At my school, chemistry is an elective science. My students are honors and AP level, sophomores, juniors and seniors who have chosen to challenge themselves and expand their scientific knowledge. They love the hands on application from lab experiments and they love time based activities that add an extra challenge to an already challenging topic.
My students have been very vocal about how much lab experiments help them really grasp the central concepts and how any extra challenges (such as Jeopardy and timed tasks) force them to study ahead of time so they can "beat the clock" in our every-day learning environment.
Last semester, in honors chemistry lab, a student asked his lab partner a question and the lab partner responded "Oh, I remember this from class!" as she quickly pulled out her notes and proceeded to answer the question. A common practice in my classroom is that students will shout "lightbulb!" to alert me that they finally understand a concept they've been struggling with.
This year, I have 18 of my former honors students in AP Chemistry and 168 new students in honors chemistry. I also share my resources with 100 students in our school's regular chemistry class.
My Project
We start every class with a "Chem Chat" question on the board. Students have 5 minutes to answer a question which pertains to material we learned in the previous class and discuss their answer with a partner. The visual timer will help keep students on task in a fun "beat the timer" competitive way.
We love to review learning objectives using a Jeopardy based educational game before tests and after long school vacations as a way to refresh, revise and get extra practice with the content.
Students love the competitive edge the game provides and often they will tell me that they are bringing home their notes to study content before the review so that they have a better chance to win the game. All groups have a chance to pick a category and answer a question but if they get it wrong then the buzzer system will help me determine which group has the correct answer first and the timer will help keep a lively pace for game play.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
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