Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS)
I was approached by the makers of ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) and was wondering if anybody had used it - and if they did, was it helpful?
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Course Learning Goals
Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College
Mon, 01/26/2009 - 16:13
Thanks to some guidance and support IONiC colleagues, I sat down to critically think about what I want students to learn from my inorganic courses before I wrote my syllabi this spring. For the first time in 16 years of teaching (shamelessly admitted), I included course learning goals on my syllabi. I thought it would be interesting to share these and compare to what other folks are doing.
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Chemistry Demo Scripts for Kids?
I braved my son's 3rd grade classroom this week and brought in some dry ice and liquid N2 demos to couple with their science unit on solids, liquids, and gases. The kids LOVED it! And 3rd graders are such a cheap thrill after cynical college students.
Me: So what do you think is going to happen when I put this balloon in the liquid N2?
Kids: IT'S GONNA EXXXXPLOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!!!!!!! (all of them covering their ears)
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Does your inorganic course "hang together?"
Inorganic chemistry courses can suffer from the same problem as many gen chem courses: Too many topics in too little time. This can lead to student complaints (and our own complaints!) that the course doesn't "hang together." Not hanging together can be detrimental to student learning because it leads to a focus on the infinite "facts" to be learned, instead of the broader themes, concepts, and ways of thinking.
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Has anybody recorded lectures?
So, I am thinking of video-recording at least one of my lectures this term. I am teaching Organic II this spring (and possibly an Inorganic...). In my Organic class I have 1 student who needs both my class and another for her degree (2nd semester senior) at the same time, not enough students to have two sections in either course and I know mine probably couldn't have a time change nor would the senior faculty teaching the other course change his time...thus, I am looking to possibly record the lectures and share with all the students enrolled.
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Inorganic Laboratory Syllabi
As some of us are frantically "dusting off" and "polishing up" our syllabi for courses this spring, I thought it might be interesting/useful to share lists of experiments that you do in your inorganic laboratory course (if you have one). So, tell us a little bit about your course (level, lab pre-requisites, concurrent or separate with lecture) along with your list of experiment titles. It might also be helpful to indicate if any specialized equipment is needed for an experiment other than standard glassware, IR, NMR, UV/Vis.
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How do you use Moodle in your teaching? (Course Management Systems)
I have begun to use Moodle in my courses both as a content delivery tool and to foster more interaction amongst students and between faculty and students. I notice that I use different features depending on if I am teaching our large intro course or my smaller inorganic courses. I would love to hear how different folks are using tools like Moodle in interesting ways in their courses. Last spring, I tried a few assignments where I had students create a wiki. And this fall, in our large intro course, we set up a Database to collect lab results from all the different lab sections. I'
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Fun Science Reading Over the Semester Break?
Hi everyone,
Although I am still grading and can't quite get to the fun stuff yet, I thought I'd throw this question out there--are there any fun and interesting books out there that you've read recently that deal with the process or history of science or other more "social" aspects of it? I thought maybe we could compile a semester break/holiday wish list of science reading!
One book that is very readable and filled with all kinds of fascinating science factoids is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (the travel writer).
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The n things every student should know about bioinorganic
I'm now to the end of my course, and I have the two token days of bioinorganic coming up. Much like solid state, this is a topic which I think is really important, but which I've never felt qualified to teach. Maggie posted a great "7 things students need to know about solids" post a while back, and I was wondering what those with some experience in bioinorganic thought were the "irreducible concepts" of bioinorganic chemistry.
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