AP Chemistry
2012-2013
Mrs. Henderson
Sharpstown International School 6-12
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Advanced Placement Chemistry with Mrs. Henderson
2012-2013
Sharpstown International School 6-12
AP Program
Our school offers two sections of AP Chemistry, which meet two/three days a week for 90 minutes; one period per week for laboratories. This course is designed to provide a solid first-year college chemistry experience, both conceptually and in the laboratory. The labs serve to supplement the learning in the lecture section of the course. Problem-solving skills, both on paper and in the lab, are emphasized. There are weekly labs during the first three quarters; during the last quarter, students take a total of five graded practice AP Exams. The exams are reviewed in class to increase students’ awareness of test-taking strategies.
Text
Chemistry by Brown et al.
Teaching Strategies
I use the following strategies when teaching my AP Chemistry course. I believe they are the most important factors to having a successful course.
1. Create a group spirit, similar to that which develops among members of a sports team.
2. Encourage students to work together in order to learn. The class is not split into “those who are” and “those who are not” going to take the AP Exam; everyone is in the same boat. Since every student realizes that he or she is going to take the exam, each works hard to understand the material.
3. Limit lectures to allow plenty of time for other learning activities. I do not lecture a great deal. After students have read and outlined a chapter, I will spend a day or two lecturing on it, covering the high points of the theory, deriving any important equations, and presenting demonstrations that are relevant to the topic. I assign a few questions from the back of each chapter but use them only as an introduction to the material. We go over these questions, and shortly thereafter I hand out a set of questions taken from AP Released Exams. These are the essay and problem-type questions that students can expect to see on the exam in May.
4. Keep quizzes and tests short, sometimes even to just one or two questions, so that testing does not take up too much time during the class period.
5. Require each student to present the solution to a problem. Each student receives 6 to 10 AP Released Exam questions/problems on the current chapter and is expected to complete them in two or three days. (The problems often do not contain all the parts of the original exam question; for example, I only assign those parts that pertain to the chapter we are covering.) In addition, each student is responsible for presenting two of the questions/problems on the overhead projector for the entire class. Many students receive the same question, but they do not know who will be asked to do the presentation.
Students receive points based on the quality of their presentation. I post the detailed solution to each problem in the classroom so they can examine beforehand the problems they do not understand. Students often have stage fright when they are first asked to present the solution. They soon find, however, that the rest of the class wants them to
succeed. The class is attentive during the explanation and even tries to help the presenter over the rough spots. My role as the teacher is to stand near the back of the room and oversee the process (facilitate). This involves knowing when to step in and ask pertinent and probing questions such as, “Could you go over step three again? I don’t understand how you got your answer.” I will ask the presenter questions if I feel the class is getting lost. I can tell when this happens because the class usually grows very quiet, as if projecting the plea, “Don’t call on me because I don’t understand.” There are also times when I ask questions because I honestly cannot follow what the presenter is doing.
The seminar-like atmosphere these problem-presentation sessions create is not threatening and makes it easy for students to ask questions. Soon there is a lively give-and-take between the presenter and the class. Lights seem to go on and learning takes place. These sessions are the very heart of how I teach AP Chemistry.
Preparing for the AP Chemistry Exam
Three weeks before the AP Exam I schedule six review sessions from in my classroom to go over multiple-choice questions from a previous AP Exam. Two Saturdays before the exam we all meet to take a previous AP Exam for practice. The following Saturday the same procedure is followed with another AP Exam. The exams are identical in administration to the actual AP Exam. At the end of both exams I give the answers and a scoring sheet to the students, which they use to grade their own exams and figure their scores. They are shocked by their results on the first exam but are better able to see the areas in which they are weak. The second exam usually shows an improvement in scores
since students know where to focus their preparation.
Teaching Ideas
To encourage my students to keep mentally alert, agile, and able, I use four main ideas throughout the year.
Idea I: Practice, practice, practice!
Significant time should be taken to place students in a situation as close as possible to the conditions of an AP Exam. Exposure to the kinds of questions and problems with the same depth and breadth as those on the AP Exam itself enhances and cements student learning. Students need plenty of opportunities to learn how to approach multiple-choice questions. Teach them that quantitative multiple-choice questions fall into one of these categories:
1. All answers are significantly different.
2. All answers are given as different mathematical manipulations of the given.
3. Some answers are close and actual calculation is necessary.
4. Some answers are close but rounded values are easily manipulated to yield an answer—and reviewing all the answers before actual calculation is an effective way to select the best one. Completing multiple-choice questions without a calculator is an arduous task for students and must be practiced.
Prepared materials such as AP Released Exams are helpful in the preparation of chapter tests, review sheets, and other assessment tools. AP Released Exams are an invaluable source for free-response questions. Use them freely in quizzes, as homework problems, on chapter exams, or for final reviews. Give timed practice AP Exams and review them as a class.
Idea 2: Write to learn and learn to write.
Writing is a skill that needs to be practiced constantly in order to be optimally effective. Precise and accurate language from each student can be expected when you require continual practice, correction, and revision. For example, after delivering a lecture on intermolecular forces, ask a direct question but require written answers. Have students exchange papers and verbally critique one other. The ensuing discussion will be informative for everyone. Collect and read the responses for your own edification, if desired.
Idea 3: The more the information is shared, the more the information is stored.
Even commonplace communications, such as leaving a note to a lab partner to tell him or her how many titrations were completed today, requires a student to gather his or her thoughts and communicate them to another person. The act of communication requires a person to expend an effort to be understood. In addition to the information sharing that occurs in class, I provide two other venues where such exchanges are made.
• Monthly BulletinBoard Presentations
Students are responsible for designing and posting visually exciting and relevant information about a specific topic, which I assign.
• Lab Presentations on the Internet/Powerpoint
Working in pairs, students build a Web page that presents a lab complete with data, analysis, conclusion, and error analysis. This open record allows current students as well as those from subsequent years to add to the lab (using access buttons to their own websites) with new methodologies to reduce error or arrive at different conclusions.
Idea 4: Doing chemistry is doing lab: There is no difference.
Labs support, convey, and cement the chemical principles presented in lectures and demonstrations. They also provide students with an opportunity to learn new physical skills (such as titration, quantitative transfer, or the use of volumetric equipment), foster good collaborative relationships, and improve problem-solving techniques, while they learn more about how chemistry really works. Different labs are performed for different reasons, all of which are stated on a lab assignment sheet. The labs come from a variety of resources that I have gathered over the years.
Course Requirements and Grading
Students are expected to be in class on time with the required materials(planner, writing utensils, assignments, notebooks). I will attempt to cover the text at a rate of approximately one chapter every five to seven school days, with 15 to 20 problems assigned and reviewed per chapter. The assignments are on a chapter or weekly basis. Chapter exams consist of 20 multiple-choice questions and up to 4 free-response questions. These final four questions come from retired AP Released Exams whenever possible. I will grade these exams using the AP style of grading. In addition to chapter problems, I base part of their homework grade on their group bulletin board presentations. A student’s grade is a weighted average of the following:
Major Grades(Tests, Projects, etc)...... 40%
Quizzes……………………………………………………………………………...30%
Labs………………………...... 20%
Homework...... 10%
Laboratory/Laboratory Notebook
Students are required to submit a complete lab report for each lab experiment, including a hypothesis, procedure, observations/data, calculations, and a conclusion(Lab Report Format). All reports are kept in a formal lab notebook purchased from teacher ($5). The notebook goes with the student to the university to evaluate their placement in a college
laboratory program. It should not be brought to class daily, but THIS NOTEBOOK IS MANDATORY! Very often students are called upon to make a presentation to the class about their hypotheses, calculations, and conclusions in a similar manner to the questions/problems-solving method described above. In this way, students are able to collaborate on the objectives and design of an experiment, to assist each other in reaching conclusions, and to gain insights into variance and sources of error.
PBL Requirement: All students are required to do a Project Based on Learning (PBL) for each semester. The Fall semester will be Science Fair.
Test Corrections
Students may increase their test grade by doing test corrections. Test corrections must be completed by students earning a grade of “D” or “F” on an exam. Students earning a grade of “B” or “C” are strongly encouraged to examine problem area on their test also. Students will given a test correction template to help guide them correct the errors on their exam.
Homework
Homework is due every quiz and test day. Since homework is designed to be practice for quizzes and tests, it is of little value after the fact. Therefore, late homework will be a penalty to the students’ grade. Chapter syllabi (with homework questions) will be given well in advance of due dates allowing students the opportunity to work around sports, clubs, employment, and illness.
Self-Tests
A self-test will be given the day before an exam. The test is designed to simulate an actual exam and highlight weak areas of understanding.
Tentative Schedule
Date Chapter #Days Quiz/Test
8/27-8/301 Matter & Measurement 28/30
8/31-9/72 Atoms, Molecules & Ions 3 9/7
9/10-9/213 Mass Relations in Chem.; Stoichiometry 5 9/21
9/24-10/54 Reactions in Aqueous Solution 5 10/5
10/8-10/1918 Electrochemistry 5 10/19
10/22-10/268 Thermochemistry 2 10/26
10/29-11/217 Spontaneity 311/2
11/5-11/1611 Rate of Reaction 5 11/16
11/19-11/3016 Precipitation Equilibria 5 11/30
12/3-12/1413 Acids and Bases5 12/14
12/17-12/21Review/Finals(Ch. 1-4,5 12/21
1/7-2/114 Equilibria in Acid Base Solutions 10 2/1
2/4-2/155 The Gaseous State52/15
2/18-2/2912 Gaseous Chemical Equilibrium 5 2/29
3/4-3/157 Bonding 5 3/15
3/25-4/56 Electronic Structure & Periodicity 5 4/5
4/8-4/129 Liquids & Solids 2 4/12
4/15-4/1910 Solutions 3 4/19
4/22-4/2622 Organic Chemistry (Sec. 1-5) 2 4/26
4/29-5/3 15 Complex Ions 3 5/3
5/6-5/15Review105/15
5/16Practice AP Chemistry Exam15/16
TBDAP Chemistry Exam
AP Chemistry Labs
All of the experiments below, except where noted with *, will require hands-on
work in the laboratory.
1 Alum Synthesis Lab
2 Standardization of NaOH
3 Electrochemical Cells
4 Thermochemistry and Hess’s Law
5 Study of Kinetics of a Reaction
6 Equilibrium and LeChatlier’s Principle/Determination of Equilibrium Constant
7 Determination of the Equivalent Mass & pKa of an Unknown Acid
8 Determination of Solubility Product of an Ionic Compound
9 Determination of Dissociation Constants of Weak Acids
10 Mini-Lab: Build Molecular Models
11 Molar Mass of a Volatile Liquid
Online Emission Tube Spectra Exercise*
12 Calorimetry Lab
13 Intermolecular Forces Lab
14 Preparation of Inorganic Complex - Tetrammine Copper(II) Sulfate Monohydrate Lab
Note: All laboratory experiments are student run unless indicated by an *.
* Indicates virtual activity