PROGRESS CHARTS IN ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY
Several years ago, the author happened to be reading a book on statistical charts and graphs. In one chapter of this book was a description of various progress charts that were used in factories in order to visualize the progress of material throughout the manufacturing processes. Immediately i t occurred to the author that an analogous chart would be desirable in several ways in elementary chemistry. Such a chart that would show the progress of a student through elementary chemistry should be simple, easily constructed, and practically continuous; i t should also show the standing of the student relative to the rest of the class and indicate clearly a t all times what students are not passing the course. These are some of the characteristics to be desired in such a chart. If the progress chart is to be simple, easily interpreted, and constructed, one is limited immediately to the simplest forms of charts. Probably the simplest, and the most easily constructed and interpreted, is some form of the bar chart, either the vertical or the horizontal type. The horizontal was the first tried by the author but it was discarded later in favor of the vertical bar chart. The latter was found better visually on account of the fact that grades are thought of as going up or down rather than horizontally. By having a row of vertical bars in the chart, each student having an individual bar which represents his standing, a simple means of showing the relative standing of each member of the class is available. The desirable feature of making the progress chart more or less continuous puzzled the author for some time. The best method that suggested itself was to make it cumulative; that is, one set of bars is added on to the previous set. In the illustration, each vertical bar appears .. like an irregular bamboo pole, each segment having been derived from some examination or test grade, and the relative length of the segment represents a relative grade made by the student. Take the first vertical bar as an example. The student has made the grades of 75,60, and 95 on three examinations. Therefore, the first segment has a relative length of 75 units (arbitrary units) the second segment a length of 60 units, and the third segment
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a length of 95 units. By using coijrdinatepaper, the segmented, vertical bars are constructed easily, quickly, and accurately. As a second example, consider the vertical bar, the first to the right of the one just considered, a bar which represents the cumulative grades of another student. This student made grades of 95, 90, and 100. The relative standmg of the two students is very evident at any time to all concerned, including the teacher. The cumulative feature eliminates the necessity of adding the grades and getting the new average after each examination. One desirable feature not yet incorporated in the chart would be a means of indicating clearly and continuously the passing line. This can be accomplished easily in several ways but the most successful in the author's experience is to stretch a string horizontally between two thumb tacks across the chart and call this the "passing line." If 70 is to be considered as the passing percentage on the first examination on the chart, then the string is stretched horizontally 70 units above the base line. When the second examination grades are put on the chart, the string is raised 70 more units a t the same time, making a total of 140 units, which is the height of the new "passing line." Thus, not only is the student's bar cumulative hut so is the height of the "passing line." As the examination grades are recorded on the chart, the vertical bar of a student never drops but the "passing line" (string) rises. As to means of designating the bars to the respective stndents, all classes in the author's experience have voted to use the initials of the student a t the lower end of each bar (as shown in the illustration). This lends a touch of privacy to the chart. Other systems, such as code numbers, could of course be used if it seemed desirable. The author has used the above progress chart in his classes in elementary chemistry for several years with enough success, in the author's opinion, to warrant further use. When this chart is used, the student can see with his own eyes at any time his relative standing with the rest of the class, whether he is passing or not, and just how he is progressing in the course. I t is the experience of the author that this chart is most useful and valuable in dealing with two classes of students. One is the excellent class which so often does not work proportionately as much as it should. The progress chart stimulates this class of excellent students to keen competition in order to see who is to be the leader. And the spirit often runs high. The other class of students that the chart helps especially is that which hovers around the passing line. In many cases, the chart is an incentive to that class to get down and "dig" enough to pass the course. Apparently, the middle class is affectedvery little by the chart. For fear some reader of this article might conclude that this system is pro; posed as a panacea for all teaching ills in elementary chemistry, the author wishes to state that the chart, too, has its disadvantages. One is that some-
times a student begins to think that the grade is the main object in the course. But, then, that sometimes happens even when the progress chart is not used. Undoubtedly, improvements can be made on this progress chart and probably a better one devised. Any such improvements, criticisms, or report of results by any one giving the chart a trial, will be welcomed by the author.
