Unit 1 Reflections: Comparing Volume Units (Part 2) and Measurements

Not that I'm in any position to give others advice, but I do think I have a fabulous classroom tip regarding time management during white-boarding sessions.  While last semester it was a problem, this semester the time management is ten times worse.  My students are collectively needier and less motivated.  After the Mass lab, the white-boarding sessions took a ridiculously long time, which is to be expected the first time around.  The white-boarding sessions for the Volume lab took even longer.  We are already SO behind-- desperate times call for desperate measures.  The solution?  Students now have to "pay" me for extra time.

What "paying" me entails:  I give all of my students six "free passes" at the beginning of the semester.  These are good for bathroom/hall/homework/extra credit passes.  They only receive six, although they have opportunities to earn them throughout the year-- usually "caught being good" type situations.

From now on, I have told students that if they need extra time beyond the time limit I have assigned to complete the activity, the lab manager will have to pay me one pass.  Since I've implemented this, students have been able to produce the same quality of work in the allotted time.  Amazing how that works, huh?  Let's hope it lasts.

Even with the new time management techniques, our white-boarding and consensus of volume still took forever.  Some of the white-boards of their results:

This group "paid" a pass but still could not come up with a conclusion with the extra time

These white boards were from my, uh, good class.  The other classes struggled more.  Although I feel like our board meeting was a bit anti-climatic.  Yup, mL = cm3.  Woo.

Then we created our consensus maps.  Again, these photos were from my good class.  Although I did catch one group in this class Googling facts about volume.  Ahem, you reeeeallly learned gases have an indefinite volume based on this lab?

The student buy-in has been much lower so far with the chemistry curriculum as opposed to the biology curriculum.  Part of it is the student population, but part of it probably is my delivery.  I have not felt as prepared or confident with this curriculum and I'm not sure why.  I think the teacher notes for biology just gave overall better guiding questions to include in the pre-lab/post-lab discussion.

Any buy-in I may have had, I killed today with the world's worst lesson on measurements.  I don't know why I thought I could get through a review of the metric system/SI units, accuracy & precision, uncertainty, and sig figs in a single class period.  Let alone on a Friday before a long weekend.

We went through the slides on Fred Senese's Measurement website per the suggestion in the teacher unit plan.  This was the first time I've "lectured" so far this semester and it sucked.  I may as well have been talking to myself.  While the students were good about copying notes, when I asked them a question, it was nothing but blank stares and confusion.  Also, his slides are written on too advanced of a level for standard level high school chemistry students.  I wished I had used my own materials.  Or next time, maybe I'll jigsaw these topics with students using his website as a resource.

We then did the Uncertainty in Measurements tutorial, which I think is a really good resource.  Unfortunately, the school's WiFi was acting up today and kept dropping on us.  Then I gave students Worksheet #2 - Reading Scales, which they are in no way shape or form ready to complete to the best of their ability.  For those who did not finish (uh, like my entire 3rd block), it became homework.  We'll be checking it Tuesday after the holiday-- I'm not anticipating impressive results.