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Comment by Brian Brown on May 2, 2013 at 6:55am

 

We do a vinegar titration lab involving possible tampering at a vinegar production plant.  The acetic acid is produced at 12% and is diluted to 5% for commercial sale. Someone may have tampered with the dilution equipment and the company needs to know if it is functioning properly.  It's a variation of a lab investigation from I believe Holt/Reinhart/Winston.

Comment by Ann Marie White on April 27, 2013 at 7:00pm

The air bag lab I refer to requires students to figure out a limiting reactant (baking soda or vinegar) - they have to look at the fact that vinegar is a solution - not pure acetic acid and they need to use the gas laws to figure out how much is required to fill the bag with CO2 (and of course they need to take %yield into account as well)

Comment by Sharon Geyer on April 26, 2013 at 2:48pm

Dave, I've used titration for the lab exam because it hits so many skills and is easy to put into context of common items.  You could do one of my favorites:  titration of gatoraide.

Comment by Rodger Nelson on April 26, 2013 at 2:13pm

I'm still old school. My Pre-AP and AP Chem classes do a full lab write up every marking period (6 weeks). The other lab we fill out the data, answer Q's, work calculations, write a discussion and conclusion. They write their own separately and turn them in. The reason I do it this way is some colleges require that the student has a varied lab experience and must prove it to get AP credit.

Comment by Dave Hicks on April 26, 2013 at 1:05pm

I like both of these ideas. I am considering how the project/lab-exam will be cumulative over all the standards taught this semester. We have been through moles, stoichiometry , solutions, acids/bases, and energy.

I was thinking about assigning them some type of weak acid and a given mass. They could calculate moles, neutralize it with a base, work with solutions, predict change in temp. All I am now looking for is a hook, or a storyline to put this into some real-world context. I can change the type of acid and so that no two students will have exactly the same test. Then I can let them work socially in the classroom over a couple days. I am still a bit afraid of cheating or mooching off of other team members, but I think the time factors will minimize that.

What do you all think of that idea? Any help would be appreciated.

Comment by Sharon Geyer on April 19, 2013 at 9:42am

Dave,  I have done what I like to call a "lab exam" in the past.  I have the kids do a lab during the review period.   Then they do the analysis and conclusions during the exam block.  It's a lot of work to coordinate, but in the end it seemed to reflect more accurately the problem-based learning that the kids do in science class.

Comment by Ann Marie White on April 11, 2013 at 12:06pm

What if you did an experimental lab? - we used to do an air bag lab before our exams were required to be scored and submitted by 2 pm on half days - so we went to mc for convenience sake so we weren't grading ourselves crazy.

Comment by Dave Hicks on April 11, 2013 at 8:41am

I am working on a proposal for an alternate final exam that would be more in line with the SB, guided-inquiry methodology used in my class. Does anyone have any suggestions for a final exam??

It is getting close to final exams here. I am in a school where finals are required and they want us to have a common final for all us chemistry teachers. But, I am the only one who teaches with the flipped/SB model. The rest of the chem teachers teach a bunch of vocab and math problems. They are in charge of the final. I teach problem-based, guided inquiry  approach. Even though my students understand science and chemistry better (my bias of course) I feel like giving them a multiple choice exam may be putting them at a disadvantage, as well as disowning the very values I have for teaching and learning.

Comment by Elizabeth Christophy on January 11, 2013 at 5:12pm

Sharon, I do an activity where I ask them if a mole of chocolate chips will fill the room. Then we figure measure the room, figure out the volume of the room and go on from there. Sometimes I bring in chips and we figure out the volume of the chip by water displacement. The students really get into it and are very surprised by the answer.

Comment by Sharon Geyer on January 11, 2013 at 3:23pm

Does anyone have interesting intro to the mole activities they use in the flipped classroom?  I just posted the intro to the mole video for homework and followed it with a POGIL.  I usually do a simple measurement activity next, but it seems like too much of a jump from the concept to doing mole problems.  I would love to hear from you.

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