Chemistry Co-op Class

[dkgdvm]

I am new to this forum but I found a wonderful post by Dicentra that has sent my head spinning as I prepare for next year. I have volunteered to teach chemistry for my co-op. In the past, Exploring Creation with Chemistry was used. I have one mom who would like me to use a different curriculum so I am trying to see what is feasible for our group. My concern...I have 30 weeks to teach the course with only one class per week that is 2 hours long. The students will be expected to work at home (of course) but what can I reasonably accomplish with this time restriction?

 

I have looked at the Illustrated Guide as a possibility for labs but how much time do most of those labs take?

 

The Apologia is workable with our time frame although 30 weeks is a little short even for that one.

 

I looked at this site https://sites.google.com/site/letsnotburnthehousedown/home for lesson plans and, based on another thread, decided I could stop after Chapter 15 in Zumdahl if I wanted just a regular Chem course rather than honors but I am wondering how much lab and class time are needed with this lesson plan. I'm not sure we have enough time.

 

Bottom line: I would love recommendations for my class. I would like to teach a chemistry class that is solid enough for college-bound kids but not honors level. It seems like we have many students who are headed into health professions.

 

Thank you so much for any help you can give me!

 

Deb

[MorningGlory]

Hi Deb!

I am currently teaching a chemistry class very similar to the one you are describing (except it meets in my home, not in a co-op situation). We meet once a week for approximately 2 hours. It will take us 35 weeks to finish the class, but I added in 3 weeks of math review at the beginning as well as quarterly tests which add time to the schedule. Plus a field trip week. I do think the program we are using can be completed in 30 weeks.

 

After considering several options, I chose Spectrum Chemistry to use with this group of kids. Spectrum has its pros and cons. It is set up perfectly for a co-op situation...the kids are usually only responsible for 2 lessons per week between our class meetings, so there is never "too much" information for them to process between times with me. The labs are also very well-done (although a few of them are too time-consuming to do in this co-op situation) and oftentimes quite interesting! Plus the labs teach precision and patience and tenacity...I really like this aspect. For cons...the authors do try to cover a lot of territory in a limited number of lessons, so sometimes there is a lack of natural flow between lessons. I almost feel like the text jumps from one topic to another. Plus I have found several mistakes, but I normally work ahead of my students and am able to warn them about the errors.

 

So that is an option for you to consider. If you do decide to go that direction, private message me and I will send you my syllabus. It is a detailed plan of the whole year using Spectrum in a class setting. :-) Also...let me know if you have any specific questions regarding the program. I will be happy to help!

 

[G5052]

A friend of mine did this with the Apologia book.

 

She did about 30 minutes of lecturing, and then 1 1/2 hours of lab.  She extended some of the Apologia labs and included time for them to do the cleanup.

 

The parents graded the textbook questions, and then she had them turn in take-home exams which she graded.  She used the alternate exams that Apologia used to provide (don't know if they still do this), and added some of her own questions.  She also required them to buy a carbonless lab book like this: http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Carbonless-Pages-Spiral-Perforated/dp/0978534425/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393341973&sr=8-2&keywords=Lab+notebook so they could do the labs in class and turn in the previous lab.  She usually did some grading in class.

 

So it was a step up from Apologia but very solid.  Last I heard, she wasn't doing this any more, so none of mine benefited, but the parents I know who did raved about it.

[Dicentra]

Glad you found the thread to be helpful, Deb! :)  I've not taught in a co-op situation, just in public high school and now in CC, but I wondered about one thing...  If many of your students are headed into health professions, are you sure that they don't need honours chem?  I'm in Canada, not the US, so we could be talking apples and oranges here but in Ontario, students who are headed into registered nursing, pharmacy, medicine, etc. all need Grade 12U Chem in high school which is the equivalent of honours chem in the States.  The students who are headed into practical nursing (nursing assistant) are one of the few who don't need honours chem, only reg chem.

 

Just wanted to check. :)  Maybe some folks in the States can chime in?

[Renaissance Mom]

I taught Apologia sciences for several years at our co-op. We met for fewer weeks than you are and our class time was a bit shorter. I wrote a very specific schedule for my students for what they needed to do at home so that they would be prepared for class time. I would often begin class with a brief review of their reading -- sometimes I'd turn it into a jeopardy type game to make it fun and so they'd actually prepare. (No one wanted to be left out of a game, but everyone could plan to just coast through a plain oral review.). We did all the labs plus many extras I found in various places to help cement the concepts. Most importantly, we debriefed every lab...what did we learn, why was it so, what concepts did we apply, etc. I found that so often students could do the labs and read the text, but would never actually connect the two unless we talked about it. I did little to no lecture. If a specific module was light on labs, I made sure to find other labs or activities to supplement. Any decent text will cover the concepts, but high school kids will remember more if they actually did something with what they read beyond working out problems and talking about it.

[Julie in MN]

We also did Spectrum and I had a "lab partner" for my son.  I was going to mention that when the labs required a long wait time for results, they would text each other photos so the lab reports could be finished at home.  Not ideal, but it worked for us.  Other  than the lab itself, I might talk about a concept they were having trouble with, and then I would use the teacher guide to discuss the main points of the lab at the end.  Each parent did all the grading (although when we did Rainbow with a lab partner, I did all the correcting and I liked that it helped me see areas we should chat about).  We rarely spent more than an hour together.

 

Julie

[Julie of KY]

I don't have a great suggestion as to what textbook to teach for co-op as I only teach lab from my home and co-op settings.

 

I teach Illustrated Guide from my home and I don't think it will work for what you are describing.

 

My favorite resource for co-op group teaching is 101 Intriguing Labs, Projects and Activities for the Chemistry Classroom by Brian Rohrig. I picked this book up at a convention. The problem is that when I google it I can't find it available -you could email the author if you want. I have the other book by Brian Rohrig and they are great but more for younger demonstrations.

[Kareni]

My favorite resource for co-op group teaching is 101 Intriguing Labs, Projects and Activities for the Chemistry Classroom by Brian Rohrig. I picked this book up at a convention. The problem is that when I google it I can't find it available -you could email the author if you want. I have the other book by Brian Rohrig and they are great but more for younger demonstrations.

 

I believe it is available here.  (I've never heard of the company though.)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Alice]

I help with the chemistry class at our co-op, the woman who teaches it has a masters from MIT in chemistry. I was a Chemistry major in college but it's been awhile since I've used it. :) I helped her last year with Honors Chem and am helping her this year with Regular Chem. She uses the Apologia text for both. The co-op meets weekly and each class is about an hour. She covers each Module over two weeks. The first week the students are expected to have read the Module and done some of the problems already. She lectures, emphasizing the most confusing or critical points and usually spending a significant portion going over problems in class. She has a fair number of resources given her background so will sometimes assign extra problem sets for them to do. The second week of the Module is lab day. The do one lab in class. They are expected to have done the other labs for that module at home. We check their notebooks and makes sure they have done all the module problems and their at home labs. If not, they cannot participate in class lab and get a zero for that day. The day after the class period with the lab they take their test at home. They then hand in a formal lab write-up the next week, and the cycle repeats. A few of the Modules are shortened to one week (ones where the labs are all easily done at home or ones before a break.) 

 

Two other things that I think are good. She has a weekly chat time that she does online with them. There are a bunch of different sites where you can set these up. I used one for an Anatomy class I taught. Chat is held during the week between the lecture and lab. The lab-write-ups are graded very strictly but she lets them write them over as many times as it takes. So if I grade it and they need to re-do it they have to hand it in the next week, this repeats until they do well enough to get a B or higher. This isn't to give them inflated grades but to really make them learn how to write a good formal report. We didn't do that for the honors class, we expected them to be able to write the labs. She got the idea of the re-writes from a professor in college who she said did the same thing with her class in order to really train them to write them correctly. 

 

My only experience with the Apologia curriculum is with her as a teacher. It definitely is very solid and I think a quite challenging class. I can't say how much of that is because of what she adds to it. 

[dkgdvm]

I don't have a great suggestion as to what textbook to teach for co-op as I only teach lab from my home and co-op settings.

 

I teach Illustrated Guide from my home and I don't think it will work for what you are describing.

 

My favorite resource for co-op group teaching is 101 Intriguing Labs, Projects and Activities for the Chemistry Classroom by Brian Rohrig. I picked this book up at a convention. The problem is that when I google it I can't find it available -you could email the author if you want. I have the other book by Brian Rohrig and they are great but more for younger demonstrations.

 

Can you tell me why you don't think the Illustrated Guide would work? I was looking at this which is a smaller set of select labs from the Illustrated Guide. Do the experiments just take too long?

 

I will take a look at the other book you recommended too. Thank you for your input.

[dkgdvm]

Thank you to everyone who has replied. It is helpful. I wish I had posted this thread earlier as I had to commit to using Apologia at our meeting tonight. I presented the idea of doing a more involved lab and the parents will vote on what they want. I may be coming up with my own "beefed up" lab if the Illustrated Guide doesn't end up working.

[dkgdvm]

Glad you found the thread to be helpful, Deb! :)  I've not taught in a co-op situation, just in public high school and now in CC, but I wondered about one thing...  If many of your students are headed into health professions, are you sure that they don't need honours chem?  I'm in Canada, not the US, so we could be talking apples and oranges here but in Ontario, students who are headed into registered nursing, pharmacy, medicine, etc. all need Grade 12U Chem in high school which is the equivalent of honours chem in the States.  The students who are headed into practical nursing (nursing assistant) are one of the few who don't need honours chem, only reg chem.

 

Just wanted to check. :)  Maybe some folks in the States can chime in?

 

I haven't had any parents ask me for honors specifically. There is one parent who was not satisfied with Apologia but she is okay with it if I use a more complete lab with the Apologia curriculum. That is what I am trying to do as it seems like a good compromise. I am not aware of an honors requirement for health profession students but I haven't looked into it either. When I was in college as a pre-vet major(20 some years ago), honors was not required (although that is what I took in high school.)

[Julie of KY]

Can you tell me why you don't think the Illustrated Guide would work? I was looking at this which is a smaller set of select labs from the Illustrated Guide. Do the experiments just take too long?

 

I will take a look at the other book you recommended too. Thank you for your input.

The selected labs you mention are similar, though very different, to the Illustrated Guide. They generally teach the same concept, often with different chemicals and on a much smaller scale. I've done a few of the labs. They do tend to be shorter and possibly doable in a co-op setting.

 

I was referring to the book, Illustrated Guide, when I said it probably wouldn't be a good fit. Most of the labs take at least 1 1/2 hours and many take 2-3 hours. I am not willing to take the chemicals to co-op settings and personally, I wouldn't want to transport the equipment. To effectively teach the subject of chemistry it takes time and I don't think you'd have time to also teach Illustrated Guide.

 

When I teach Illustrated Guide, I teach in 3 hour classes, as a significant portion of the labs take 3 hours. It takes about 100 hours of lab time (plus set up and write ups) to finish the book. Of course, you can pick and choose, but other lab set ups would work better if you are not exclusively teaching lab. The small scale labs you refer to might work, but I'd tend to go in a different direction if not devoting a lot of lab time to it.

[Julie of KY]

I may be coming up with my own "beefed up" lab if the Illustrated Guide doesn't end up working.

If you tell me what sort of hours, cost equipment, etc you are wanting to put into a lab I'd be glad to give you some ideas. You may have to private message me as I don't always pay attention to these threads. I teach the entire Illustrated Guide book from my home. I teach a Wacky chemistry lab in co-op, not purely lab, but cool memorable experiments, mostly based on Brian Rohrig's book I mentioned above. I let other people teach the textbook learning so I can't really comment there.

[dkgdvm]

The selected labs you mention are similar, though very different, to the Illustrated Guide. They generally teach the same concept, often with different chemicals and on a much smaller scale. I've done a few of the labs. They do tend to be shorter and possibly doable in a co-op setting.

 

I was referring to the book, Illustrated Guide, when I said it probably wouldn't be a good fit. Most of the labs take at least 1 1/2 hours and many take 2-3 hours. I am not willing to take the chemicals to co-op settings and personally, I wouldn't want to transport the equipment. To effectively teach the subject of chemistry it takes time and I don't think you'd have time to also teach Illustrated Guide.

 

When I teach Illustrated Guide, I teach in 3 hour classes, as a significant portion of the labs take 3 hours. It takes about 100 hours of lab time (plus set up and write ups) to finish the book. Of course, you can pick and choose, but other lab set ups would work better if you are not exclusively teaching lab. The small scale labs you refer to might work, but I'd tend to go in a different direction if not devoting a lot of lab time to it.

 

I understand. I didn't realize the two things were that different. I do have a place at co-op to store lab equipment so it doesn't need to be transported back and forth.

[dkgdvm]

If you tell me what sort of hours, cost equipment, etc you are wanting to put into a lab I'd be glad to give you some ideas. You may have to private message me as I don't always pay attention to these threads. I teach the entire Illustrated Guide book from my home. I teach a Wacky chemistry lab in co-op, not purely lab, but cool memorable experiments, mostly based on Brian Rohrig's book I mentioned above. I let other people teach the textbook learning so I can't really comment there.

 

Thank you so much for your offer. I may take you up on it. I presented my class at our meeting tonight. It will be 2 or 3 weeks before I know if parents want the Apologia curriculum "as is" or are wanting more (and willing to pay more for lab supplies.) Cost seems to be a big deciding factor with this group.