ice, what will be the final temperature when the ice completely melts?

     I think I finally have a research project.  I am sifting through 2.5 years of blog entries to look at different types of changes and place the entries into different categories.  Should be interesting...

Even when life is crazy...keep moving forward...

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     I remember once running a marathon.  Up to the time of the marathon, it was the best training of my life.  I was feeling great and did a 27 mile training run 3 weeks before.  I was primed.  The day of the race it was 70 and humid with no shade.  All the training in the world did not prepare me for crappy weather.  I did finish but need three bags of I.V.'s after the race.  I remember telling myself at one point that as long as I put one foot in front of the other...I have to logically get to the end...Well...this is the time of the school year we are getting to.  Testing and schedules are crazy and kids really do not want to do chemistry.  I just got to keep on going.  So here is what I tried....

     Tried two ideas that have worked in the past.  First, the TIMU activity "Change you can believe in".  It is a great intro into physical chemical change and reactions.  It has a great series of graphics with the particulate world.  Students first draw solids liquids and gases.  Instead, I had them build the models with legos before they drew the models.  It started some good discussions.  They nailed the solid and gas but just made the liquid a version of a gas.  Nice sneaky formative assessment.

     Second, I am becoming a big fan of card sorts.  I am thinking of starting a topic called "No Lecture Notes".  Essentially, have the notes and topics on cards, have kids sort them, let them make mistakes and discuss corrections, then have them get down the concepts.  A great inspiration for this Barb Hall.  Thanks Barb...it is a winner.

     Finally, thanks to Dr. Ellen Yzeirski, I picked up the book by Michael Fullan, "The Meaning of Educational Change".  So far, it is impressive.  The guy has a great handle of what it is like in the trenches and is very realistic.  I will keep you posted....

Spiking the Intellectual Punch....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Had an interesting week....First, Mike Geyer tossed me a J. Chem. Ed. article.  A guy made a colorimeter out of legos, LED lights a resistor, some wire and a couple of AA batteries.  Mike showed me the article.  I couldn't resist.  A few bucks later I had about 100 LED lights, 50 resistors and I raided my son's lego bucket.  A former AP student of Geyer's was bored and put it together in a day.  A funny think happened...he got awesome results.  Ironically, his dad is a scientist who happens to have an extremely expensive colorimeter at work.  This kid got results similar to his dad's.  Did I mention the lego colorimeter costs about $3?
     So, what is it about one kid that you give them a problem and they thrive and others just turn up their nose?  Not sure I have the answer.  I do think I am going to come up with the "Teaching 10 Commandments".  Here might be a few...Create a "need to know" basis.  Also, come up with some type of assessment that is not just "pen and paper"....like building a colorimeter.  Next, make sure the kids can wrap their heads around the large scale first.  Another one, take time to learn vocabulary.  I was a bit shocked to go back and look at the infamous, "Johnstone Triangle" article.  Ironically, he states that for years, there is much chemistry that can be done without knowing anything about the particulate level.  He states that vocabulary is a great place to start because it is less confusing.  Bottom line...and I think research shows this...you want to provide something for students to challenge them but not so much that they shut down.
     So here is an idea I have tried before.  Do an experiment, get the data and then tell students they have to predict or figure something out based on it (the need to know part).  Then I am going to introduce the vocabulary and symbolic.  Finally, tell students their prediction must include some type of modeling.  I think I might try this with the evaporation lab....I will keep you posted.

Lewis, Rules and the Heart of the Matter....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

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WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     Lewis dot structures are an interesting part of chemistry.  Why teach them?  It goes like this...if we can start with a symbol and draw a 2-D structure with a little help we can get the 2-D structure into a 3-D structure.  If we can draw a 3-D structure, then with a little electronegativity, we can begin to understand if the molecule is polar or non polar.  If we can do that, we can begin to predict behaviors on a large scale.   This is the same thing scientists do when they are trying to design new drugs.

     Because of that reason, I believe these little structures have a somewhat important place in the curriculum.  There is a problem.  Research has shown that there are all these "rules" for making lewis dot structures.  Where did these "rules" come from?  Primarily science text books.  Not exactly a good science explanation.  You can imagine...each book has it's own "rules" and the rules work...for some items but then if you draw a larger structure, exceptions (and confusion) occurs.  Interestingly enough, if you go back to the work of Linus Pauling and electronegativity, you start to see a different pictures.  One major idea Pauling examined that influenced electronegativity was bond energy.  It turns out that molecules generally form in a way to have the lowest potential energy in bonds.  The lower the bond energy, the greater the difference in electronegativity....a nice little pattern.  Now, instead of "rules", we are trying to learn a science concept.

     My first approach at teaching this is to first introduce the "rules".  This causes minor frustration.  Students figure out what all other students figure out...don't make much sense and have exceptions.  I have tried to create a "need to know".  Now we are jumping into a POGIL on bond energy and then the TIMU activity on Lewis dot structures.  I did have one student who already started to make the connection of bond energy and electronegativity.  Greater bond energy....lower potential energy (usually favored by molecules) ....also greater change in electrongegativity between atoms in bonds.  One student said, "So if I want to make a molecule, the change in electronegativity might tell me what bonds I might have an easier time forming in a reaction...."  Wow....Much better discussion than saying, "Hey, memorize these rules that only work for a few cases....".  The problem is that as we dip our big toes into the world of energy, there are a million places we can go.  However, it is a nice problem to have.

     POGIL's are great resources.  Sometimes it is a challenge to find the best way to use and assess these.  Here is one thing I am going to try.  We are doing one on bond energy.  I assigned it for homework.  Students will have time to work in groups, check there answers and I will go around to do a "checkpoint".  Then I have a few in which I cut out the key questions and copied them.  I will pass them out at random.  Students will have to find other students with the same key question and then they will have to present to the class.  In academic, we are doing nomenclature.  I am going to do it this year through the POGIL's and then end with "Chem Poker" as the assessment.  We shall see.....  By the way...just did the "moleculer shape" POGIL with the PHET program.  Good program, but hands on models I think would work better...just a hunch and a feeling form the feedback from the kids...