Seven Techniques for Polymethodology by Darrell H. Beach
Culver Academies
I am presently completing my twentieth year of teaching, although it seems just like yesterday that I started the first chemistry classes in the then new L'Anse Creuse High School in Mount Clemens, Michigan. After spending eight years a t L'Anse Creuse, I was invited to leave the public sector and enter the private field by Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. In 1971, Culver Girls Academy was added on the Culver campus, so I have been able to serve both institutions since that time. Twenty years may sound like a long time t o a new teacher, but reallv it is a small amount of time in the overall view. Ever since I was invited to write this article, I have tried to reflect on what I mieht sav to helo other teachers rnostlv a t the secondary level."ln fact, my desire has been to help any chemistry teacher, or any teacher for that matter, atany level of sophistication. If I have anv claim to fame, it has been mv attempt to stav away from just one method of teaching. ~ o k a t t ehow r good that one method mav be, it is iust not good enough for todav's students. They havebeen conditionednot only toexpect more, hut they almost demand more. At CHEM ED 75, I was privileged to talk on "Just Five of My Attempts a t Polymethodology." With your indulgence, I would like to expand the vistas and cover an even seven types of teaching methods that I have used with a certain degree of success over the past two decades. Wherever possible, I will cite a reference that I have written that will expand this method for the interested reader. Overhead Projector and Transparencies'
Probably no other single instructional instrument that has entered the classioom, has had a bigger impact on methodology than the overhead projector. I t gives the teacher the advantage of facing his or her students at all times, and yet Darrell H. Beach holds a BA in chemistrv (summa cum laude) h m ('entml .\l~rhiganandan h l % fnm thr ilnihrr-17). 01' M~chigan He received h ~ sl)lwtor of Kducation degree from Laurence College (Florida) in 1973. He taught for eight years at L'Anse Cruse High School in Mount Clemens. Michigan, betore joining the fa&) #,f Culver Militar). Academy in (:d ver, Indiana. Beach has been active in the local and national chemical education community, serving as the chairman of the ACS-NSTA Chemistry Exam Committee since 1974. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Chemistry Teacher for the State of Indiana Award Culver Academies from the Purdue Section of the Culver, Indiana 4651 1 American Chemical Society, and currently holds the Eugene C. Eppley Chair of Chemistry at Culver Academies. His view exmesses his belief that chemistrv is best taueht .. bv, a diversitv d m e t h d i nnd aid- that are fitred to thc top:c and the .st"denti. In support ot his contmtiun. he uutlinrs seven 01 his most rucrerdul methods. ~
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both teacher and pupil can see the common image a t the same time. I have made use of commercial transparencies, but I would like to talk a few minutes about the teacher-made variety. Whatever you do, seldom if ever. ~ r o i e c tan entire tr&ipwency at one time.'l'he student has the &dency w fel that he or she must t:ow it into the finished prndurt as notes. I have had success withusing the cover and reveal method, or better yet to give the student the basic parts of the transparency on a band-out which has then been completed during the lecture-discussion that centered around it. This seems to give the best of two worlds to the pupil. A completed hand-out usually gets buried someplace into the student's notes. When and if he or she has to work a little, the completed product is generally more functional and useful. Magnetic Chalkboards2
By and large, I do not use the chalkboard for instruction. That is, I gave up chalk dust about twelve years ago. However, I am very privileged to teach in a science building in which the chalkboards are magnetic. I use them on occasion to build families of the periodic table, hydration of aquated ions, trends in ionization energies, or such things as a contrast of the molar volume of water as ice, liquid, or steam. It is possible to pull them out of my "bag of tricks" on occasion. I t becomes-a welcome change-for ail. These are most effective if first covered by one panel of chalkboard before the actual presentation. Slides3
A good, single slide can be the nucleus for an entire lecture. I try to use a central theme for a given academic year if possible. One year, I used Winnie-the-Pooh to get all of the fundamentals across such as P V = nRT, or AG = Ah! - TAS. The key relationships were written on Winnie's balloon. Each unit was summarized with such a slide. The organic functional groups have been presented on one slide with the functional group in red and the rest of the molecule in black. Next year, I have plans for each student to complete three slides to be used to help future classes. You would he surprised a t the creative ideas that they can generate. The key to the use of slides is to have many in the files, but use just a few in any one academic year. Teacher-Made and Student-Made Video Tapes
I have used video tapes now for about the last four vears. My early use was to haie tearher-made ones only. My &eral rule was not to do ~nythlngon a video tape that I could do in the usual type of leiture-discussion. I have stuck with this basic rule, but have used them as broad review summations as well. At the time of this writing, 30 of my present 32 students have each completed a 5- to 10-min video tape on a broad
' Heach. I)arrell H , "Teacher-Made'l'ransparencrei for Chrmiu-
try," Jrwnce Teacher'%Workshop, West tiyark. New York, September, 1969.
Beach, Darrell H., "Magnetic Chalkboards," Science Actiuities, Volume 7, Number 3, April, 1972, pp. 44-47. See "CHEM ED 75 Report" available from University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Volume 54, Number 12, December 1977 / 759
As you might suspect, we use many outside examinations to assess
subject. It is most difficult to assess the vicarious learning that goes into a video tape presentation, but believe me there is plenty. I now have in mv files small tane . seements which can enhance next years instruction, if they are used wisely. Again, I plan on using only a few of these during next year. However, our system is such that any student could have access to all of them as either remedial work. 01-1 hate t o use the word-enrichment. They are available to all students, if they want to use them.
our chemistry program. This school year, we used (1)Canadian COOP-Chemistry Achievement Test far Grade 12 Chemistry; (2) ACS-NSTA Form 1977 for Level I students; (3) ACS-NSTA Form 1977 ADV for Level I1 and Advanced Placement students; and (4) The
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1977 Advanced Placement Exam in Chemistrv. We are constantly rewriting and rwising and acquiring as many We haw even u3pd a loborator" qui7 and exam ideas a, p~~sil,le. practical examination for the last two years. The file is never complete, but often in a steady state condition with a limited degree of entroPY. All departmental examinations and quizzes this school year reflected a section on written and discussion problems as well as short answer auestions. We feel that our students have esined much from thisalteratiun ujuur quirzesand exams. Wenlro feel that ostudent doer not hegin lu know solid, chrmirol principles until he or she has sat down to solvr some mathematical pruldcm~on the same. Conclusion I am pleased to be teaching two sections of CHEM Study chemistry and one section of Advanced Placement chemistry this year. The latter is taught by the Keller Plan. Culver was one of the original CHEM Study trial schools and we continue to use the new editions of the program available in spite of the great numbers turning from CHEM Study. We have had success with it, and better than 98% of our student body going on to college have reported that it has served them well. We have no desire to abandon a program that has brought us success all of these years. We are fortunate to own all but six of the CHEM Study movies, and we rent the other six to make a full complement. We use all of the movies to supplement our existing proeram. I honestly feel that the answer today to good teaching is plenty of polymethodology. Always have a new idea to work up that the students did not figure on. It works wonders and can alwavs be imuroved with time if it does not work 100% the first timk. I love teaching and feel that if one allows it to become borine it is hi or her fa&. There are those critics who would say that much of what I have described in this paper may be classified as just gimmicks. I would agree, but so what, if they work? Our society has been conditioned to m a w esueciallv our . gimmicks, . young, affluent students. I honestly hope that a few of the things, if not all that I have said, can be used by the reader. In my estimation, chemical education has a bright future, if we as teachers are willing to trv new thines. We can learn much from each other. and I am looking forward to hearing what others have to say about the view from their classrooms. Mav I conclude with a naranhase of our committee's motto?
Cassette Tapes Cassette tapes are used primarily in our audio-tutorial center for remedial or tutorial sessions. However, they do not have to be limited to this type of use. Enrichment lectures as well as commercial ones with filmstrips are also made available to our students if they elect to use them. I would say that our greatest usesof cassette tapes are: (1) Post-lab calculations for complicated experiments; and (2) Discussions of the prohlems and exercises for all 21 chapters of our vresent CHFM Studs text. In addition. a few of the students use the commerciai ones as well. T h e same thing holds true again-no matter how good an individual method is, the technique can become monomethodology and consequently monotonous, if one is not careful. Let the students decide how many of the cassettes they want to use. Some may choose to use none, and yet others may opt to use all of them. There are some very good tapes available commercially. We have several sets of these available to the student a t both the elementary and advanced levels. Some are even used to form a lecture maybe two or three times a year. Such ones used for a lecture are supplied with a filmstrip as well as a cassette tape. Student Hand-Outs My students each receive a t least a ream of printed paper during the course of the school year. These hand-outs come basically from my doctoral dissertation-"A Chemical Data Sourcehook for Beginning Chemistry Students."4 Some are generated as a new idea comes along. Some data tables, I have had printed on card stock for easy handling and reference for lecture and quiz purposes. All such hand-outs are desiened to s u ~ n l e m e n the t text being used. Most of my students find theskhistributed items to be of meat use. There are alwavs the few who would not use anything even if it were chipped on rock or gold plated, but this is no cause to despair.
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Examlnatlons and Quizzes I have been privileged to be chairman of the ACS-NSTA Advanced Level High School Cooperative Examination since 1974, and we have taken for our motto
"Better Chemistry Teaching Through Polymethodology" This is where the answer lies to future chemistry instructional improvements, as I see it. We can not rest upon our Dast successes; but, we must he on the lookout for H new method of teaching old, solid chemical principles in the most effective manner: We owe our s t ~ d e n t s n o t h i hut n ~ the best that we can provide.
"Better Chemistry Teaching Through Better Testing" At the academies, our quizzes are intended to he instructional as well as evaluative. We discuss them as soon as we complete them in 9 out of 10 cases. Our examinations, which we call "Departmental Examinations." are used for evaluative purpmes only; that is, they are graded, but not discussed. This gives us a nucleus like the College Board Exams to assess our nresent students with oast . ones to make comoarisona. 1)uring (ha 19: Th srhmd year. wr plan on using a card quiz, which will h e w e r the hornrwork and desigwd t o take nu longer than 10 minutes ofa h i s perwd. Once nurked up, thiaahmld beanadditional method of both assessment and instruction ~
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760 1 Journal of Chemical Education
Beach, Darrell H., "A Chemical Data Sourcebook For Beginning Chemistry Students," Published on Demand by University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1973,
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