Graffiti is beginning to appear on the back of my white boards. It's mostly your typical, teenage stuff- doodles, smiley faces, although one board had a curse word in marker. I did not have this problem AT ALL last semester. I am NOT okay with this. I'm 99% sure it is happening during our board meetings when they are holding up their boards, and specifically, I'm also 99% sure it's happening in my last class of the day. In that class, I already catch them trying to hide behind their boards and text, read, sleep... Instead of addressing the class about the graffiti, I think I'm just going to say from here on out the students need to prop them up at the front of the room. On a related note, at our workshop, one experienced modeler mentioned that he has hooks hanging from his ceiling to hang the white boards-- if I ever get my own classroom, I'd love to do that.
Anyway- PVTn problems. I mentioned in my last post, I had zero interest in deploying the "factor" arrow method for solving these problems. Maybe someday I will change my thinking, but I personally do not see how that is a benefit for them. Especially not when my students are given the combined gas law on their EOC equation sheet.
I do think the PTVn charts are helpful. It keeps the students organized, and drawing an arrow for the "effect" helps maintain a connection between their conceptual understanding of particles and the math.
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| A sample of the PTVn charts on the first page of worksheet 3 |
I do not think worksheet 3 alone was enough practice and assessment. In a perfect world, we would have more time to spend on this. I planned poorly-- I planned for the test tomorrow, thinking we'd complete and check worksheet 3 yesterday. We didn't check worksheet 3 until today, which cut into out review time. But we have a 4 day weekend for President's Day/in-service, so delaying the test any longer won't be to our advantage.
Also, I think worksheet 3 is a *bit* overwhelming for low-level standard chemistry students. There were too many different pressure units right off the bat, including some "minor" conversions. And by problem #3, they are throwing the STP in there. I would have liked to have built the students' confidence up with some more straight forward problems before I start switching units or worrying about STP. If I have such low-performing students next year, I think I will add several easier problems at the beginning. Also, the problems are boring as all get out. I'd like to put some "real life" spin on these calculations.
But... after the kid's initial FREAK OUT at having to do some big time algebra with lots of different variables, they didn't seem to have an issue with solving the problems. I'm curious to see how they handle them on the test tomorrow.
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