The Power of Interactive Notebooks in a Sophomore Chemistry Class

Hannah Korslund | Mon, 01/15/2024 - 12:43

It was the end of year in chemistry, and we were starting our final exam review. Our chemistry planning team mistakenly left some first semester content on the review guide - oh no!

I apologized to students, saying “consider it some bonus review, ask if you don’t know which unit something is from, and first semester content isn’t explicitly on the final”. Few students asked me anything. What I saw instead was students flipping through their notebooks, referring to Unit 5 content from December about bond types and then returning to Unit 6 for intermolecular forces. They were making connections between content, reviewing several useful chemistry principles like electronegativity, and it was all made possible by their chemistry notebooks. There were no complaints about old content, lost handouts, or not knowing what to look for. Everything students needed was right there for them in their notebooks. But, I wasn’t always looking around my classroom in amazement at my students having all their materials organized and useful for learning.

I am a chemistry teacher with 4 sections of regular sophomore chemistry. Each section has 35 students, giving me just about 140 students (let’s save the class size and lab safety discussion for another day). The four chemistry teachers at my school are almost fully aligned. We do the same labs, usually on the same day. With 140 of my students submitting lab handouts, the piles really began to, well, pile up. I tried several tactics to return labs to students - folders organized by name, passing out work weekly, pickup bins for graded work, and so on. Regardless, it was discouraging to watch students take a lab handout that they worked so hard on and toss it in the recycling bin on their way out of class - and those are only the ones I saw! Completed lab handouts ended up on the floor, in the bottom of their backpacks, and left behind in many other places. Without a textbook, these lab handouts formed a large chunk of students' reference materials. They had drawn models, taken notes on observations, and built a bunch of new chemistry understanding! When students inevitably needed to look up past information, like for final exam review, they were left digging through bags and folders looking for that one handout from January.

At a conference, two colleagues were sharing about their science journals and notebooks that they use in chemistry and biology classes. They brought student work and showed how all of students’ reference materials, labs, and notes had a place in their own notebook. I was immediately sold on the idea of using notebooks to organize student materials. With their support and guidance, I modified my materials and curriculum to fit in composition notebooks.

IMPLEMENTATION

While many others have detailed the logistics of their notebooks, including Nora Walsh’s extensive outlines of her notebooks in regular and AP chemistry, I have a few basics that have worked well for me:

I use composition notebooks and print handouts at a scale of 85%. Some students have shared that these are too small, so I’m considering switching to larger unlined journals. This also provides more opportunities for students to be creative with drawings and models in the notebooks.
I fortunately have one to three teaching assistants (students who have taken classes with me in the past.) I often have them use paper cutters to cut handouts to size which saves me and my students time, or I provide scissors for students to cut it themselves.
I provide tape in student pouches at their desks. A lot of students had to learn how to refill the tape rolls this year and we went through a LOT of tape. On the other hand, it is less messy than glue!
To save space in student notebooks during labs, I printed procedures for each lab station and provided notebook templates for data tables, observations, and analysis. This meant students were also given a chance to be creative, learn how to make data tables, and had some flexibility and growth opportunities in their analysis.

MATERIALS

I purchased the materials with grant money, summarized below. Next school year, as I run out of pre-purchased composition notebooks, I plan on asking students to supply their own notebook (preferably composition, but larger is acceptable) and will supplement any students in need of notebooks with my excess supply.

Material & Link	Total Quantity
Composition Notebooks	240 (one per student, plus extra)
Colored Pencils	300 (two per student)
Tape rolls and refill tape	48 (one full class set, plus extra)
Scissors	30 (class set)
Cart Organizer	1
Pouches for student desks	40 (class set, plus extra)

The pouches hung with velcro attachment on the side of student desks, and were useful in organizing materials and keeping them close by for students.

ASSESSMENT

As I moved all assignments, handouts, and labs to student notebooks, I needed to modify how student work was assessed and graded. Instead of collecting student notebooks to grade work - which would require me to store 150 notebooks and students wouldn’t have access to their notebooks and largest chemistry resource while I was grading - I used our Learning Management System, Canvas. Students uploaded photos of their work to Canvas and I graded it using the relevant rubric. I developed rubrics that were general for notebooks and more detailed for specific lab activities. After a few weeks, the process of submitting photos of their notebooks was second nature to students. The rubrics clearly communicated expectations, and students often responded to feedback on the rubric by revising their notebook page and resubmitting. Figure 1 is an example of a rubric for their Cheeto Lab.

Figure 1: Example of a lab rubric.

REFLECTIONS

My biggest challenge with notebooks was implementing these alone at my school site within a planning team that is fully aligned. I was afraid of notebooks taking longer for students to work through and falling out of pace with the other chemistry teachers. After the first semester though, it was clear that we could keep pace. I fully implemented interactive notebooks in my third year of teaching. To manage my time and expectations, I essentially converted our entire curriculum into notebooks through reformatting, instead of redesigning, activities. This made the switch to interactive notebooks very manageable! Throughout the year, I noted several activities that I plan on modifying to be more model-based and activities that had the opportunity to move away from simply taping in handouts. I hope this continues to improve student learning through these notebooks.

After implementing these notebooks, I analyzed data and student reflections on the efficacy of student science notebooks. I collected data through monthly surveys with specific questions about students’ use of their notebooks.

Supporting Data

40% increase in students referring back to their notes at least once a week (compared to pre-interactive notebooks)

journal_survey.png

pre and post notebook survey results. pie charts

Three support class teachers shared how much easier it is to support students with well-organized chemistry notebooks in my class
On the end-of-year survey, I asked students to name if and how science journals supported their learning. Responses included:
- “I loved using notebooks because they are really easy to access and the printouts were really helpful for my understanding of the content.”
- “I really like the science notebooks and think it is really handy to have all of my notes and labs in one place, as opposed to scattered throughout folders. It is also nice when we have a test coming up to have all of these study materials”
- “Well they help us engage more and not get distracted on computers but they also help us learn the material more because we are handwriting it and that ingrains it in our brain more”

Students and teachers at my school this year noticed how interactive notebooks supported students in keeping their chemistry materials organized and promoted making connections across units and even semesters. While there is more that I want to do with notebooks, such as introducing gallery walks and peer reviews of their labs and models, I am very proud of the implementation and impact on student learning.