UNIFYING LECTURE, QUIZ, AND LABORATORY SECTIONS IN GENERAL CHEMISTRY GEORGEG. TOW, UNIVERSITT
OF
WISCONSIN EXTENSION DIVISION.MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
The organization of a course in general chemistry should be such that the work in the various sections will be comparable. This can be attained through the use of a complete syllabus to co6rdinate the work of the various quiz sections, by having definite objectives in grading the laboratory work of the students and by centralizing all grades in such form that ready comparisons may be made of the work of tlte nrarious sections. . . . .
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The University of Wisconsin through the Extension Division at Milwaukee has established classes in the courses offered at-the university for the freshman and sophomore years. At present there are two hundred twenty students registered for general chemistry. Two lectures each week are attended by the entire group. For quiz and laboratory work the students are organized in sections consisting of not more than twenty students. Each section bas two one-hour quizzes and from four to six hours of laboratory work eacb week. Those students attending laboratory four hours each week receive four credits and those attending six hours receive five credits for the lecture, quiz, and laboratory work. The problem in handling many sections is to give unity to the work without interfering with the freedom with which each instructor handles the work of the sections under him. With this end in view each instructor is made responsible for his sections with the very minimum of supervision. The problems that arise are brought up in periodic conferences and discussed by the instructors themselves. Each student and instructor has a complete syllabus of the course in order that the material presented in eacb quiz section may be uniform. The lectures carefully follow the material as i t is presented in the syllabus. The use of a syllabus as one of the unifying factors serves another purpose in that i t points out the important parts to the student and aids him in preparing for quizzes and examinations. With a syllabus the student may use any good general chemistry as a reference. When library facilities permit, the lecture may be so presented as to encourage the student to consult several reference books. The quiz section is designed to allow the student self-expression and is relatively informal as compared to the lecture. In the quiz sections the individual difficulties and misunderstandings are corrected. In each quiz the student is given a brief written quiz to encourage his making daily preparation. These quizzes are made out and graded by the instructor. The graded written quiz is turned in daily to a clerk in the departmental office where it is recorded. 108.5
A one-hour examination prepared by the lecturer & given each month and the papers corrected by the instructors. In an effort to overcome the individual differences in grading, each instructor corrects one question in all of the papers. The grades from these papers are recorded by the clerk in the office. Unifying and estimating laboratory work is one of the difficult problems in teaching chemistry. Unity and equality can be obtained only by choosing definite objectives and in grading the results achieved in terms of those objectives. The results of each student's laboratory work should be graded a t least twice a month. The instructor is furnished with a card that has a column on it for the names of all of the students in the section (Bgure 1). This card is divided into vertical columns in which the instructor may place opposite each name
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his estimate of the student's industry and attitude, resourcefulness and independence, laboratory technic and report, familiarity withexperiments, interpretation of results, average grade, a n d experiment in progress. This card is turned in to the clerk in the departmental office where the average grade is recorded. From these cards the lecturer may ascertain on what experiments the students are working at the time the estimate was made and thus determine t h e progress each section is making. In order that this centralization of all grades may be of value in unifying the various sections and in supervising the work, it was necessary to devise a system of records that would be complete and a t the same time permit ready comparisons. Figure 2 shows the student record blank on which the clerk records the grades handed in during the month. After recording the monthly examination grade the clerk enters the average of the daily quizzes and the average laboratory grade in the proper columns. These three grades are averaged to determine the monthly grade. The student record sheets are assembled in aloose-leaf book with sufficient rings to hold all the record sheets of the students in a section. These sheets are placed one on the other in alphabetical order with just the names showing. The arrangement is shown in Figure 3. A book with one-inch rings will hold the records for ten or twelve sections. After the monthly grades are entered the students who are not doing satisfactory work can be indicated by attaching colored metal clips to their
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
JUNE.
1932
record sheets. These indicators enable the lecturer to determine a t a glance how many students in each section are not doing satisfactory work. This centralization of all grades will enable the lecturer to make any comparisons that he may deem advisable in order to offer suggestions to his staff. It is especially valuable when the personnel is continually changing from year to year and new men of unknown ability and training are added.
