GOING FOR THE GOLD

A Chemistry Teacher’s Dream

Diana Simpson

Seton Catholic Central High School

Binghamton, NY 13905

INTRODUCTION

Devastation has hit the Seton Catholic Central High School Chemistry Department—Mrs. Simpson is very sick and will be unable to finish out the school year! She has always conducted multiple review sessions in preparation for the Regents and this year that will just not happen. The Science Department is in an uproar trying to figure out how to juggle their own schedules and this new unbalanced equation that has upset their equilibrium.

Finally a solution has been precipitated by the addition of another compound—one of the department members (we suspect it was Mrs. K) has made the suggestion that the review sessions be conducted by you, the volatile substances of the current Regents Chemistry classes. You and 3 other molecules from your time period will create a review session to be presented to the other molecules of your time period. Your mixtures (also known as groups) will use several resources to generate finished product for review.

TASK

Your mixture will decide on the type of presentation to make to the rest of the molecules in your time period. It can be any of the following: a power point, flip chart, jeopardy game, poster board, etc. You will have a time period to present in and must cover the entire topic you have been assigned. You will be able to communicate with Mrs. Simpson via e-mail for suggestions, comments and concerns as your presentation day nears. Make sure you have checked out the EVALUATION section so you know that you have covered all of the necessary requirements for your task.

PROCESS

To start the process, you will be using a method referred to as Public Policy Analysis or PPA for short. Your mixture will follow the six steps of PPA to explain why you must have a review session. You will need to define the problem, gather the evidence, identify the causes of the problem, evaluate the existing policies, create 3 new policies or solutions, and then choose the best solution based upon its feasibility and effectiveness for your presentation. The worksheets from each of the 6 steps will be collected from your mixtures 2 weeks prior to the final product.

The best solution will be your power point presentation or jeopardy game or poetry riddles or whatever your mixture figures out they wish to do for their portion of the review. In your presentation you must have:

· at least 20 review questions on your topic with correct answers

· audience engaging method for reviewing

· eye catching visuals

· equal participation by ALL group members

At the end of your presentation, you will turn in a hard copy of whatever you did and 20 review questions typed in Times New Roman, size 12 font with 2.54 cm margins and 5.08 cm headings and footers.

RESOURCES

ACIDS AND BASES

Acids and Bases Are Everywhere
An introduction to acids and bases.

ATOMIC STRUCTURE

Chem4Kids.com: Atoms: Structure
Basic information about atomic structure.

BONDING

Internet Exercise: Writing Formulas
Go to this site to get more practice in writing formula

ENERGY

Thermochemistry
An introduction to thermochemistry.

What is an Exothermic Reaction?

EQUILIBRIUM

What the Heck is Equilibrium?
Basic information about chemical equilibrium.

FUN AND GAMES

Creative Chemistry Fun Stuff
Nine different games to test your knowledge and waste time.

This Week in the History of Chemistry
Find out what happened on any day of the year.

Puzzlemaker/Clip art

GAS LAWS

Molecules in Motion
See how varying mass, temp and number of particles will affect the pressure

NOMENCLATURE

Elements Get Final Names
How do NEW elements get their names?

NUCLEAR

Control The Nuclear Power Plant
Run the nuclear power plant without a meltdown.

The Law of Radioactive Decay
The law of radioactive decay predicts how the number of the not decayed nuclei of a given radioactive substance decreases in the course of time.

Do transuranic elements such as plutonium ever occur naturally?
From Scientific American's "Ask An Expert" section, a short article about transuranic elements.

ORGANIC

Functional Groups

PERIODIC TABLE

(See: Science 2: Chemistry from the SCCHS Library.)

REACTION RATES

Chem4Kids.com: Reaction Rates
Basic intro to rates of reaction.

SOLUBILITY

What substances, such as cerium sulfate, have a lower solubility when they are heated?
From Scientific American's "Ask An Expert" section.

WHAT’S THAT STUFF?

Discover what is in common household items.

From C & E News and scientists.

NUMBERS

Archimedes Laboratory

Fun site to play and interact with numbers.

EVALUATION

	5	4	3	2	1	0
Worksheet1	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
Worksheet2	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
Worksheet3	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
Worksheet4	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
Worksheet5	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
Worksheet6	Completely filled in, no cross outs or misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs, no misspellings	Completely filled in, some cross outs and misspellings	Not completely filled in, cross outs and/or misspellings	Turned in late or not filled out completely, cross outs, misspellings	Not turned in
# of questions	26 – 30 questions	21 - 25 questions	20 questions	13 - 19 questions	6 - 12 questions	0 – 6 questions
Visuals	Colorful, eye catching, No mistakes	Colorful, eye catching, 1 or 2 mistakes	Slightly colorful or eye catching, 3-6 mistakes	Slightly colorful or eye catching, 7-10 mistakes	Not colorful or not eye catching, > 10 mistakes	Not done
Participation	All participate equally	Most (n-1) participate, equally	All participate, not equally	Most (n-1) participate, not equally	Some participate, not equally	Not done
Oral presentation	All group members participate, topic fully covered, no mistakes in content	Most group members participate, topic fully covered, 1 or 2 mistakes in content	Some group members participate, topic mostly covered, more than 2 mistakes in content	Some group members participate, topic not fully covered, half a mole of content mistakes	Group members inert, topic barely touched upon, a mole of content mistakes	Not made, did not participate, absent

CONCLUSION

You have done a masterful job of reviewing for your final exam. Hopefully you have discovered that you really do know a mole or 2 about CHEMISTRY. If you wish further review, remember that you have access to SCHOOLISLAND.COM and each other.

GOOD LUCK!!

TEACHER PAGE

Here are the NY Standards that are covered by this activity.

English Language Arts

Standard 1 - Language for Information and Understanding

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding - As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 3 – Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will present, in oral and written language and from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Standard 4 – Language for Social Interaction

Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Math, Science & Technology

Standard 1 – Analysis, Inquiry and Design

Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry and engineering design as appropriate to pose questions, seek answers and develop solutions.

Standard 2 – Information Surveys

Students will access, generate, process and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

Special thanks to the following for all of their help in the production of this WebQuest!

Bernie Dodd

DR. Jim Carroll, Syracuse University

Joe Montecalvo, Syracuse University

English Language Arts

Standard 1 - Language for Information and Understanding

Math, Science & Technology

Standard 4 - Science

Standard 6 - Interconnectedness: Common Themes

Standard 7 - Interdisciplinary Problem Solving