DOUGLAS D. SMITH Guillord High School Rockford. Illinois 61 11 1
Odd Man Out-A
Chemical Game
G. M. Armitage Jordanhill College School Glasgow, Scotland As teachers, we are always on the lookout for ideas or games to liven up or vary our routine chemistry courses. A word elimination game can be used to urovide an intertainine and
Each word is used once only. An essential feature of the idea is to build in some dearee of ambiguity-mercury is a metal and could he placed in C, hut this makes solution of the puzzle impossible. Bromine might perhaps be included in A as a colored gas but this, again, makes solution imoossible. Inclusion of a m b i a u i t ~compels students to consider more than one attribute of asuhstance in makina their classification. Here i;a more demanding example. 1. cerium
chemical significance. For example 1. argon 2. bromine 3. iron 4. nitrogen 5. sulfur
2. potassium 3. francium 4. gold 5. silver 6. einsteinium 7. chromium 8. nickel 9. teehneeium 10. calcium
6. mercury 7. chlorine 8. copper 9. fluorine
They are also provided with a list of clue designed to allow them to arrange the above words in pairs. The clues could
I I. radium 12. cobalt 13. lead 14. tungsten 15. germanium Ifi. curium 17. magnesium 18. sodium 19. zinc
T h e clues:
A. colored gases R. liquids C. metals D. colorless gases The four (4) clues allow eight(8) of the words to be paired and hence eliminated leaving one (1)over. The object of the game is to be left with the correct word a t the end of the game. The pairing are A. R. C. D.
The odd man out is 14-tungsten
7,9
2,6 3,8 1.4 5-sulfur-remains;
radioactive used for jewelry used to protect imn highly reactive E. magnetic F. named for scientists G. named for European countries H. alkaline earths I. can be tetravalent A. R. C. D.
the solution to the puzzle.
Research and Chemistry Teaching I.
Inductive versus Deductive Teaching Approaches
Herman and Hinchsman' conclude from their research study that for bigh school chemistry that there is little support for grouping students for inductive or deductive teaching if grouping is based on "IQ, gender, or trait anxiety." This seemed especially true if you are interested in long term retention (2 wk). Instruction in the study was to 299 ninth-grade advanced level sciencestudents from nine Sydney, Australia, high srhools. Stvichiometry was presented with linear programmed instruction booklets nnd audio tapes. Il
