Group work in chemistry is not only a great way to promote student collaboration but also an essential tool for deepening understanding. Plus it helps to keep your students happy. I seriously can’t stand a silent classroom. Plus I’m a huge believer in “two heads are better than one.” When students work together, they engage in discussions, explain their thinking, and help one another grasp challenging concepts. Group work doesn’t have to be a headache. In fact, it’s the default setting in my classroom. Here are some practical ways you can incorporate group work into your chemistry lessons and classes, including strategies I use in my own classroom.
Collaborative Laboratory Experiments
Obviously – labs. Just like swimming, you shouldn’t “lab” alone. Labs are a cornerstone of chemistry education, providing hands-on experience that reinforces theoretical concepts. In my class,students work together on everything from set up to clean up. The only thing they can’t do is copy the exact same conclusion paragraph as a partner. That drives me nuts… Some teachers like to assign the groups or even the roles within the groups. I have no energy for that. I just let my students work with whomever they like. I’ll only make groups if I need to.
I find that by allowing students to choose their own groups it is really rare that one student does all the work. I do have a rule for some classes that need the push: “All students must have their hands on the lab.” As in, everyone has to do something. Just like real life, I allow students to delegate tasks within the group on their own. By working in small groups, students practice both teamwork and lab skills.
Group Work After Lectures: Problem-Solving Activities
After I finish teaching a lesson, students work independently on their “Show What You Know” questions. This gives them a litmus test of what they understand and what they don’t. They have some time to ask questions before diving in to the next activity. Sometimes it’s a pixel art, or a card sort. Sometimes it’s a Chemistry Quest or a task card activity. I will occasionally grade these assignments. I like to collect 4 or 5 during the week and “roll a die” to decide which one I will grade.
So because my students already know how well they understand the day’s content, and they’re unsure if the assignment is graded, they are very invested in doing well on these assignments. Having them work together helps them to come up with the right answers and really work to understand the content.
Turn and Teach
A simple but effective strategy for group work in chemistry is the Turn and Teach method. This technique integrates into your actually lecture and is great if you really want those assignments to reflect individual work.
Students pair up during the lecture. You teach for five or so minutes. Then in each pair, one student will turn to the other and teach them what you just taught. I know that sounds silly, but it helps them to reinforce what you are teaching. Somebody explains the content, the other will hear it in a new way. Read more about Turn and Teach in this blog post.
Whole Class Puzzles and Challenges
Incorporating puzzles or collaborative challenges can provide students with an engaging way to work together in chemistry. Whether it’s an escape room, a mystery or, end of unit review, these activities are a blast. They get students out of their seats, working together or racing against each other. (Come to think of it, that happens a lot with task cards too.) I love to create these activities. There’s tons in my TPT store.
My favorite of these types is the Chemistry Mystery. I have a few different topics. The students are effectively answering pretty boring questions: lab safety, spectral lines, nomenclature… But they gather clues. These clues help them to figure out who in the class has committed a crime. (Like stole the cookies from the cafeteria – nothing serious.) The kicker is that the suspects are all students, which you can assign to the students in your classroom. So each student takes on a persona and has to defend themselves from being the culprit by saying things like, “Number 4 give the clue “Drive” but I walk home from school, so it can’t be me!”
I really love these activities so much. They’re perfect for classrooms of students that need to be hands on, but you need some help with boring topics like electron configuration to keep them interested.
Group Testing
This is one that I occasionally break out for my students. Typically Honors students that wind up with a chemistry assessment on the same day as a Calculus test. I’m not trying to be the mean teacher! In this case, students can pair up and take the quiz with a partner. I don’t let them talk out loud, because then it becomes a classroom quiz. Although, I’ve done that before too.
Sometimes I let them use their notes. Other times, they get 5 minutes to Google search for assistance. The rules really depend on the group of kids in front of me and how I’m feeling that day and their grades in the class and the importance of the assessment. For things like this I always let them choose a partner. I’m not going to be blamed for them “tanking the quiz” because of their pairing. Try this once or twice and I’m sure your students will love you for it.
Conclusion
Integrating group work into your chemistry classroom doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether through structured labs, group problem-solving sessions, or cooperative assessments, there are many ways to engage students in meaningful collaboration. By incorporating these strategies, you can create a classroom environment where students learn from each other, deepen their understanding, and become more confident in their chemistry skills.
