My high school chemistry students were expected to learn roughly 300 vocabulary terms throughout the school year. That’s a lot of definitions, especially when many of those words are completely unfamiliar or have different meanings outside of science. Over the years, I collected a handful of strategies for teaching chemistry vocabulary that helped my students move beyond memorizing definitions and actually understand the terms they were learning. Here are some of my favorites!

Start with a Chemistry Vocabulary List

Before you can teach vocabulary, you need to decide which words your students actually need to know. I recommend starting with your final exam and chemistry standards. Look for the vocabulary students will need to understand in order to answer questions, explain concepts, and solve problems. Once you’ve made your master list, break it into smaller lists by unit.

I’m a big fan of unit mapping, and I always liked giving my students a student-friendly unit map at the beginning of each unit. The vocabulary words were listed right at the top, so students knew exactly what terminology they would be learning. Breaking the list into smaller chunks also makes 400 vocabulary words seem a little less intimidating!

Need a Chemistry Vocabulary List? Don’t want to spend hours compiling vocabulary terms for your chemistry curriculum? I’ve already done some of the work for you! Grab my FREE High School Chemistry Glossary to use as a reference when planning your units, introducing new terminology, or helping students review important chemistry concepts. My students kept a copy in their binders, or in their interactive notebooks for use all year long. It also works well if you have ELL or Special Education students that may need the extra help.

Students need to define the words

One of my favorite strategies was assigning vocabulary as homework at the beginning of each unit. Because I divided my vocabulary into units, students typically had around 20 words to define at a time. I usually gave them about a week to complete the assignment. (I’d grade it right at my desk for a really quick grade!)

I required students to handwrite their definitions. Because I knew they could copy and paste from the internet, but that wasn’t the skill I wanted them practicing. Of course, simply copying a definition by hand doesn’t guarantee understanding. That’s why this was only the first step!

I also made a point of discussing words with multiple meanings. For example, a saturated solution and a saturated hydrocarbon are two very different things. Students need to understand how the meaning of a word changes depending on the chemistry concept they’re studying.

Have Students Redefine the Words in Their Own Way

This is where the vocabulary really starts to become meaningful. As we worked through a unit, I encouraged students to revisit their original definitions and rewrite them in their own words.

Sometimes they wrote a simpler definition. Other times they drew a picture or diagram to help explain the concept. I wasn’t looking for students to recite a textbook glossary word for word. I wanted them to truly understand what the vocabulary meant.

For example, a student might describe a saturated solution as a solution that is “full of dissolved stuff.” That’s much more useful than memorizing a complicated definition they don’t actually understand!

Try It With Chemical Bonding Vocabulary!

Chemical bonding is a great unit for practicing vocabulary because students need to distinguish between terms like ionic bonds, covalent bonds, cations, anions, and electronegativity. I’ve put together a FREE Bonding Vocabulary Activity Pack that you can use to help your students practice the terminology they’re learning.

Use Chemistry Vocabulary During Every Lesson

Vocabulary practice shouldn’t end when students turn in their definitions. Throughout my guided notes, I’ve incorporated vocabulary terms into the lessons themselves. Sometimes I used formal definitions, but other times I explained the words in everyday language. I wanted students to understand what a term meant before worrying about whether they could repeat its textbook definition perfectly.

Another easy strategy is to use vocabulary as an exit ticket. At the end of a lesson, ask students to define one or two important terms in their own words. You can even have them share their definitions with a partner. Now they’re writing, speaking, and hearing the vocabulary! These little opportunities for repetition add up over the course of a unit.

Play Chemistry Vocabulary Games

This is my favorite part of course.  I love incorporating games into chemistry class, and vocabulary games are especially useful because students can practice the same terms repeatedly without feeling like they’re completing another worksheet. Here are four of my favorite classroom vocabulary games.

Vocabulary Heads Up

This is a simple game that requires very little preparation. Write vocabulary terms on small cards and have students work in pairs. One student holds a card against their forehead without looking at the word. Their partner describes the term without saying the actual vocabulary word. The student holding the card has to guess the term based on their partner’s clues. Then they switch roles! I love this activity because students have to explain what a word means rather than simply recognize its definition.

Dominoes

Dominoes are especially helpful when students are learning words that are easy to confuse. Think about solute and solvent, or ionic and covalent bonds. Create domino cards that contain vocabulary terms and definitions. Students connect matching terms and definitions until they’ve completed the trail. I like to walk around the classroom while students work. It gives me an opportunity to see which vocabulary terms they’re struggling with before we get to the unit test. And yes, I laminate my dominoes! I want to prep them once and use them for years. Or you can fold over a page in an interactive notebook and paste it down to make a pocket. Then students can keep their own set of cards and redo this at home to study for a test!

Vocabulary Memory or Go Fish

Memory is another easy vocabulary game that students can play independently or in small groups. Create matching cards with vocabulary terms on one set and definitions on the other. For Memory, students place the cards face down and flip over two at a time, looking for matching terms and definitions. For Go Fish, students use the same cards to collect matching pairs. Both activities encourage students to recognize and explain vocabulary terms, and you can reuse the cards for multiple activities.

Bingo

Vocabulary Bingo is one of my favorite activities before a chemistry test! I usually put around 30 vocabulary words on the board and have students choose 24 to write on their Bingo cards. Then I randomly select terms and read their definitions aloud. Students have to identify the matching vocabulary word on their boards. This works particularly well as a self-assessment activity. Students quickly discover which words they recognize and which ones they need to study a little more.

One way to make Bingo more challenging is to read examples or descriptions instead of formal definitions. For example, instead of reading the definition of a covalent bond, you might say, “The type of bond within water molecules.” Students still need to identify the correct vocabulary term, but now they’re applying what they’ve learned!

Keep Revisiting Vocabulary Throughout the Unit

One of the biggest mistakes we can make when teaching vocabulary is treating it as a one-time assignment. Students define the words, turn in their papers, and then we move on. But chemistry vocabulary is something students need to use throughout the entire course.

I like to incorporate vocabulary into guided notes, classroom discussions, review games, and assessments. You can also bring back terminology from previous units when it connects to a new concept. For example, students learn about electrons during atomic theory, but they’ll need that knowledge again when they study chemical bonding, reactions, and oxidation-reduction. The more opportunities students have to use the terminology in different contexts, the more comfortable they’ll become with it.

Free Chemistry Vocabulary Resources for Teachers

Looking for a few resources to make teaching chemistry vocabulary easier? I’ve got you covered! Start with my FREE High School Chemistry Glossary, a handy reference for important chemistry terminology throughout the school year. Then grab my FREE Bonding Vocabulary Activity Pack to give your students some additional practice with the terminology they’re learning during your chemical bonding unit.

And if you’re looking for more ready-to-use chemistry teaching resources, be sure to check out my Kelsey Chemistry Shop! You’ll find guided notes, chemistry activities, review resources, and more.

The post Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary in High School Chemistry appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

Test review days can be a little tricky. You want students to actually review the material before their upcoming chemistry test, but handing them another worksheet isn’t exactly going to get them excited about studying. And let’s be real, there’s only so much enthusiasm you can expect from a room full of teenagers when you announce that it’s time to review for a test! (I can hear the moans and groans as I write this!)

Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of test review games and activities in my high school chemistry classroom. Some were incredibly simple, requiring nothing more than a trash can and a few pieces of paper, while others involved technology, teamwork, and a little friendly competition. The best part? Many of these games can be adapted for just about any chemistry unit, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a test rolls around.

I’ve rounded up 10 of my favorite test review games and strategies, including options that don’t require student devices, activities that get students moving, and a few digital games that make reviewing a little more exciting. Hopefully, you’ll find a few new favorites to add to your classroom rotation!.

Choosing the Right Test Review Game

Not every review game is going to work for every classroom. Sometimes you have a full class period to review, and other times you’ve got 20 minutes left after finishing a lesson. You might have access to student devices, or you might be looking for something that doesn’t require technology at all.

Here’s a quick comparison of the review games I’m sharing so you can find something that works for your students!

Trashketball for Test Review

Trashketball is one of my favorite low-prep test review games because you probably already have everything you need sitting around your classroom! All you need is a trash can, a few balls of crumpled paper, and a set of review questions. I typically use a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation to display the questions, but you could just as easily write them on the board.

Divide your students into teams and display a review question. Each team works together to come up with an answer, which they write on a piece of paper or a small whiteboard. If they answer correctly, they earn a point and get an opportunity to shoot a paper ball into the trash can for an additional point. You can even create different shooting lines worth different numbers of points if you want to make things a little more competitive!

I love this game because it works with almost any chemistry topic, from naming compounds to stoichiometry calculations. It also gives students a reason to work through practice problems without feeling like they’re completing another worksheet. Just make sure every team answers the question before anyone gets to shoot, otherwise you might end up with a few students doing all the work!

If you plan on playing Trashketball regularly, you might want to invest in a small basketball hoop and some reusable balls. You can usually find a basket ball hoop Easter Basket from the Dollar Tree in the spring. I used balls from the Target dollar spot, but crumpled paper works just as well!

Standardized Testing Practice – Finger Lights Glow Party

Finger Lights is one of my favorite ways to review multiple-choice questions, especially when preparing students for standardized tests. And yes, it involves turning your classroom into a glow party!

You’ll need a set of finger lights for each student, ideally in four different colors. I used red, green, blue, and white. You’ll also need a presentation containing multiple-choice review questions with four color-coded answer choices on a black background.

Turn off the classroom lights, pull down the shades, and display a question on the board. Give students time to work through the problem independently. When you’re ready, say “Lights on!” and have everyone turn on the finger light corresponding to their chosen answer. The result is a classroom full of colorful lights, and a pretty good indication of how well your students understand the material!

I especially like this activity because I can quickly see which questions are giving students trouble. If half the class chooses the wrong answer, I know we need to spend a little more time reviewing that concept. It’s a fun way to incorporate formative assessment without giving students another quiz. One warning: expect your students to spend at least a few minutes taking pictures of their glowing fingers. Haha!

Jeopardy Review Game

Jeopardy is a classic classroom review game, and for good reason! It’s easy to adapt to almost any subject, and students generally enjoy the friendly competition.

I like to organize my Jeopardy questions into categories based on the concepts we’re reviewing. For example, a chemical bonding review might include ionic bonds, covalent bonds, Lewis structures, molecular geometry, and polarity. Each category contains questions worth different point values, with the more challenging questions earning more points. There are tons of templates available online!

One of my favorite additions to this game is a set of Eggspert buzzers. These allow students to buzz in when they’re ready to answer, rather than having everyone yell over one another. They also have a timer, so students can’t spend forever trying to figure out their answers.

If you don’t want to purchase buzzers, flyswatters work too! Give each team a flyswatter and designate a target, like a spot on an empty desk. When a team is ready to answer, they swat the target. It’s surprisingly easy to see who gets there first.

Jeopardy works particularly well for reviewing definitions, conceptual questions, and shorter calculations. For more complicated chemistry problems, I recommend giving everyone time to work through the question before allowing teams to buzz in. Otherwise, your fastest students might end up doing all the reviewing!

Board Games

If you’re looking for a test review activity that students can complete in small groups, classroom board games are a great option. You can buy classic games, like Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land. Dollar Tree often has “mini” versions of these games fairly cheap. Or you can try a local secondhand store. For the most part, it won’t matter if you have all the pieces since you’ll modify the game a bit. Or you can create a board game yourself. You can use these with practically any chemistry unit.

I have a set of game boards that I laminate and reuse throughout the school year. Students work in small groups, answering review questions to move their game pieces around the board. (Task cards work REALLY well for this!) You can use coins, colored paper clips, small erasers, or bingo chips as game pieces. Personally, I love bingo chips because they’re inexpensive and useful for all sorts of other classroom activities. The best part is that you don’t need to create a new board every time you want to review. Just swap out the question cards!

For example, you could use the same game board to review atomic structure in September, chemical bonding in November, and Stoichiometry later in the year. Students already know how to play, so you don’t have to spend half the class period explaining the rules.

I recommend laminating both the game boards and question cards if you plan to reuse them. It’s a little extra work upfront, but it saves a ton of preparation time in the long run.

Vocabulary Games for High School Chemistry

High school chemistry students learn a LOT of new vocabulary. In my curriculum, students are introduced to roughly 300 vocabulary terms throughout the school year. Some of those words have multiple meanings depending on the context, which can make learning them even more challenging. Vocabulary dominoes are one of my favorite ways to help students practice those terms without simply memorizing definitions.

Each domino contains a vocabulary word and a definition that belongs to a different word. Students work to connect the vocabulary terms with their correct definitions, eventually creating one long chain of dominoes. You can have students complete the activity individually, in pairs, or in small groups. I like to walk around the classroom while students work, removing dominoes that have been placed incorrectly. This encourages students to reconsider their answers rather than relying on me to tell them exactly what they’ve done wrong.

Sometimes I turn it into a relay race! Students line up in teams, and each student can place only one domino before moving to the back of the line. The first team to complete the chain correctly wins. Vocabulary dominoes are especially useful for units with lots of similar terminology, like chemical bonding, intermolecular forces, and organic chemistry.

If you’re looking for more vocabulary review ideas, check out my blog post on Strategies for Teaching Chemistry Vocabulary. I’ve also shared some free chemistry vocabulary resources to help you get started!

Task Cards for Unit Review

Task cards are one of my favorite ways to review chemistry concepts that require a little more thinking, especially topics involving calculations, diagrams, or multiple steps.

Think of task cards as a worksheet that’s been broken into individual questions and spread around the classroom. Instead of sitting at their desks completing 20 problems in a row, students move around the room, answering questions at different stations.

I like to organize my task cards into categories and color-code them based on the skills being practiced. For example, when reviewing intermolecular forces, I might have separate categories for bond polarity, molecular polarity, identifying intermolecular forces, and predicting physical properties. Then I tell students how many questions they need to complete from each category. They get some freedom to choose which problems they want to work on, but I can still make sure they’re practicing a variety of skills.

This is also a great way to differentiate instruction. Students who need additional practice can work through more foundational questions, while students who are ready for a challenge can tackle more complex problems. You can have students record their answers on notebook paper, an answer sheet, or even small whiteboards. I especially like using task cards for review days when students need to practice calculations but could benefit from getting out of their seats.

Looking for Ready-to-Use Chemistry Review Questions?

You can get an entire year’s worth of chemistry unit review task cards for free. I created them for you and your students so you can have quality review in your classroom that is easy to differentiate, and keep students working through tough chemistry concepts. Get it for free, here.

Quizlet Live

If your students have access to devices, Quizlet Live is another fun way to review chemistry vocabulary and important concepts. In the team-based version of Quizlet Live, students work together to match terms and definitions. The catch is that the correct answers are distributed among the different team members, so students have to communicate to figure out who has the right answer. I love this because students can’t just sit quietly and let one person do all the work. They have to talk to one another and work together to complete the activity.

Quizlet Live works particularly well for vocabulary-heavy units, but you can also use it to review concepts like identifying elements, recognizing chemical formulas, and matching scientific terminology with examples. There are plenty of premade Quizlet sets available, or you can create your own using the vocabulary from your current unit. Once you’ve built a collection of sets, they’re easy to reuse from year to year.

Just remember that students will need access to their own devices, and you should check the current game options before planning your lesson.

Kahoot Review Games

Kahoot is another popular option for reviewing chemistry concepts, especially when you want something fast-paced and competitive. Students answer multiple-choice questions on their devices while the questions are displayed on the classroom screen. They earn points for correct answers, and depending on the game settings, how quickly they respond.

One of my favorite things about Kahoot is that you can review student performance after the game. If a large percentage of students miss a question, that’s a pretty good indication that you should revisit the concept before the test. I recommend including a mix of straightforward questions and more challenging application questions.

For calculation-heavy questions, make sure students have enough time to work through the problem. Chemistry isn’t always a race, and I don’t want students guessing just because the timer is running out! You can create your own games or browse the premade question sets available on Kahoot.

Blooket Chemistry Review Games

Blooket is easily one of the most entertaining digital review options I’ve used with high school chemistry students. It takes traditional multiple-choice review questions and incorporates them into different game modes, giving students a little more variety than a standard quiz game. Depending on the game mode, students might collect gold, compete against classmates, or work toward other in-game objectives. And while the games can get a little competitive, students are still practicing chemistry questions along the way.

One of the things I appreciate most about Blooket is that you can reuse the same question set with different game modes. That means you don’t have to create a brand-new review activity every time you want to practice the same concepts.

I’ve created chemistry Blooket question sets aligned with the units in my high school chemistry curriculum, so teachers can easily find review questions covering the topics they’re teaching. They’re also linked in my free chemistry unit review bundle. You can use the Blooket games for whole-class review, then have students work through the study guides to identify which concepts they still need to practice before test day.

Whether you’re using my curriculum or teaching chemistry with another program, these resources can help you save planning time while giving students additional opportunities to practice.

Google Forms Practice Tests

Okay, so this last one isn’t technically a game, but it’s one of my favorite strategies for helping students prepare independently for an upcoming chemistry test. Google Forms allows you to create practice quizzes that students can complete on their own devices, either during class or at home. You can include multiple-choice questions, assign point values, and set the quiz to provide feedback after students submit their answers.

I like allowing students to see which questions they missed and review the correct answers. This gives them an opportunity to identify the concepts they need to study rather than simply receiving a score and moving on. You can also allow students to complete the practice test multiple times. That way, they can revisit their notes, study the concepts they missed, and try again to see whether they’ve improved.

I especially like using Google Forms for cumulative review because students can practice questions from several units without needing to print a giant packet of worksheets. Just be sure to double-check your quiz settings before assigning it. You can control when students receive their scores and which answers or feedback they can see. If you’re reusing questions from your actual assessment, you’ll want to be careful about what information gets released.

Study guides aren’t the same thing as practice tests. If you need some study guides, check out this free, editable document.

Make Chemistry Test Review a Little More Fun!

Reviewing for a chemistry test doesn’t have to mean another day of worksheets and practice problems! Whether you’re looking for a quick game that requires almost no preparation or something a little more elaborate, there are plenty of ways to get your students reviewing important chemistry concepts without making it feel like a chore.

And remember, you don’t have to create something new for every single test! Find a few review games that work well for your students, build up a collection of questions, and reuse those activities throughout the school year.

The post 10 Test Review Games and Strategies for Chemistry Teachers appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

Being the “creative” that I am, I couldn’t let this idea go. So I started building these mysteries for YOUR CLASSROOM. And I’ll admit I was a little surprised that both students and teachers love these mysteries as much as I do. I shouldn’t have been that surprised though. Puzzles are sort of a personality trait of scientists, right? That’s what we do. 

Let me tell you about 5 of my mystery activities and why they’d be great in your classroom if you haven’t tried them yet. 

Chemistry Mystery Activities

Chemistry mysteries are still worksheets. I am not going to pretend otherwise, but these are at least fun. Students work through chemistry questions, use their answers to make decisions, and figure out who is responsible for a largely harmless school mystery. (I’m not down with murder mysteries. Too icky for my taste!)

But giving students a reason to care about the answers changes the feel of the activity. Someone stole the school camera, or left a chemical puddle, and now we have a problem to solve. Of course, that’s much more interesting than “complete questions 1 through 10.” 

My mysteries use a list of 36 suspects. Usually one is the culprit, and sometimes there are two. Students use the chemistry to narrow the possibilities until they can identify who did it.

You can choose how much acting is involved

Students can role-play the suspects, which adds a fun classroom element. Some teachers print out the suspect cards and put them in lanyards students can wear to help with the role playing. But you do not have to turn this into a whole production! There are print options that let each student have the suspect list and work more calmly or even completely independently if you choose. 

That flexibility is useful. You can choose the version that fits your class, your room, and how much energy you have that day. Both versions still ask students to use chemistry to solve the mystery.

You can find these in my Chemistry Mystery Activities collection. Choose a topic your students have already learned so the mystery becomes an opportunity to use their knowledge. In fact, you can get a small sample of my Chemistry Mysteries right here. This is a review of Atomic Theory and Periodic Table Trends. It’s a simple mystery that doesn’t involve all the suspect cards and roleplaying, but it does give you a way to test out the chemistry, and clues! 

Reading Electron Configuration and Identifying Elements

In this mystery activity, students read orbital notation electron configuration and identify the element to which it belongs. This on its own is a super boring task. Nobody wants to read electron configurations. Not even me. 

But in this case, with each configuration they uncover, they get a clue about who swiped a bicycle from the rack. Answer all the questions correctly, and then a single culprit will be revealed.  I would use this after teaching students how to read configurations, when they are ready to apply that skill without me walking through every example. My electron configuration post explains more about how I teach the topic.

Reading Bohr Models

This one is about reading Bohr models, rather than drawing them. That distinction matters! A student might draw a model correctly by following the steps and still struggle to interpret a model someone else has made. I find that more assessments ask students to interpret these diagrams as opposed to drawing them. 

The mystery gives students practice using the information in a model to identify what it represents. You can see where they are confusing particles or losing track of what the model shows. I like giving students both kinds of practice. Drawing has its place, but the point is that they can use the representation. You can read more in my Bohr model practice post.

Chemistry Lab Safety

Lab safety can become a list of rules students recite without thinking much about them. And then you get into the lab for the first time to do some “heavy lifting” and all those rules leave brains and turn to dust. A mystery gives students another reason to pay attention to those expectations and file them in their memories. 

I’d use an activity like this to reinforce safety knowledge after instruction. It gives us something to discuss, and it lets students practice recognizing the information they need. It does not replace equipment training or demonstrating that they can work safely in an actual classroom. If you are planning your beginning-of-year safety instruction, my lab safety post explains how I build those expectations before students start using the equipment.

Chemical Nomenclature

Naming compounds asks students to make decisions before they start writing. Am I dealing with an ionic compound or a covalent compound? Which rules apply? Do we need to look for a polyatomic ion?

This mystery includes both ionic and covalent nomenclature. It’s 60 questions in total, but you can split them into a 30 question ionic activity and a 30 question covalent activity, if you like to teach them separately the way I do. Each activity has their own culprit, and comes with instructions to make sure that each culprit is in your gameplay. My chemical nomenclature post has more of my teaching approach for nomenclature if you need some help. 

Periodic Table Trends

For periodic trends, I want students thinking about nuclear charge and shielding. Memorizing an arrow across the table can get them through some questions, but I want them to understand why the pattern makes sense.

The Periodic Table Trends Mystery gives students another setting in which to use those ideas. The rest of the questions have them apply the trends to specific pairs of atoms, making comparisons. Not simply memorizing minimum-maximum corners of the table. 

Tricking Students with Games

There are plenty more mysteries in my catalog, and I’m still creating more. When I was in the classroom, my goal was to get rid of boring old practice worksheets by year 10 of teaching. I wound up leaving B&M teaching after 6 years, but I’m still committed to this goal. Most of my chemistry students were never interested in chemistry, they thought it was too hard, or both. “Tricking” my students into learning using fun games and puzzles was the heart of my classroom, and continues to be the heart of what I do today.

The post 5 Chemistry Mystery Activities That Make Students Think appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

Thankfully, you do not need three versions of a chemistry lab to differentiate it! In fact, I generally want my students doing the same experiment. They’re investigating the same chemistry, collecting the same types of data, and working toward the same learning target. Where I differentiate is in how students process and communicate what they learned afterward.

Keep the Chemistry the Same

One of my general philosophies about chemistry labs is that the actual experiment doesn’t need to be complicated to be rigorous. I love simple labs. Give me inexpensive materials, straightforward procedures, and an experiment students can actually complete successfully without me putting out 14 metaphorical fires around the room. The chemistry can still be challenging. (I have a year-long lab manual where about 85% of the lab activities would qualify as “low maintenance” labs.)

A huge amount of the thinking happens when students have to take what they observed and explain why it happened. So rather than making one group complete a “hard” lab and another group complete an “easy” lab, I can have everyone participate in the same experience and adjust the support students receive when they’re analyzing and reporting their results. That is considerably easier to manage, and every student still gets access to the same chemistry.

You Can Differentiate Within the Lab Group, Too

There are certainly times when students need additional support during the experiment itself. That’s where thoughtful grouping and lab roles can help. One student might be responsible for measuring materials while another records data. Someone might read the procedure aloud while another manages equipment. Those roles can change throughout the year as students become more comfortable and independent in the lab. Sometimes I assign out these roles, other times I let the kids decide. There are also times I don’t bother at all. Sort of depends on the class, and the kids in it.

The goal isn’t to permanently assign one student the “easy job.” It’s to make the experiment accessible enough that everyone can meaningfully participate. But once the experiment is over, lab reporting gives us even more room to differentiate. (And this is where your “documented differentiation” comes in to play, for those of you who need it.)

Differentiate the Lab Report, Not the Learning Target

Let’s say every student completes the same experiment and is ultimately expected to explain the relationship between the evidence they collected and the chemistry concept you’re teaching. There are a LOT of ways students can get there.

Some students may be ready to write a traditional lab conclusion independently. Or perhaps they can explain the purpose, summarize the procedure and results, discuss sources of error, and connect their evidence back to the chemistry, in a classic “journal” format. Other students might be capable of exactly the same scientific thinking but need more structure to communicate it.

Instead of saying, “Write an eight-sentence conclusion,” I break that conclusion into smaller prompts:

What was the purpose of the experiment?

What did you do?

What happened?

What data supports your conclusion?

What chemistry concept explains your results?

What could have affected your results?

They’re still analyzing the experiment, using evidence, and explaining chemistry. I’ve just removed some of the writing load involved in figuring out how to turn all of those thoughts into one cohesive paragraph. And for a student who is ready for more independence, I can remove those supports instead of inventing an entirely different lab.

Each of my students gets my document called “How to Write a Chemistry Lab Report.”  In that, there’s an outline of how ALL the parts of a lab report should be written. This goes from the introduction all the way to the conclusion. Most of the time, my students are going to write just a conclusion.  For them, it’s as horrifying as writing a whole essay for their English or history class.  

With your more advanced students, you can try having them write out a procedure, design their own data table, or have them write without the outline. Again, same chemistry, different expectation for reporting.

Below Grade Level, ELLs, or High Intervention Students

If a student struggles with writing, that doesn’t necessarily mean they need easier chemistry. Sometimes the barrier is the reporting, not the science.

When my students need a little extra help, I cut down on the complexity of the writing I require. Nothing else.  The kids will still have the same learning experience. Students write up their lab report with less detail.

I do this by breaking down the conclusion paragraph into questions instead. Yes, the will likely still have some post lab questions to answer.  These questions are separate.  They’re pretty much the same thing that the standard/grade level kids will have for their conclusion. 

But instead of writing this all out as a paragraph that has to flow from one sentence to the next, this task is much smaller. The kids will write the conclusion paragraph piecewise.  Answering just one prompt at a time helps the kids to see the 8 sentence conclusion as 8 or so smaller tasks. For some kids, I’ll even cut down the conclusion prompts to just 5 or 6 instead. 

Create a Lab Reporting System You Can Reuse

This also doesn’t need to become another thing you recreate every week. I like having a consistent lab-reporting structure that students learn early in the year. Studnets know what belongs in a conclusion. They know how to report data and observations. They know that “human error” isn’t a magical explanation for anything that went wrong.

Then I can adjust the scaffolding depending on the lab and the students in front of me. One student might receive the full set of conclusion prompts. Another might receive sentence starters. Another might receive only the expectations and write independently.

Same lab. Same chemistry. Same general learning goal. Different amounts of support. And this being a simple “plug and play” formula covers 41 days of differentiation in my chemistry classroom.

Differentiation in Chemistry Labs Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

I think sometimes we make differentiation harder on ourselves because we picture ourselves creating multiple versions of everything. (Or we received some ridiculous PD that made us feel inadequate.) You don’t need three labs happening simultaneously around your classroom to meet students where they are. Let them do the same chemistry. Then differentiate the support they receive when they’re asked to make sense of it with a simple formula.

Keep the experiment manageable, and learning target consistent. Scaffold the writing and analysis when students need it, and remove those scaffolds as they’re ready for more independence. Your students still get a meaningful lab experience, and you only have to prep one lab!

The post How to Differentiate Chemistry Labs Without Running Multiple Activities appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

There are few things more frustrating than spending hours creating a study guide for your students, only to have half of them ignore it until the night before the test. Or worse, having a student ask, “What’s going to be on the test?” when you’ve spent the last three weeks teaching them exactly what’s going to be on the test.

I used to spend time putting together study guides, too. But eventually, I realized that I was creating something I had already created when I planned my curriculum. My learning targets were my study guide. I just needed to organize them in a way that made sense to my students.

Once I figured that out, I stopped creating traditional study guides for every unit. Instead, I started giving students a unit map at the beginning of each unit that told them what we were learning, when we were learning it, and what they needed to know before the test. And as a bonus, it made my classroom run a whole lot more smoothly.

Start With Your Learning Targets

When you’re planning a unit, you should already have a list of learning targets that describe what students need to know and be able to do by the end of the unit. If you’re teaching chemical and physical properties, for example, your learning targets might include distinguishing between chemical and physical properties, identifying examples of chemical and physical changes, and explaining the evidence that a chemical reaction has occurred.

These aren’t just statements to write on the board because your administration wants to see them. (Although, yes, they check that box, too.) They’re a checklist of everything your students should be able to demonstrate by the end of the unit.

And if your assessments are aligned with your learning targets, that checklist is essentially a study guide. Think about it: if a student can successfully demonstrate every learning target you’ve taught throughout the unit, shouldn’t they be prepared for the test? That’s the whole idea.

You’re writing these things on the board to satisfy admin. They’re in your lesson plans. Now just hand them over to your students in an organized way. Boom! You have a study guide.

A Study Guide Is NOT a Practice Test

This is where I think we sometimes confuse two different resources. A practice test isn’t a study guide. It’s a test. It gives students an opportunity to practice answering questions that look like the ones they’ll encounter on an assessment, but it doesn’t necessarily tell them what they need to study.

The exception is when you’re using a practice test diagnostically. If students take a practice test first, identify which concepts or skills they missed, and then use those results to determine what they need to review. The practice test has helped produce a study guide.

I especially like doing this before a cumulative final exam. I actually offer a set of four chemistry final exams, and one way teachers can use them is to give one exam as a diagnostic. Instead of telling every student to go home and “study chemistry” (super helpful), their results can point them toward the specific units and learning targets they need to revisit. The remaining exams can then be used for additional practice or the actual final.

For regular unit tests, though, I don’t think students need another giant packet of questions masquerading as a study guide. They need a clear list of what they’re responsible for knowing and doing. We’re talking about 5-10 days of content in my class. I’m not creating an additional test for that.

Turn Your Learning Targets Into Unit Maps

Instead of handing students a traditional study guide a few days before a test, I gave them a unit map at the beginning of each unit. Mine included lesson titles, learning targets, vocabulary, assignments, and important dates. I organized everything chronologically so they could follow along as we went.

The most important part was that every learning target corresponded with something students needed to know for their assessment. That meant the unit map served two purposes: during the unit, it showed students what we were learning and where we were going. Before the test, it became their study guide. And I didn’t have to create another document per se. I just organized what I already had, (my unit plan) in an easy to understand format for my students. Here’s what it looked like:

Teach Students How to Actually Use It

Of course, handing students a list of learning targets doesn’t automatically mean they know how to study. That’s a skill we have to teach them.

Students can go through the learning targets one at a time and ask themselves whether they can actually demonstrate each skill without looking at their notes. If the target says, “I can distinguish between chemical and physical properties,” can they explain the difference? Identify examples? Answer a practice question independently? If yes, move on. If not, that’s what they need to study.

Because my lessons were numbered and organized around those learning targets, students could then find exactly what they needed. If they were struggling with something from Lesson 7.3, they could return to their Lesson 7.3 guided notes, practice problems, or resources in Google Classroom instead of flipping through 40 pages of notes trying to figure out what might be important. Before I taught all of my lessons on Youtube myself, I would curate videos that students could watch that correpsonded with each of my numbered lessons. It was a lot of work, but once I got my collection, it was an excellent library for my students.

Grab My Chemistry Learning Targets

If you like this idea but don’t particularly want to sit down and write learning targets for an entire year of chemistry, I’ve already done that part for you. (*Insert hair flip*) You’re welcome! You can grab my Full Year of Chemistry Study Guides for free. I’ve broken down the possible learning targets by unit, and they’re completely editable so you can add, remove, or change targets to match what you actually teach in your classroom. Use one unit at a time as you move through the year, give them to students at the beginning of each unit, or combine them into one big study guide when it’s time to prepare for a cumulative final exam.

This Is How I Organize My Chemistry Curriculum, Too

This same system is built into the way I organize my Chemistry Curriculum. I wanted the lessons, learning targets, guided notes, practice assignments, and assessments to work together rather than feeling like a collection of random resources covering roughly the same topic.

Whether you’re using one of my individual chemistry units or the full-year curriculum, students can connect a learning target to the lesson where they learned it and the practice that goes with it. A student struggling with dimensional analysis doesn’t need to review everything they’ve learned about measurement. They can identify that learning target, revisit the corresponding lesson, and practice that specific skill.

It’s a much more targeted approach to studying, and from the teacher’s perspective, you aren’t scrambling to assemble a brand-new study guide every time an assessment rolls around. You’re making better use of the resources you’ve already prepared.

A Study Guide Shouldn’t Be Another Thing on Your To-Do List

I still believe in review games, practice problems, and practice tests. Those give students opportunities to practice the material. But your study guide serves a different purpose: it tells students what they need to know. When your learning targets align with your lessons and assessments, you’ve already created that list. Organize it, give it to your students, and teach them how to use it.

They know what’s expected of them. They can identify what they’ve mastered and what still needs work. And you don’t have to spend your Sunday afternoon making another review packet. That’s a win for everybody.

The post How to Make a Chemistry Study Guide Using Your Curriculum Calendar appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

There is already so much to memorize in chemistry. Element names and symbols. Periodic trends. Solubility rules. Strong acids and bases. The endless vocabulary that comes with learning an entirely new subject. I don’t think students need to add a giant chart of polyatomic ions to that list.

There Are Too Many Polyatomic Ions to Memorize

There are thousands of polyatomic ions. Obviously, we’re not teaching students thousands of them, but even the standard classroom list can get pretty long. And yes, there are some polyatomic ions that show up all the time in high school chemistry: nitrate, sulfate, carbonate, hydroxide, phosphate, ammonium, and a handful of others. I want to focus on those, and those alone.

They’ll Memorize the Important Ones Anyway

Here’s the thing: because they show up all the time, students tend to memorize them anyway. They just do it accidentally.

A student who has named calcium nitrate, written the formula for aluminum sulfate, balanced a reaction involving sodium hydroxide, and then encountered nitrate again during an acids and bases unit probably doesn’t need a separate memorization assignment to learn that nitrate is NO₃⁻. They’ve seen it 47 times. At some point, it sticks.

And I’d rather that memorization happen naturally through repeated use than make students spend an evening drilling a list before they even understand why these ions matter.

Give Them a Polyatomic Ion Chart

When we’re working on ionic bonding and nomenclature, I let students use a polyatomic ion reference chart. In fact, I have my students glue a chart down in the back of their interactive notebooks. Their job isn’t to memorize the chart. Their job is to recognize when they need it and know how to use it.

One little saying I used constantly when teaching nomenclature was: “When there are three capital letters, look for a poly.” If students saw something like NaNO₃ or CaCO₃, those three capital letters were a clue that they should stop trying to treat every element separately and check their polyatomic ion chart. As long as we weren’t talking about organic chemistry, that little rule worked surprisingly well. (Remember, they are polyatomic IONS so they shouldn’t even show up in organic molecules!)

It’s not a perfect scientific law, obviously. It’s a classroom shortcut. But it helped students recognize the structure of the compounds they were naming instead of relying entirely on memorization.

Practice Builds the Memory

By the time students make it through bonding and nomenclature, chemical reactions, and acids and bases, they’ve encountered the most common polyatomic ions over and over again. Nitrate starts looking like nitrate. Sulfate starts looking like sulfate. Hydroxide becomes nearly impossible to forget. And that’s exactly the kind of memorization I want! Memorization that comes from familiarity and use.

I’d rather spend my limited classroom time teaching students how to identify polyatomic ions, use a reference table correctly, and apply nomenclature rules than testing whether they can reproduce a list from memory. Chemistry already asks students to remember plenty. Polyatomic ions don’t need to be one more thing.

The post Should Students Memorize Polyatomic Ions? appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

In my chemistry scope and sequence, National Chemistry Week usually falls somewhere around the periodic table. Moles don’t show up until much later in the year. So while there are approximately one million adorable mole-themed activities out there, I need National Chemistry Week activities that my students can actually DO in October.

You can decorate the room. Make your normal practice a little more fun. Give your students an excuse to move around. Throw in a ridiculous chemistry demo. Basically, let chemistry feel a little special for a week without losing five instructional days in the process. Here are some of my favorite ways to do it!

Decorate Your Room for National Chemistry Week

This is probably the easiest one. Decorate!

You don’t have to go crazy here. Print some chemistry memes. Hang up chemistry jokes. Throw a periodic table tablecloth over something. Put some ridiculous chemistry puns on the board. No matter how you decorate, your students will love it. Hang this National Chemistry Week Banner I created (get it for free!)

You can also get your students involved! Give each student an element and have them make a little poster about it. Hang them around the room for the week and suddenly your National Chemistry Week decorations doubled as a periodic table activity. And if you’re around the periodic table in your curriculum right now too, check out my ideas for helping chemistry students learn their element names and symbols. This is a great week to sneak in some extra element practice without making it feel like extra work.

Lean into the Chemistry Theme

You know that ridiculous chemistry shirt your second cousin bought you for Christmas because you’re “the chemistry person” in the family? This is its moment. Wear the chemistry shirt. Drink your coffee out of the periodic table mug. Put chemistry jokes on the board.

This is the time to break out your nerdy attire. National Chemistry Week is supposed to be FUN. In fact, I wrote an entire post about why I think chemistry is the MOST fun science, and National Chemistry Week is a pretty good time to prove it.

We all know that scientists are some of the smartest people around (insert hair flip).  All of that time in the lab gives scientists insights into patience and human nature that nobody else is lucky enough to receive.  The lessons that can be taught from just a sentence or two of their wisdom can really change a kid’s perspective. The quotes you choose can be super deep, or somewhat superficial.  You can target specific quotes for your students knowing their individual strengths and struggles. I like to have my students interpret these quotes, or put them in their own words for my Do Now assignment.  The bell ringers don’t have to be all chemistry all the time. Our job is to teach them, which will sometimes include teaching life lessons. 

Turn your worksheets into activities

Worksheets are boring – we all know it.  Turn everything you can into a game for the week and see how excited your students are for chemistry class!  This will work for whatever you are teaching in chemistry – you don’t have to adjust your content at all!

• Cut a worksheet into pieces and paste on the wall as a gallery walk.
• Print one copy of a worksheet per row or table, and have them pass the paper down the row in a race.  First team to finish the paper wins a prize (it can be as simple as a sticker or a high five, or maybe a HW pass if you’re feeling generous)
• Get your students up and moving with a Chem Quest, where they follow a question and answer trail around your classroom.
• Create a card sort (I have a few in my store if you want to check them out): Have students physically sort cards into groups. Read more about how I use card sorts in this post.
  • Physical or Chemical Property
  • Ionic or Covalent
  • Atom or Ion (get that one for free by clicking here)
  • Saturated or Unsaturated
  • Acid or Base
• Use the Magic Answer Checker and paired games to turn any worksheet you already have into a self assessment game!

Make Your Normal Chemistry Content Feel Like an Event

This is also a great week to pull out something a little more interactive. Pixel arts, escape rooms, review games, and Chemistry Mysteries can all take the content you’re already teaching and make it feel like something different.

And if you’re around the same place in the school year that I usually am, a Periodic Table Trends Chemistry Mystery is basically perfect for National Chemistry Week. Students are still practicing ionization energy, electronegativity, atomic radius, nuclear charge, and shielding. They’re just using their answers to uncover clues and solve a mystery instead of completing another worksheet. I have a whole collection of Chemistry Mysteries covering different topics, so you can pick one that actually matches wherever you happen to be in your curriculum.

That’s really the goal here. You don’t need to teach something completely random just because it’s National Chemistry Week. Take what you’re already teaching and make it a little more memorable.

Allow Yourself to Go Off-Schedule

Okay, all of that being said, you can also just do something fun. Slime may have absolutely nothing to do with the periodic table lesson you taught yesterday. But that’s fine because IT’S NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK! (Imagine me waving my arms in excitement like Kermit the Frog when you read that.)

Make slime. Tie-dye something. Make elephant toothpaste. Pull out one of those chemistry demonstrations you love but can never quite justify fitting into the curriculum.

You can certainly connect these activities back to chemistry concepts today, or at some point in the future (my vote). You can take today and just make it fun for the sake of fun. There are plenty of days during the school year when we’re worried about standards, pacing, testing, and getting through the curriculum. National Chemistry Week can be one of the days when chemistry gets to be cool just because chemistry is cool.

National Chemistry Week Doesn’t Have to Throw a Wrench in Your Plans

You don’t need five elaborate National Chemistry Week lesson plans. And you certainly don’t need to suddenly teach the mole in October because the calendar says October 23rd is Mole Day. Hang up some decorations. Wear the ridiculous chemistry shirt. Turn the worksheet you were already planning to give into a gallery walk. Let your students solve a Chemistry Mystery. Do your favorite demo.

The point is just to let chemistry feel a little special for a week. Especially by October, when the back-to-school sparkle has worn off for you AND your students, a little change of pace can go a long way.

The post 5 Fun and Easy National Chemistry Week Activities appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

That’s one of the reasons I love teaching my periodic table unit. Along with lighting a Bunsen burner for the first time, I think learning how to actually use and understand the periodic table makes students feel like real chemists. Suddenly, this giant colorful chart they’ve been staring at for years isn’t so mysterious anymore.

My periodic table unit is usually about 10 class days, including the unit test, and I like to mix direct instruction and independent practice with plenty of activities and games. My unit moves through the history of the periodic table, groups and regions, periodic trends, nuclear charge and shielding, and finally electron configuration. Here are some of my favorite periodic table activities that I use along the way.

Start by Making Students Think Like Mendeleev

I start the unit with the history of the periodic table. Obviously we talk about Mendeleev. But instead of just telling students that Mendeleev organized the elements based on patterns in their properties, I want them to get a little taste of what that actually means.

After the lesson, students complete my Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Lab. Students are given anonymous element cards that represent real elements from Groups 1, 17 and 18 of the periodic table. Their job is to look at the information they’re given and figure out how the cards should be organized.

In other words, they’re essentially trying to recreate part of the periodic table without being handed the periodic table. I like doing this so early in the unit because students immediately start seeing that the periodic table isn’t just a chart someone arbitrarily designed. There are patterns in the properties of the elements, and those patterns are the entire reason the periodic table works. It’s also the key to looking at ANY ELEMENT on the table and knowing something about it, even if you’ve never heard of that element before. This activity is included in my Year-Long Chemistry Lab Manual as well as the smaller, Mini Chemistry Lab Book.

Color-Code the Periodic Table

Once students understand why the periodic table exists, we can start figuring out how to read it. We learn about groups and periods, metals, nonmetals and metalloids, and the major families of the periodic table.Then students color-code their own periodic tables.

This is technically included as a “lab” in my lab manual, but if we’re being completely honest, most chemistry teachers would probably call this one an activity. Students color-code the different regions of the periodic table and then answer questions about the patterns and information they’ve identified.

It’s simple, but that’s kind of the point. I want students to start getting comfortable looking at the periodic table and immediately recognizing things like:

• Where are the metals?
• Where are the nonmetals?
• Where are the metalloids?
• What does a group tell me?
• What does a period tell me?
• Where are the alkali metals, halogens and noble gases?

They’re going to use the periodic table constantly for the rest of chemistry. This is where we start making it feel familiar.

Play Periodic Table Battleship

This is probably one of the easiest ways I’ve found to get students to spend a ridiculous amount of time staring at a periodic table without realizing they’re practicing. It’s basically Battleship on a periodic table. Students place their “boats” directly onto elements on the periodic table. They have to place three boats in specific areas of the periodic table. Then they play!

Instead of calling out something like “B7,” students use groups and periods to locate their opponent’s boats. It’s not the most rigorous activity ever created, but it does get students looking at the periodic table, distinguishing between metals, metalloids and nonmetals, identifying groups and periods, and growing more familiar with navigating the table. And in my book that’s important, even if it’s not “rigorous.”

The activity also includes follow-up questions that bring students back to the chemistry, with questions about properties of the different regions and periodic trends. My students always loved the games in this unit, and I loved that they were getting more comfortable with the periodic table every time they played one. Periodic Table Battleship is also included in my Year-Long Chemistry Lab Manual and the Mini Chemistry Lab Manual.

Teach Periodic Trends, But Make Sure Students Understand Why

Once students know their way around the periodic table, we move into periodic trends. We talk about atomic radius, ionization energy, electronegativity and metallic character and learn how each property changes as you move across a period or down a group.

But I don’t want students to just memorize a bunch of arrows, or even the “Lucky Corners.” That’s why I follow my periodic trends lesson with nuclear charge and shielding. Students need to understand why those trends exist.

My regular rhythm throughout this unit is pretty straightforward: Lesson → independent practice → application

I teach each lesson using my Periodic Table Guided Notes, and students have Quick Practice to complete independently after each lesson. There are games along the way, with plenty of standard chemistry questions that keep them learning. But I’m all for it. Sometimes students just need to sit down and practice chemistry independently or with a partner. 

Use a Chemistry Mystery to Practice Periodic Trends

This is an activity I’ve added since leaving the classroom, but it’s exactly where I would put my Periodic Table Trends Chemistry Mystery if I were teaching this unit tomorrow. After learning periodic trends, students have to actually use them.

Rather than answering another page of isolated questions, students work through chemistry questions to uncover clues and solve a mystery. This would fit perfectly after my periodic trends lesson or as review once we’ve covered nuclear charge and shielding. It gives students another opportunity to apply concepts like atomic radius, ionization energy and electronegativity before moving on.

As the students answer the questions, they narrow down a list of suspects to a single culprit in The Mystery of the Missing Mascot. There’s enough suspects that you can assign them to your students and they can role play a bit. It’s a lot of fun!

Play Periodic Table Guessing Game

This is another student favorite and you can grab this one for free! Periodic Table Guessing Game works pretty much exactly how you’d expect it to. Instead of a giant board containing all 118 elements, I’ve selected a smaller group of elements that I actually want students to become familiar with.

Students each choose an element and then take turns asking their opponent yes-or-no questions.

• Is your element a metal?
• Is your element in Period 3?
• Is your element a noble gas?

As they get better at navigating the periodic table, they can eliminate possibilities until they figure out their opponent’s element. But I didn’t want the activity to stop at simply guessing correctly. Students ultimately have to identify 16 different properties of both their element and their opponent’s element.

So they’re playing a familiar game, but they’re also repeatedly using the periodic table to pull information about individual elements. This activity comes from my lab manual, but I also give Periodic Table Guessing Game away completely FREE.

Keep Some Easy Periodic Table Practice on Hand

When you have just ten or fifteen minutes left in class, or you have some early finishers, I have an easy periodic table activity ready to go. It also makes great homework, if that’s your thing. 

My Find the Elements Pixel Art has students identify elements from clues about their properties and location on the periodic table. This one could easily fit near the beginning of the unit once students have learned the basic layout of the periodic table, or it could be assigned for homework.

I also have element name and symbol practice that works well for extra practice, early finishers or unit review. I don’t expect my students to memorize the entire periodic table, but I do want them to become familiar with the elements they’re going to encounter over and over again in chemistry. This is a great mix of periodic table activities that can be used throughout your periodic table unit wherever you have the time to squeeze it in.

In fact, the list of elements I actually have students memorize is also free, right here. 

Build a Giant Periodic Table for National Chemistry Week

If your periodic table unit happens to land anywhere near National Chemistry Week, this is a fun one! I have a printable periodic table that can be assembled into a giant classroom display, and rather than simply coloring the individual element squares, I like to make things a little messier.

We use shaving cream and food coloring to marble the elements. Students can still use different colors to represent the different regions or families of the periodic table, but the shaving-cream marbling makes each element unique and turns the finished periodic table into something that’s actually fun to display, and brings life to your classroom. (Spray the shaving cream on a desk or tray, then drop in some food coloring and swirl with a popsicle stick. Then stick your paper in face down to dye it. Then either squeegee the paper, or rinse it with water. Set it out to dry and you will have tie-dye or marbled paper!)

It’s a great National Chemistry Week activity, but you could really do it anytime you want a collaborative periodic table display for your classroom.

What Do I Actually Want Students to Learn From the Periodic Table?

I don’t need my students to memorize 118 elements. In fact, I think that’s kinda silly. I have a bachelor’s in chemistry and I don’t know the whole table by heart. I want them to memorize the elements that we use all the time in high school chemistry. For the rest of the elements (roughly 2/3s of the table), I want students to be able to look at the periodic table and get information from it.

I want them to understand why the elements are organized the way they are. I want them to recognize the major groups and regions. And I want them to use an element’s location to predict its properties! I want them to understand periodic trends rather than simply memorizing which direction an arrow points.

Most importantly, I want the periodic table to stop looking like a giant wall of boxes. Students have been looking at this thing for years. Now they finally understand what they’re looking at. And between the games, labs, activities and finally understanding this giant symbol of chemistry that’s been hanging on classroom walls forever, this is one of those units where students really start to feel like chemists.

The post How I Teach the Periodic Table: Activities for High School Chemistry appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

And honestly? They are not completely wrong. For most of my teaching career, tests made up a large portion of my students’ grades. (At one school it was as high as 70%). A bad test grade could tank an average, and there was only so much homework or classwork could do to bring it back up. I wanted a chemsitry extra credit system that:

• rewarded effort and positive behavior
• gave students a little bit of control over their grades
• motivated students all year long
• did not require me to keep track of 150 different extra credit totals

That is how my Chem Coins were born.

What Are Chem Coins?

Chem Coins are small laminated paper squares that students can earn throughout the year. I print them, cut them out, laminate them, and then cut them again. They are simple, cheap, and surprisingly powerful. They have values of 1 point or 5 points. Get free printable Chem Coins, here!

Students save up their coins and can use them to add extra credit points to any test. There’s really just one rule. Students may add only up to 20 extra credit points to a given test.

This keeps the system helpful without letting a student turn a 42 into a 100 because they somehow managed to hoard a giant stack of Chem Coins. Twenty points in chemistry is not going to make or break a student’s grade by any means. Chemistry is HARD, remember?

(I also appreciated one of my digital gradebooks that would let me put 42+20 in instead of 62. It let me know that students had already used their points on that particular assignment, and I still knew their original score.) I believe now that most digital gradebooks will let you leave comments or mark in some way that the student used extra credit on an assignment. Definitely use that feature if you have it. Especially if you will allow students to add their points at the end of the marking period like I did. You won’t add bonus points twice or exceed your limit on any assignment. Plus if it comes to it, you have the original score to dispute with parents, guidance counselors, or admin.

How Students Earn Chem Coins

The best part of this chemistry extra credit system is that you can hand out Chem Coins for almost anything you value in your classroom.

Some of the ways my students earn Chem Coins include:

• asking a thoughtful question
• helping another student
• volunteering an answer
• winning a review game
• participating when the class is dragging
• cleaning up after a lab
• finding a mistake on the board
• being especially kind
• doing me a favor
• showing up on time when I am feeling particularly petty

Basically, if a student does something that makes my classroom a better place to be, they might earn a Chem Coin. Students very quickly become invested in the system. Even students who normally do not care much about points suddenly care very deeply about tiny laminated pieces of paper.

Why I Love This System

There are a lot of extra credit systems out there, but most of them require the teacher to keep track of everything. I knew that if I had to keep a running spreadsheet of every extra point every student earned, I would never keep up with it. And imagine the inquiries? “How many points do I have?” Heck to the no. The point is finding a system that works for you and your classroom.

With Chem Coins, students are responsible for keeping track of their own points. If they want to save them for the unit test, they keep them. If they want to use them immediately, they can. If they lose them, they’re out of luck. I know that sounds harsh, but honestly, it is the only way I have found to make a system like this manageable. I do not replace lost Chem Coins. Students learn very quickly to keep them in a pencil pouch, folder, or special pocket in their binder. Heck, some even keep them in their wallets!

Yes, My Students Created a Black Market

I would love to tell you that students simply earn Chem Coins through hard work and responsibly save them until test day. But of course, that never goes according to plan. Students trade them, they bargain with them, they offer to do each other’s homework for them. One student was even renting out his headphones for Chem Coins!

There is absolutely a Chem Coin black market. And honestly? I mostly let it happen. As long as students are not stealing coins, I do not care if they trade a 5 Chem Coins for a bag of chips at lunch. The “buyer” just gave up 5 points for their chemistry score. Clearly there isn’t much else I can do for a kid that is literally giving away test points…

How I Use Chem Coins on Tests

When students take a test, they may turn in Chem Coins with their test to add points to their score.

For example:

• A student who earns a 72 could use 8 points worth of Chem Coins to raise the grade to an 80.
• A student who earns an 85 could use 5 points worth of Chem Coins to raise it to a 90.
• A student who earns a 58 could only use up to 20 points, bringing the grade to a 78.

I have found that this gives students hope without completely removing accountability. They still need to study. They still need to pass the test. But if they have one bad day, one rough unit, or one chemistry concept that just does not click, they know they have a way to soften the blow.

Tips If You Want to Try This

If you are thinking about creating your own version of Chem Coins, here are a few things I recommend:

• Use bright colors so they are hard to fake.
• Consider initialing the backside before laminating for authenticity purposes! Perhaps even drop the school year (2026-2027) so students can’t offload them to next year’s students for a fee.
• Laminate them so they last.
• Make different denominations. (I use 1s and 5s)
• Decide on your maximum number of points ahead of time.
• Be very clear that lost coins are not replaced.
• Expect students to become strangely obsessed with them.

You may be surprised by how motivating a tiny square of laminated paper can be.

Final Thoughts

Chemistry is hard. Sometimes students need a little bit of grace. My Chem Coin system gives students a chance to recover from a bad test grade while still encouraging participation, kindness, effort, and responsibility all year long. And best of all? I do not have to keep track of a single spreadsheet. Don’t forget to get my printable Chem Coins for free, right here!

The post My Chemistry Extra Credit System: The “Chem Coins” My Students Will Do Anything For appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.

Sometimes students just need practice. And as teachers, we often already have perfectly good worksheets that give students exactly the practice they need. We’ve worked hard to create these worksheets that cover all the concepts, test knowledge, and challenge students to think further. 

The problem is getting students to actually want to do them.

So instead of throwing out your worksheets and spending hours creating brand new activities, here’s one of my favorite ways to turn a worksheet you already have into something much more engaging.

Turn Your Worksheet Into a Game

One of the easiest ways to change the feel of independent practice is to give students something to work toward as they complete it. That’s exactly why I created my Magic Answer Checker.

The idea is really simple: Students still complete the worksheet you would normally give them. But instead of working straight through the entire thing and waiting until the end to find out whether they understood it, they check their answers as they go.

When they get an answer correct, they earn a turn in a game. Suddenly, the worksheet isn’t the entire activity. It’s what powers the activity.

And the best part is that you don’t have to recreate your worksheet, copy and paste every question into a new program, or spend your planning period designing an elaborate review game. You use the worksheet you already have!

How the Magic Answer Checker Works

Before class, you enter the answers from your worksheet’s answer key into the Magic Answer Checker Google Sheet. You can enter answers for up to 40 questions. The best types of questions are the ones that have a single correct answer. Think vocabulary terms, numbers, or other simple one word answers. Then, give students the worksheet like you normally would and share the Magic Answer Checker with them digitally.

Students can work individually on the questions while playing one of the included games in groups of 2–4. Once a student solves a problem, they enter their answer into the checker. Correct answer? They get to take their turn.

Incorrect answer? They know immediately that something went wrong and can go back to their work, find their mistake, ask a classmate for help, or call you over. Then they try again. Some of the games penalize incorrect answers, so this can really become a fun challenge. 

The Immediate Feedback Is My Favorite Part

The games make the activity more fun, but I actually think the self-checking aspect is the most valuable part. Think about what can happen during traditional independent practice:

A student completes problem #1 incorrectly. Then they use the exact same incorrect process on #2. By the time they’ve turned in the worksheet and you get around to grading it three days later, that student “practiced” their mistake ten times over. 

With a self-checking activity, students get feedback while they’re still working. If they’re doing well, they know they’re on the right track and can keep going. If they’re struggling, they find out quickly enough to actually do something about it.

Meanwhile, you’re free to circulate around the room, answer questions, work with struggling students, and keep an eye on how everyone is doing instead of standing at the front of the room checking answers one at a time.

You Don’t Need a 1:1 Classroom, Either 

And if your school is moving away from 1:1 devices, you can still use the Magic Answer Checker! The actual student work in this activity is meant to happen on paper, not on a screen. Students solve the problems, show their work, and complete the worksheet just like they normally would. The digital piece is simply there to check their answers. 

Instead of giving every student a device, set up one, two, or three computers or tablets at the front of the classroom as answer-checking stations. When students finish a problem, they can walk up, enter their answer, and immediately find out whether they’re correct before returning to their seats. 

Depending on your classroom setup, you could assign each station to a section of the room or have students line up at whichever one is available. You still get the immediate feedback and self-checking benefits without putting a screen in front of every student for the entire class period. In fact, students might spend only a few seconds at a device each time they check an answer. The technology supports the paper-and-pencil practice rather than replacing it.

You Don’t Need Another Worksheet

This might be my favorite thing about this resource. It doesn’t contain any academic content. That sounds like a weird selling point, but hear me out. You don’t need another worksheet on balancing chemical equations if you already have one you love.

You need more ways to use the materials you’ve already spent years creating and collecting. The Magic Answer Checker is designed to work with your existing resources, regardless of the subject or grade level.

Pull out an old worksheet. Enter the answers. Pick a game. You’re ready to go.

And because the resource includes 8 different games, you can change the game throughout the year even if you’re using the same basic classroom routine. You can even let different groups choose which game they want to play while everyone works on the same assignment.

Great for Review Days, Too

This setup works particularly well when students need a lot of practice, which makes it perfect for review days.

Instead of “here’s your review worksheet. You have 45 minutes.” You can turn that exact same worksheet into a small-group game.

You’re not sacrificing the rigor of the assignment. Students are still answering the questions you wanted them to answer. You’re just changing the experience surrounding those questions. And sometimes that’s all it takes.

Stop Reinventing Your Classroom Materials

There are absolutely times when it’s worth creating an elaborate activity from scratch.But there are also times when students simply need to sit down and practice. You don’t have to feel guilty about that, and you definitely don’t have to spend Sunday afternoon transforming every worksheet in your filing cabinet into a brand new activity.

Instead, find ways to make the materials you already have work harder for you. That’s exactly what the Magic Answer Checker was designed to do.

The post How to Make Any Worksheet More Engaging (Without Making a Whole New Activity) appeared first on Kelsey Reavy.