Stop Motion Animation Galvanic Cell Process

When I was searching for activities to help my students understand and visualize the workings of a galvanic cell, I stumbled across the Target Inquiry activity called "The Energizer Lab" that has students consider the particulate, symbolic and macroscopic levels of an electrochemical cell.^1,2

I think all parts of this activity are important in building student understanding, but it has been hard for me to do the wet lab parts (along with other galvanic cell labs) as finding the needed materials here in Malaysia can be tricky. I was looking for a way to make sure my students were getting the idea of the macroscopic changes without necessarily being able to do the wet lab. The particulate level model of an electrochemical cell with manipulatives representing ions and electrons inspired me to write an end of unit assignment for my students using Stop Motion video apps.

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I put my students in groups of 2-3 and assigned each of them a different pair of metals (see the student handout). I provided them with the manipulatives from the electrochemical model in The Energizer Lab and they drew a cell on our white board tables to make their videos. The AP chemistry exam asks many questions about how voltaic cells work, and I know that if they can describe the whole process from beginning to end, they can then answer any specific question the AP test asks of them. There is a list of concepts on the student handout that they had to mention in some way – and I included the macroscopic changes here to verify that they understood those even though we were not able to do the wet lab. If you have the materials, I highly recommend doing the wet lab first. This is a great way for them to review the unit and put together all of the concepts they have learned. I had them create the video instead of only using the manipulatives in class because the process of thinking through how to verbally explain what is happening would force them to really think through each step and show a strong understanding. I gave them one class period to work on this and the rest they had to do outside of class. If your students are unable to meet together to work on it outside of class, you could have each student create an outline at home and then as a group they could use a class period to film it. I wanted the focus to be on the chemistry rather than the technology, and I told them to use whatever app they were comfortable with. 

        Video 1: Watch a portion (focusing on the particulate model) of one of the Stop Motion videos submitted by students. The audio has been removed to protect student privacy. 

I was very happy with my students’ understanding of this concept after the activity. As particulate models become more and more important on the AP Chemistry exam, I am trying to do more activities similar to this throughout the year. The combined skills of creating the particulate model and explaining it in words (out loud or written) forces students to really dig into the concepts. This idea could also work well for other topics like equilibrium and titrations.

Download the student handout.

stop_motion_animation_-_student1.pdf

stop_motion_animation_-_student1.pdf

References

1. If you are unfamiilar with Target Inquiry, you can register for a free account and get access to the teacher and student documents for The Energizer Lab as well as a long list of other inquiry based activities that have been vetted by teachers. Most are chemistry specific, but there are also labs that focus on concepts from other science courses.

2. Action-research related to The Energizer Lab is discussed in the following article: Pentecost Thomas C. and Cullen, Deanna M., A Model Approach to the Electrochemical Cell: An Inquiry Activity, J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88 (11), 1562-1564.