Paul Caginalp

First Task

 

 

 

            I will be using the first mod class for this paper because it is the class that I know best.  I have been observing them in the mornings for two weeks, and seen them in lab once.  The class is made up of thirteen students, eight female and five male.  I could not make out other class distinctions as they are all Caucasian. 

Front

	A. F.	S. G.
J. B.	J. O.	S. P.	E. J.	J. M.
K. F.	K. L.	M. L.	N. G.	D. Z.
	S. B.

The class is a well focused class, and does not need much classroom management.  The most common problem is that students forget a calculator in their locker.  The only attention problems that arise commonly are from J. B. and K. F.  J. B. is a good student, and can afford to let his attention wane, K. F. however cannot afford the distractions, and needs to focus to do well.  S. G. is the top student, getting 100’s on everything even while leaving his binder in the chemistry room daily.  S. B. and K. F. are the lowest students grade wise from the class, though S. B. is because of a severe lack of effort. 

            The classroom is set up in rows like the chart above, and it gives enough room to comfortably walk through the rows, while being close enough that the students can move together and work in groups easily.  The right side of the chart above is the window side, the other side has the door, filing cabinets, and other counter space.  The teacher’s desk is at the front of the room.  The counter space lining the walls of the room is covered in papers and minor chemistry paraphernalia, and any shelves and tops of cabinets are too.  The door to the lab is in the wall at the front of the room.  The lab space is large enough for a much larger class than the one we currently have, and it has necessary equipment and chemicals for most experiments.

            Anne does a good job of keeping the ideas that she teaches on the level of her students, and making sure that she teaches it in a way that they can associate with.

 

Anne: So whether it is moles, or molecules, it doesn’t matter as long as they are in the same ratio.  Everyone get what I’m saying/

K: no

Anne: ok.  If you are making a cake… and you need two eggs and one cup of flour, what if you are making a dozen cakes?  Can you use two dozen eggs and one dozen cups of flour?

K: ya

Anne: Same thing for molecules and moles.  A mole is a really big dozen…

 

            The student was having trouble understanding the concept that the coefficient of a chemical equation could represent either a molecule or a mole.  It seems fairly weird at first that these could be congruent, considering that one mole is a lot of molecules.  Anne was already using water as an example, because the students are very comfortable with the water generating reaction.  She tends to use water as the basis for most of the things she does.  It gives the students a comfort zone from which to build.  In the example above, using water was not enough for the student.  Anne had to resort to something that the student would be more familiar with, like baking.  Still using the ratios of water, Anne works on the concepts of 2:1 and 2 dozen : one dozen.  In this case it works and the student takes hold of the concept that the coefficients are simply a ratio.  I wonder if there wouldn’t have been an easier way to illustrate the concept by waiting till stoichiometry.  Really what Anne has presented above is the precursor to balancing and stoichiometry, though they still have about a week till they encounter that unit.  Perhaps the second time through, when they actually get to stoichiometry will present a much easier time of grasping the concepts because of the prelude.  The example of the dozen as a mole is a great idea and I plan to use it as a teacher.  It really simplifies the idea of a mole.

            One thing I would do is try to show where a mole came from.  All too often it is seen as some kind of number given by a higher power, and we need to dispel that if we want to call it the same as a dozen, or a bushel, or a cord.  A way to distinguish the coefficients from the subscripts is something that Anne and I have talked a lot about, and we both are trying to figure out an easy way to do it though, we haven’t come up with one yet.  The subscripts can be molecules or moles too, but mean an entirely different thing.  The cooking analogy breaks down here because we can’t split flour and eggs into smaller parts easily, so it is hard to work on the composition of molecules in this way. 

            The classroom environment that has been fostered here is very focused on learning, and I wish I could have seen the beginning of the year for an idea of how it came to be that way, and if it was always that way.  It seems like all the students are involved, and they seem to enjoy the class.  Attention may break temporarily, but it is not gone for long, and there have been no discipline problems while I have been there.  Anne keeps a close watch on K. F., but other than that the students seem to be ready to come to class and learn.