Are you suddenly taking your General Chemistry course online because of the coronavirus? I just wanted to remind everyone that I developed daily (MWF) worksheets for General Chemistry I and II. These are available free from my website. You will need a password, which you can request by emailing me (information below). The worksheets were developed for a flipped class, but you don't have to flip your class in order to use them. The materials include: PDFs of all worksheets, editable files so you can customize the worksheets, and other goodies. The URL for the worksheets is http://johnosterhout.com/worksheets/ For my discussion of classroom flipping: http://johnosterhout.com/flipped-general-chemistry/ To get a password, email me at: JohnOsterhout<at>JohnOsterhout<dot>com. Please include a URL to you at your institution so I can verify you are a teaching professional. ... View more

After reading about flipped classrooms and attending an NSF-sponsored cCWCS workshop (Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops & Communities of Scholars) June 20-23 2016, I decided to try out flipping my organic chemistry lecture. My class meets for lecture every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for 50 minutes. I decided to try out flipping my organic class on Fridays only as an experiment during the fall semester of 2016. First I had to become comfortable with recording my lectures. After investigating several software programs, I settled on the use of Debut Video Capture. Several other software programs were just as good, but Debut was simple to use and easily recorded my computer screen and my voice very well. An additional incentive was a free 3-month trial followed by a one-time fee of $19.99 for use of the software. I’ve used this software for two years now and find no reason to switch. I show PowerPoint slides on half of the screen and Paint software on the other side. With the Paint software, I can draw anything necessary, or I can pre-copy and paste items before recording. These recorded lectures are posted a week in advance by downloading them onto YouTube and providing the URL to my students. Sometimes I either collect a copy of their notes or quiz them to provide incentive for watching the online videos. During class on Fridays, we work on problems related to the online lecture. I have introduced a variety of activities into Fridays including worksheets, mini-quizzes, Kahoot online quizzes, old exam reviews, individual problems that they answer and explain on the whiteboard, etc...  One of my favorite activities involves predicting pka values. I bring in individual slips of paper with one organic structure on each. Students are given a slip of paper with an organic acid or base, then they have to compare to their neighbor’s structure and rank them based on relative acidity. Then each group of two students compared their ranking to another group of two students. We then have time to review the results and talk about inherent problems with predicting relative pka values.   Friday lectures are now fun! They are energetic, real active learning takes place, students sharing their ideas is the focus, not the professor. I can use Friday’s for pre- and post-exam reviews, for class-cancellation make-ups, for a more detailed review of complex topics, etc...  I sometimes bring in a bag of cheap gifts for students to compete for. I truly believe I am a better teacher because of the flipped classroom concept. ... View more

My classes are rife with groans and sighs when passing back exams and quizzes.  To try and encourage student persistence and grit development, I decided to implement mastery based quizzes like Kevin mentioned in a previous flippedchemistry.com post.    I gave students three attempts to pass a quiz on dimensional analysis.  The first attempt was given in lecture.  The second and third attempts were taken outside of class.  Since I am on campus daily, I set aside time – while I was teaching labs, had office hours, or was working in my office – for students to take it.  By the day of Exam 1, 50 students passed the mastery based quiz on dimensional analysis while 84 did not.      Passed Benchmark Quiz Did not Pass Quiz Number of Students 50 84 Average Exam 1 Score 72% 48% Passed Exam 1 80% 26% Did not pass Exam 1 20% 74%   Not only did the students who passed the benchmark quiz do better on the exam, but only 20% of students in this group got a score below 60%.  Many of them were in 50-60% range.  On the other hand, of the students not passing the benchmark quiz, 74% of them did not pass the exam, and many of their scores were in the 30-50% range. I also instituted benchmark quizzes in my Intermediate algebra class, and noticed similar results.  Benchmark Quiz #1 was related to exam 1, and Benchmark Quiz #2 was directly related to Exam 2.      Exam 2 Average Passed Both Benchmark Quizzes 65.4% Passed Benchmark #1 only (Related to Exam 1) 36.0% Passed Benchmark #2 only (Related to Exam 2) 52.1% Passed only one Benchmark Quiz 41.9% Did not pass any Benchmark Quizzes 30.6%   The data shows a strong correlation between passing the benchmark quiz and higher exam scores in both classes.  Therefore, I decided to continue using benchmark quizzes to give students an attainable goal prior to their first exam, knowing that students who are successful on the benchmark quiz will have a higher probability of success on the subsequent exam.   In response to the student exam performance in both courses I showed students a short TED talk by Angela Lee Duckworth, on Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.  A few days later, I gave my students a short article called “The State of Being Stuck” and asked my chemistry students to write half-page reflection paper on it, discussing how they would apply the concepts of grit and the growth mindset to Introductory Chemistry this semester.   The chemistry students are currently working on passing their second benchmark quiz, which is on nomenclature.  Exam 2, which covers nomenclature will take place on Friday, October 13, 2017.  I will update this post once the exam is graded and the data has been analyzed. Other Resources on Grit and Growth Mindset: https://www.edutopia.org/article/growth-mindset-resources https://www.edutopia.org/article/grit-resources   Quotes from Reflection Papers:   “I will not be afraid of a challenge just because it looks hard to do.” “I always tell myself, ‘This too shall pass.’” “As a future teacher … I want my students to give it all they have and not give up, therefore that is what I am going to do in all my classes.” “I sit next to someone who is failing this class and complains about it every morning.  She always seems to be blaming other people instead of herself.  When I ask her what she does to study or take notes, she tells me that she does not even watch the videos.  My motivation for wanting to come to this class is that I want to be able to engage in class work.” “There’s nothing wrong in getting help from other people who get something more than what you may be understanding yourself.” “Fear of failing hinders me from even beginning sometimes.” “I’m actually pretty proud of how far I’ve come because I could have easily gave up … I told myself if I don’t pass this class, what does it mean for my future, am I going to do the same thing when it comes down to everything else in my life?” “It’s OK to fail in things that you do in life, but the important part is to be gritty.  You don’t have to be super smart to survive in this life.  You just have to be gritty.” “I always found science classes to be difficult for me, so I never really put the most effort in them.” ... View more

Macmillan Learning is proud to announce that The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has named Introductory Chemistry author Kevin Revell one of the top 40 Flipped Learning educators worldwide. The list, compiled annually by the FLGI executive committee, names the top 100 K-12 educators from around the world who are identified as driving forces of flipped classroom adoptions. This year, the initiative broadened their recognition to include the top 40 Flipped Learning leaders in higher education. FLGI’s Chief Academic Officer, Jon Bergmann, stated, "The 2017 FLGI Flipped Learning Leaders lists includes some of the most experienced, innovative and proactive education and training professionals in the world. These are the people driving Flipped Learning forward in thought and action and demonstrating what is possible when Flipped Learning is done well." Congratulations, Kevin! ... View more

               It was a Thursday evening as I was relaxing post-workshop and gearing up for summer research when I received a text from my colleague asking if I wanted to teach the summer intro-chem course. I immediately jumped on the opportunity since I have always wanted to get my hands on a chemistry for non-science majors course... the only drawback? The class started that following Tuesday and I have never taught intro chem before! Despite that little set back, I was eager to start planning my learning outcomes, lessons, demonstrations and labs; and was feeling energized after a week long workshop that focused on active learning. To set the scene for you: the course was only 6 weeks long, met every day for an hour and a half for ‘lecture’ and twice a week for lab. The text we used was the ACS Chemistry in Context (9 th Edition, text and lab manual) where we covered Chapters 1 through 5, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 14.  The students ranged from rising sophomores to graduating seniors who majored in disciplines ranging from education, business, math, and philosophy.              At the start, I worked 2-3 hours each night to prepare carefully crafted powerpoint lectures with active learning break outs (more emphasis on the powerpoint lecture).. I believe I found myself relying on more traditional teaching methods because of my lack of confidence in teaching this material. But I quickly noticed the students were having a hard time paying attention and were drifting off.. who can blame them? Who wants to be ‘talked to’ for nearly 2 hours a day every day. After their first exam where grades ranged from low F’s to high A’s with an average of 68%.. I decided I needed to change things up and decided to shut my mouth and flip the course immediately. (This was actually inspired by a book I was reading at the time titled “Teaching with your Mouth Shut” by Donald Finkel.. read it, its great!) I didn’t make lecture videos, I stopped wasting time making power points, and instead allowed the text book to lecture for me by assigning readings associated with each class meeting. I then could spend most of my planning time and efforts in researching and choosing in-class activities that we spent 100% of the time on in class with students working in small and diverse groups. On exam two, the class average was a full letter grade higher than the first exam (76%), which was maintained in exam III and the final.          Students worked in small groups on various in-class activities described below. Because I found it so challenging to find and research the resources I used, I wanted to take a moment to share with you the materials I found helpful and also ask and see if you have an activity, book, demonstration or other resources that you find especially helpful for an intro chem course (Comment below!) Introduction Chemistry: A guided Inquiry (POGIL, 1 st Edition) by Michael Garoutte and Ashley Mahoney published by Wiley. I really wish I had this book from the very start! I requested the exam copy right when I found out I was teaching the course and it took a couple weeks to get to my desk but I was so happy when it arrived! While it wasn’t an all-inclusive resource, it was really valuable and we used a number of activities from the book in class such as the Acid/Base, Molecular Shapes, and Rates and Energies of Reactions activities. The only drawback to this text? It wasn’t put into a real-world context which was the emphasis of the ACS text book and the class. But I did hear lots of “Ah hah!”s  throughout the class meetings. For our nutrition and cooking with chemistry unit, we made pop rocks, rock candy and dipping dots in order to discuss phase changes, recrystalization and how the rate of freezing effects the creaminess of ice cream. Solving Real Problems with Chemistry (2 nd edition) by John Goodwin, David Hanson and Troy Wolfskill; published by Pacific Crest. This is another POGIL-like workbook that incorporates guided reflection on the actual learning process (which unfortunately the students would skip unless somehow incentivized). What I loved about this book (in addition to the reflective process) was the incorporation on intro chem/gen chem concepts into a real-world context. On days that we worked on these activities (such as “Time of Death – When did it Happen” (integrated rate laws) and “Keeping Warm with Carbon-Based Fuels” (enthalpy and heats for reations) I overheard a number of side conversations that related the chemistry to their daily lives in terms of retail, public policy, and CSI! Again, it was a great resource, but didn’t 100% line up with the text/material I was covering so wasn’t an all-inclusive resource. In our forensics unit, students got to test money for trace amounts of drugs and isolated unknown compounds for TLC analysis in order to link a suspect with a murder case. Calculations in Chemistry (2 nd edition) by Donald J. Dahm and Eric A. Nelson, published by W. W. Norton. This was an absolute fantastic resource for my class as the major determining factor for success in my course turned out to be the ability to solve mathematical word problems. I utilized this book as a supplemental tool and aligned sections from this book with the ACS text book for students to use as additional practice. I felt it was well written with lots of guidance and the cost is very effective! I think in future courses I will make this a required resource for the course and wish I had started utilizing it earlier. The students could have really benefited from me spending a day or two at the start of class learning and practicing basic word problem analysis and dimensional analysis without necessarily going straight into chemical concepts. Other various online resources I pilfered several other various resources from the web such as the new ACS Reactions Video Series (this is a great tool for engaging and contextualizing chemistry for folks with no science background and I am constantly sharing these videos through social media), the Legacy High School Chemistry POGIL activities, and for our forensics unit the Mixed Reception Activity by the ChemCollective. We also used the PhET simulations in class as well to demonstrate balancing reactions and phase changes. Student feedback on the course: " I feel much more prepared and really learned a lot" " The class was enjoyable and related to our daily life so we felt we would actually use this information... I found the worksheets helpful" "She created an environment that was comfortable to ask questions and dig deep into certain areas that were not understood well or people were interested in" "Class structure of handing out worksheets and learning in groups how to do them on top of her guidance was probably the best way for me to learn" "Less lecture, more practice seemed to work well in this class" Again, by no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list of useful tools for intro chem and I would love to hear your own preferences and ideas. But after writing this post... I am left with one question: Wouldn’t it be nice if we had one all-inclusive resource that was flexible and incorporated context-based active learning for our students? By no means can I require my students to purchase 1 text book, 1 lab manual, and 3 work books for a 6-week course. What say you? I’d love to hear your feedback, comment below: ... View more

Instructors (at all levels) have devised means of content transfer which do not involve the primary course texts as a response to student's seeming unwillingness to tackle, or inability to comprehend, the text. Over the years, many instructors developed a detailed set of class notes, presentation slides, videos, etc. that cover all of the important topics in the course. My teaching philosophy was very similar. Early in my teaching career, I required readings, but when I realized that students were consistently not comprehending, I didn't know where or how to deal with the problem, so I decided to work around the text, essentially reducing the 1000 page text into a collection of end of chapter problems. I didn't understand the reason why reading was so difficult nor did I have the tools to teach reading in my classroom. Moreover, I didn't think it even appropriate to be teaching reading in college level chemistry and math courses – shouldn't the students have already learned how to read? This semester I was introduced to a framework – not a program - through which reading is given high priority in the classroom and the instructor is given concrete tools to help students become proficient discipline readers. The framework is called Reading Apprenticeship (RA) [1]. In RA, the instructor is the content expert, who is capable of reading discipline texts. The instructor's role in RA is to provide a safe, collaborative environment in which students can be apprenticed to become proficient readers. In this framework the instructor demonstrates all of the techniques they use when reading. RA gives instructors concrete exercises and terms by which they can describe their reading and thought processes. The metacognitive discussion that arises through each of the dimensions listed below helps students develop into their thought processes to become readers. RA recognizes that reading is a very involved process that involves several distinct dimensions. The dimensions of RA include (link to graphic😞 Social - Students help each other comprehend texts by sharing and observing each other's reading processes Personal - Students develop their identity as a reader Cognitive - Students learn problem solving strategies applicable to reading comprehension Knowledge-building - Gaining knowledge about the discipline through reading, linking with previous knowledge I have been incorporating RA practices into my chemistry and math classes this semester and am very pleased with the results. Students are able to break down complex sections of the textbook in preparation for class. Moreover, students are able to apply RA concepts to problem solving because the first step in problem solving is being able comprehend the problem. As the semester progresses, I will write up examples of the RA strategies that I am employing in my courses and discuss how students responded. References: [1] Schoenbach, Ruth, Cynthia Greenleaf, and Lynn Murphy. Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012. ... View more

[Originally Published March  2015] Last March, I took a few moments to collect my thoughts mid-semester. As we head into a new semester, I offer these reflections from mid-spring: I hope the insights offered will be beneficial to you: March, 2014: This semester, I’ve been flipping my Intro Chem course. As we’ve just completed the midterm, I’d like to stop and look back down the mountain. What’s worked? What hasn’t? Observation #1: It’s a dumb idea to bring a camera crew the first week of class I wrote about how video lessons lack the spontaneity and fun of being in a classroom full of students. In order to fix this, I wanted to try filming my class, and then compare the live versus tablet-only presentation style. So, I contacted the folks in the TV production department, who graciously agreed to film my class the first week. This didn’t work well for a couple of reasons: First, with my white Powerpoint projected onto the screen, the lighting was all wrong. More importantly, I think the presence of two cameras in the first week of class created an intimidating environment. I’m usually pretty good at helping students relax and speak up in class, but this dampened the tone of the class at the outset, and I’ve struggled the rest of the semester to get my class to engage. Observation #2: There and Back Again Maybe because of the first week, or maybe other factors, but my biggest challenge this semester has been getting students to speak up in class. Early in the semester, I used class time to work problems as a group, but the dynamic just wasn’t working. Frustrated, I even tried going back to lecture. The trouble is, if people are not going to speak up during recitation-style problem solving, they’re certainly not going to speak up during a lecture. Ultimately, what seems to work best for this crew is to bring a set of problems, and have them work in small groups. More people are comfortable asking for help in this environment, and students seem to be learning more from this structure. Observation #3: Don’t Spoonfeed - Challenge! In my Organic 2 Lab course this semester, I’ve built pre-lab videos followed by an online quiz - and the students are more engaged and prepared than I’ve ever seen before. With my Intro class, however, I didn’t build in pre-class quizzing - and I really wish I had. Putting all of my lecture content online has been an incredible amount of work for me, and it’s disheartening when only a handful of students have even looked at the material before class. And I think students are more passive if they know they can access the video content the night before the test. Next time I teach this course, I plan to use our online homework system (Sapling Learning) to build pre-class quizzes for each flipped topic, so I can make sure students are watching the video content before class. I already feel like the online homework is my best tool to challenge and engage students (I typically have 80-90% completion rates, even in Intro Chem). If I can use these graded assignments to help students prepare before class, I think we can really raise the bar. And you? I’d love to hear from everyone in the comments section. Have you run into these challenges? What solutions have worked for you? ... View more

[originally posted spring 2015] This spring, I’m teaching one of my favorite courses: Intro Chem. It’s an evening class, two nights a week, 144 students. The class is a requirement for a number of applied science majors. Many students are nervous about taking chemistry, and some have put it off until their senior year. This year, I’ve had some time to reflect on what has (and hasn’t) worked in the past, I’ve gathered ideas from many of you. I’m re-designing the course, with several innovations. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m planning to write in more detail about some of these. For new, here’s a broad overview of a couple of them: Beta-testing the REEF clicker system I’ve never used a clicker system before, but the evidence suggests it makes a big difference, especially for large classes. The REEF polling system is the next-generation of I>clicker, and is set to premiere for real in the fall. It’s an app-based, bring-your-own-device system. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works – if any of your clicker veterans have suggestions, I’d love to hear them! Using my own book I’m in the process of writing my own textbook, with the first 10 chapters (of 13) in the review stage. This semester, I’m making the chapters available to the students in PDF form. This will give me a chance to see how it works in-class, and polish the organization a little bit. Rethinking the out-of-class content The organization of the new text is a little different than what I used last year. As a result, I’m having to re-do and re-think some of the video content. One of the things I’m doing is giving students the option of reading OR watching the video – I think this appeals to different learning styles. For example, here’s my Canvas page for Wednesday: With the video content, I’ve decided to focus primarily on big-picture topics, giving an overview of why the topic is important, then including the key ideas. Practice problems will be handled in class. For example, here’s a new video I prepared on units, precision, accuracy, and significant digits. It sets the stage for the in-class materials, such as calculations involving sig figs. https://vimeo.com/album/4086381/video/86152564 I’m going to have to come to grips with my perfectionist streak. The video above took way too long to produce. Moving forward, I’m going to have to be content with simpler formats, and non-scripted, tablet annotations rather than extensive PowerPoint annotations. I love producing these, but I don’t know if they’re feasible for the whole semester. ... View more