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Category Archives: Science
Inquiry is Not “One Size Fits All”
Inquiry is most definitely not a “one size fits all” paradigm. Teachers can and should adjust the level of scaffolding based on the academic abilities and experience of the class. I do this all the time. +4-1
Requiring Chemistry?
On 2/16/2011 11:49 AM, James Guzinski posted to the ChemEd-L discussion list: I just read in Science, Vol 331, 28 January 2011, p. 405, that “Biology will be the only high school science class for 21 to 25% of U.S. high … Continue reading
Throwing Technology at Problems in Education
Technology in the lab can take large amounts of data accurately, but substituting technology for a more direct experience with the scientific principle or technique can prevent students from internalizing the principle or technique. Continue reading
Learned Confidence
…is the closest phrase I can come up with that could be the antithesis of learned helplessness. +2-3
Questions that Don’t Have Neat Answers
One of the first topics in Chemistry I is states of matter and chemical vs. physical properties. Pretty much every sample of matter is either a solid, liquid, gas, plasma, or unknown. Similarly, the properties of matter fit neatly into the … Continue reading
Converting Labs to Inquiry Format
The College Board is in the process of rewriting the curriculum for science courses to make them more inquiry-based. This has prompted me to revisit my process for converting conventional “cookbook” labs to inquiry format. Note: since writing this post, I … Continue reading
The AP Chemistry Test is Getting Easier…
There seems to be a consensus among AP Chemistry teachers that the test has gotten significantly easier than it was a decade or more ago. However, if we take a score of 5 to mean the equivalent of an A … Continue reading
To Memorize or Not To Memorize
Memorizing something essentially means changing it from something you need to think about into something you can do quickly without thinking. Sometimes this is desirable, sometimes not. +40
A Case for Plotting Graphs By Hand
One of the labs I do with my Chemistry I class is to measure the temperature and volume of a gas under two sets of conditions, and, based on Charles’s Law, extrapolate the graph to estimate the temperature of absolute zero. … Continue reading
Teaching Dimensional Analysis
If I remember my adolescent psychology correctly, Jean Piaget claimed that the average child develops abstract (“formal operational”) thinking around age 16—exactly the age most high school students take their first chemistry course. Since 2003-04 (the year that Massachusetts’ MCAS … Continue reading