Another day at the AP Chemistry Summer Institute completed. Here are my highlights from today.
1. Show animations for dynamic processes. All too often, we use stagnant drawings to represent moving things. Students don’t always internalize what is happening on a particle level when we do that.
2. Make your students calculate values without giving them the equation first. When students are forced to try to figure out what they are accomplishing, they will internalize the information better than when they are given cookie cutter instructions. This will enable students to react to the challenging, off-speed questions given by the College Board.
3. Utilize the “Chief Reader Report.” This document can be found near released FRQs and student work examples. The chief reader, among other things, will identify some key misconceptions. It is a good idea to check through a few years’ worth to see if you are perpetuating misconceptions.
4. Don’t fight the prompt. This became abundantly clear when we had two different veteran readers explain how long they have to score each FRQ (their goal is 500 per day which means spending less than 2 minutes per FRQ). If the question asks, “Do you agree or disagree?” For the love of all that is holy, please let the first word of the answer be “agree” or “disagree”. Readers get grumpy when kids fight the prompt.
5. If the prompt tells you to cite data, then cite data. This seems obvious but according to the readers “thousands” of students did not get credit for questions because they failed to cite the data. Again, don’t fight the prompt.
6. The unit of molrxn will be much more common in the future. This is honestly something I was completely oblivious to. Here is an article that explains it. I have some homework to do. Here is the link.
7. Use the rule of 1.7 and 0.4 to determine whether electronegativities within a bond are different enough to be considered ionic (above 1.7), polar covalent (between 0.4 and 1.7) or nonpolar (below 0.4). I have used rules similar to this for years, but my numbers were slightly different than what they taught. Check what you are teaching.
8. Hydrogen can only have FON when hydrogen bonding. If you pronounce FON a little more like “fun” it makes a little bit of sense. I have never used a mnemonic here, but it might help you.
9. When students build 3d models, use rubber bands between molecules to represent intermolecular forces. This was a nice tip that really made a visual distinction between intramolecular forces (the little sticks that hold that atoms together) or intermolecular forces between atoms.
10. There are examples where hydrogen bonding is not the strongest force. We should look to the sum total of all the forces rather than strictly teaching a hierarchy. An example is that I2, which only has London Dispersion Forces is a solid at room temperature while water with its hydrogen bonding is a liquid. The sum total of all the forces in iodine is greater.
11. A cool 3D modelling website to use is this one. Link.
12. When discussing weak acids and conjugates, rather than saying, “Water is the base.” Use the phrase “The water serves as a base.” That will make it easier to also say in other scenarios that “water serves as an acid.” This will clarify some confusion including the most common answer for the definition of a buffer is “water”. Water is not a good buffer, but the readers say that water is very frequently identified as a great choice for a buffer.
Hope these give you a little food for thought. Enjoy!
I got this cool response from a Stoich Decks teacher online. Does this sound like something you would like to have happen in your class? If so, buy a classroom set and watch the kids run with it!
I bought 5 decks of up & atom cards for my class and we spent a week "playing" war with them. It was a hit, and although there were stragglers in my standard class, when we actually were working on stoichiometry I heard "oh, like in the game we played last week." Made this teacher's day!! Thank you!!
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