A few months ago I reported that I was involved in a pilot standards based grading (SBG) program. My experiment in SBG started well but required some “tweeks” along the way.
High School Teacher Opportunity: Summer is the ultimate time to recharge the teaching batteries. Professional development during the summer can be a great chance to stop and reflect. It provides time that does not exist during the school year to develop new and better ideas to help students.
Standards based grading (SBG) is a method of assessment that is gaining in popularity. There is ample research to suggest that students who participate in SBG do just as well or even better than those students in traditional classrooms
I usually start of the school year with a measuring activity. This year, I used Tom Kuntzleman's Mentos and Diet Coke experiment and had students use the data to do some graphing and analysis. This was a nice lead into our gas unit. I also made my own syphon coffee maker to demonstrate for my students.
I met some amazing teachers at Chem Ed 2019. Two of these teachers are Yvonne Clifford and Sharon Geyer who ran a workshop about chemical demonstrations. One in particular caught my attention. The demonstration was an exothermic process with paraffin wax. Here is the demonstration.
After just returning from Chem Ed 2019 in Naperville, I was planning on writing a blog about the best ideas and take aways. Indeed there were many amazing and creative ideas shared. But a guy named Mike captured more attention from me than all of those.
The beginning of the school year is almost here.
This activity goes beyond having students calculate concentration and dilutions. Students prepare a solution and the instructor can use a simple test to evaluate the result.
