The ability to anticipate the errors that students tend to make should serve as a guiding principle when designing assessment items. In addition, a well-written question can uncover student misconceptions.
The first unit in my sequence for AP Chemistry covers stoichiometry and reactions. The new AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description has identified Learning Objectives which need to be taught and practiced to ensure students perform well on the AP Chemistry Exam. I will identify and describe activities I use to teach students some of the Learning Objectives that I tie into this unit.
The new AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description (CED) has been released and in effect for a few months now. Several teachers have asked me “Will you be changing your sequence to match the CED?”.
It is back-to-school time! I started school on September 3rd so I am just getting back into my school “groove.” On August 1st, College Board released its new AP Classroom platform (myap.collegeboard.org). While exploring this new online resource, I couldn’t help but reflect on how I teach AP Chemistry and what changes I will make in light of AP Classroom to ensure this year will be a great one!
A book review project takes shape with the help of ChemTwitter community.
The AP Chemistry Exam is getting closer. What will you provide your students to review for the big day?
A common topic in chemistry discussion groups and forums is about the use of the terms “spontaneous reaction” versus “thermodynamic favorability”. This is a new activity for chemistry students who struggle with the correlation between changes in enthalpy, temperature, entropy, and the Gibbs free energy of a system; which relies on an analogy that most students will be familiar with.
Let me share some tips I learned reading the Advanced Placement Chemistry Exam in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Answers to common questions about the AP Chemistry Exam format, content, and grading.
In an effort to align an old VSEPR lesson to NGSS, I told my students that we were going to look at the data available from the real molecules on the pHET simulation we were using and specifically look for patterns. Finding patterns is a cross-cutting concept; one of the three dimensions of NGSS.
