Great Inquiry Site for Chemistry

Hi all,
I just found an amazing site (to help me teach chemistry..it's been awhile since I thought about ionic and covalent bonds) that you MUST check out!
American Chemistry Society Inquiry In Action There are SO MANY ideas and the plans are so clear!

Cooperative Learning Group-Rubric

Here is a rubric to use for a cooperative learning assessment from the Read Write Think website.
I find that my students are very reflectiveand honest in group self-assessment. It becomes a learning experience in and of itself and helps them strengthen these skills.

Assessing Quality

I think it is important to send students a message that they need to produce quality work. I have students balk at adding color to sketches and graphic organizers. They are even reluctant to use a ruler and are satisfied in turning in sloppy work! While I don't want to grade these type of skills, necessarily, they are important in producing quality work. If students don't lose points, what holds them accountable? During the second half of the year, I do take points off for common spelling and punctuation errors. It's not enough points to significantly affect their content grade, but it does get their attention. Students should be learning to communicate effectively and that includes writing carefully. I think it is important also to assess quality thinking, as reflected in thoughtful journal writing. My students write in a science journal to start each class. I grade them twice a quarter or sometimes a certain significant entry gets graded against a very simple rubric (4, 3, 2, 1) that emphasizes thinking skills.

Standardized Testing

As public schools employees, we really have no say in whether or not we give our students the SOL exams. Some schools even mandate standardized unit exams. I've provided some resources for you to start the discussion about how we assess our students, and I given some pointers on how to make good multiple choice tests. However, for this unit, we will actually spend more time talking about alternative assessments (formative and summative). Additionally, I'd like to see a discussion about WHAT we assess. Your first response might be "duh! SOLs!", but is that really true? If a student doesn't turn in homework - what are you assessing? Their knowledge of the SOL? Or their work ethic? Or their ability to have a supportive home life? Do you ever use grades as a punishment? (you give a zero if you have to remove them from lab?) Obviously, our roles as educators involves shaping the entire person to help them become good citizens - but in doing so, how do you let this reflect in their grades? Give us a breakdown of your grades and reflect on what it REALLY represents? (do you grade for completion? Or accuracy? ) I had a teacher next door at my last high school that was a Lab Notebook Nazi (pardon the term). If students didn't number the pages correctly or put the headings in exactly as she instructed, they lost significant points. I just always wondered what it was she was assessing with that and whether as a science teacher, that was an appropriate course of action. What are your thoughts?

Cool alternative type activities

This site has some interesting ideas on how to mix up what you're doing in class. It has some examples of Web Quests, Problem Based Learning (I have a cool one on Cholera if anyone is interested), case studies... etc.

http://science.uniserve.edu.au/school/support/strategy.html

Global warming

I found this awesome lesson plan on global warming... check it out!


http://www.pbs.org/now/classroom/global-warming-lesson-plan.pdf

Issues about Energy

I just found an interesting lesson in which students study the advantages/disadvantages of different energy source in a debate format
http://www.need.org/needpdf/Great%20Energy%20Debate%20Game.pdf

The Evolution Solution

A great article by Larry Flammer- Teaching Evolution without Conflict
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/evo.sol.pdf
Here is an excerpt:
“We didn’t come from monkeys.” “Why
don’t we learn about creation and evolution, so we can
make up our own minds; isn’t that more fair?”
If such questions cause you to minimize or avoid evolution
in your curriculum, maybe you should consider a
different approach. Evolution is clearly a well-documented
process that informs all of biology and its many applications.
It is a disservice to students to teach biology without
an accurate and comprehensive treatment of evolution.
Surveys reveal that many in our society have an inadequate
and inaccurate understanding of evolution (Alters &
Alters, 2001). Much of this can be traced directly to popular
misconceptions about the nature of science. This, in
turn, can be linked to misrepresentation by those opposed
to evolution, although inadequate or ineffective treatment
by ill prepared teachers can also be a contributing factor.
Teachers must do all they can to correct this; otherwise we
all lose many of the potential benefits that can come from
a more scientifically literate society.

Science and Evolution

Dr. P shared this site when we studied the Nature of Science. It is hands down the best site for planning to teach what science is, what science does, etc. BEFORE teaching about evolution.
It is ENSI-the Evolution and Nature of Science Institute. It contains so many ideas and lessons.
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/info.fs.html

Local Issues

Getting the kids involved in understanding local issues is not only a great way to develop their critical thinking skills, but also to make the content meaningful and relevant. For the past several years, a controversy has surrounded whether or not to introduce the Asian oyster into the Chesapeake Bay. Since the Bay ecosystem is right in their backyard, this was an engaging issue. It also tied in with SOL's on invasive species and human impacts in the ecosystem.
A current issue is placing wind turbines off the coast. With Virginia Beach as a tourist destination and home to a naval air base, there are many issues to discuss on this topic. I have not used socratic seminar before but this may be an opportunity to use it.

Case Studies

Hey everyone. I use case studies in my classroom whenever I can. They students really seem to get involved with them. Some of them are "issue" topics that maybe you would like to integrate in your class. Many of them are written for undergraduate level but could be tailored to high school or even middle school.
Here's the website:
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/ubcase.htm#teaching

Hope you enjoy

Stacy