Chemical Education Today
Especially for High School Teachers
by Laura E. Slocum
A New School Year Begins
photo by Patti Duncan
By the time you read this, summer days will have drawn to an end for most of you. My students will have completed their Secondary School Featured Articles first section—the lab safety video, two lab reports, homework assignments, and taken their first test—5 more sections to go until ◭ Marbling Paper Postcards by Patti Duncan, p 1407. the end of the semester and the final exam. Once classes have ◭ Reworking Exams To Teach Chemistry Content and begun, I rarely mark time by actual calendar dates (though holiReinforce Student Learning by John M. Risley, p 1445. days are important). Time is marked ◭ Pre-Service Teacher as Researcher: The Value of Inquiry by what section we are working on in Learning Science by Janice M. Hohloch, Nathaniel Grove, and Stacey Lowery Bretz, p 1530. and where we are in the section. Is it a discussion day, a laboratory or activity day, or of biggest concern to most students, a TEST day? college students come back to visit, it is the one thing My first two student labs are exthey consistently thank me for “making them do”. tensions of labs that I have done preThis year’s James Bryant Conant Award winner, viously and are in this issue. Bularzik Eleanor Siegrist, shares wonderful information about (p 1456) describes an alternative to her teaching career with JCE editorial staff (p 1408). In an “old penny” density lab that includes extensions. His method also A marbelized note home from her responses there were two things that really spoke to camp. me. One was in her description about the qualities of a provides the students with an opgreat teacher—“… loves to teach, enjoys and respects her portunity to use their data to explore students …”. The other was in her response to a two-part questwo different methods and determine which is more accurate tion about her suggestions to those who shape education in this and which is more precise. There are several more articles in country and what is needed to attract and keep the best teachers this issue of the Journal that contain extensions from previously in the classroom—“Teachers need to be allowed to teach. … presented ideas for both the classroom and laboratory. Teaching to a test tends to discourage the creative, enthusiastic Patti Duncan shares the first “Classroom Activities Conteacher.” Eleanor’s response challenged me to remember that nections” article—Marbling Paper Postcards (p 1407). This is teachers need to be encouraged, not discouraged, and coman extension of a Classroom Activity that first appeared in JCE mended for the manner in which they daily give themselves to in April 2007. I learned how to marble paper about 15 years their students. I have added this to my notes for the conclusion ago. Though I thought my students would really enjoy the end of any of my future presentations. product, I was concerned that the solution would be spilled everywhere and there would be a mess to clean up. That procedure was oil based and contained some rather expensive materials. Erica’s Take on the Issue Then at ChemEd 2005, the ChemEd 2007 planning committee “Shrimp ketchup” is the phrase that comes to mind when I presented a new paper marbling procedure. I was impressed by read an article that mentions the term “prior knowledge”. One its simple and inexpensive method. Patti presents an application of our young children requested “shrimp ketchup” to accompany of this idea that I really like. I will add it to my spring laboratory her meal one day. It took time to figure out what she meant, activities this year for my first-year chemistry course. but in the end it made perfect sense. A red sauce in a bottle, Risley (p 1445) describes how he allows his students to but for shrimp. Several days earlier, she had eaten shrimp with rework exams during the semester to earn additional points and cocktail sauce for the first time. This was her connection of old how this impacts his students. I have never allowed my students and new knowledge. Grove and Lowery Bretz (p 1524) begin to do this, but I found his description of his methodology and their article with a brief discussion of prior knowledge, but then the impact on his students insightful. His article may not lead go on to share their research in “the second dimension of prior to change in my classroom, but his methodology has certainly knowledge—that is, learning about learning”. They developed caused me to consider the possibility for change. CHEMX, a 47-item survey, “to measure students’ knowledge I have used a lab practical as a final exam in my Advanced about what they will be expected to do to learn chemistry”. They Placement class ever since I started teaching AP Chemistry. used CHEMX to compare what faculty think about learnThough Neeland’s description of how his department impleing with what undergraduate students think—before and after mented lab practical exams (p 1453) focuses on organic chemthe students complete various courses. Further research using istry, many of the types of questions he discussed could easily be CHEMX could be done on the high school level. How would modified for use in a high school classroom. Not only does his high school faculty answers compare to those at the college article describe types of questions, but it also provides details level? How could an educator use survey results from the start of about how to set-up the testing environment, run the exam, and a semester to help guide their curriculum for the year? As usual, grade the exam. For those of you who have not used a lab practiinteresting research leads to even more questions to explore. cal as part of your curriculum, I strongly encourage it. When the
www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 84 No. 9 September 2007 • Journal of Chemical Education 1401
