Engaging Demos: Salts and Hydrolysis

One of my favourite aspects of classroom teaching was doing engaging demos that were both fun and educational.  Chemistry of course lends itself ideally to this type of learning with a myriad of possibilities in terms of both chemicals and chemical interactions.  One challenge however,  is the time it takes to set up the demo and then the dismantling and cleanup involved.  So I always searched for and developed demos and activities that were a balance between learning, excitement and efficiency.

Another challenge is engaging all of the students with the demo in such a way that the entertainment value does not overshadow the concepts being illustrated.  For those of you teaching Chemistry 12, if you are still doing acids and bases, here is one of my favourite demos/activities for actually engaging students in an entertaining and educational way that is really easy and simple to set up.

Investigating Salts and Hydrolysis

Ideally, this activity would be done completely by the students after they have learned the basics of acid/base hydrolysis.  However, given time constraints and the cost and cleanup of chemicals, this combined activity and demo is an excellent alternative.  I start by putting the students in groups and handing out this data table.   Students are instructed to find or calculate Ka and Kb as required and  to determine the relative acidity of each solution: acidic, basic or neutral.  All students should be able to do this part relatively easily.

Once they know all of the relative acidities the next challenge is to analyze K values and actually rank the solutions from most acidic to most basic.  You might offer a bonus mark or two to the teams that are able to get the exact order correct.  (Don’t worry there is an anomaly built in to prevent too many perfect predictions.)  Once the students have finished, the activity turns into a demo where I test the colour change of each of the substances with universal indicator solution.  I have containers of each of the dry chemicals and I use a wooden splint to add a few crystals of each of the salts into their own test tube half filled with universal indicator solution.  You can have all ten test tubes pre-filled before hand so that when you start, all the test tubes will be green and when you are finished a rainbow of colours will help place all of the salts in the correct order from most acidic to most basic.

A little enthusiasm can easily be added by having students predict colours just before the salts are added to the solution.  Also, the built in anomaly is that the calcium carbonate does not fit where predicted by most of the students because of its lack of solubility.  So this can also be used to enforce previously learned concepts.  Once they understand the position of the carbonate, students are always impressed by how well everything falls into place according to their predicted order.  Seeing the rainbow of test tubes at the end is pretty cool and if you happen to have a chemistry 11 class coming in after that, you can point out what they can look forward to in chemistry 12.

The demo is really easy to set up, there is very little waste which is also non-toxic and salts can be added or removed from the activity depending on availability.  If you try it out or have done this activity in the past, let me know what you think and how you may have modified it.

Enjoy!

Is Online Tutoring Better Than In-Person Tutoring?

Now that I have been tutoring almost solely online for more than a year, I have found that there is very little that I can’t do in my online classroom that I can do in person, and others agree.  Given the convenience for both students and parents, I am convinced that more and more demand for online tutoring will be materializing in the near future.  Of course the most important factor in any tutoring situation is still the quality of the tutor (and hopefully I have that covered).  But all things being equal, online tutoring  is easily as effective as in-person and I think that it’s even better.

One of the few challenges that I faced when I began tutoring online was monitoring student off-screen behaviour.  If I asked a student to show me how to construct the solution to a problem for example, I wouldn’t be able to see what the student was doing on paper until they showed me the finished product by presenting their paper to the webcam.  This worked relatively well, except that if the student was on the wrong track, I wasn’t able to correct them until they showed me their work.

In order to try to improve the efficiency of my tutoring and make the best use of session time, I began insisting that students verbalize their actions as they wrote out solutions and attempted to solve problems on paper.  The results were better than I expected.  The verbalization not only helped me get the student on track quickly, it also allowed me access to some of the student’s thinking processes.  In some cases I would allow the student to carry on with their solution even if incorrect, so that I could understand better what their misconception was based on.  Some research shows that an added bonus for the student is that verbalizing can actually contribute to the learning process.

I can safely say that every student and parent that has experienced tutoring in my online classroom has been more than pleasantly surprised with the effectiveness.  Convenience and efficiency are added and significant bonuses. Better understanding, better marks and overall increased enjoyment of chemistry always makes for happy customers.  If you are looking for high quality and convenient chemistry tutoring for you or someone you know contact me for a free half-hour trial.

Making The Most of Your Online Tutoring Experience

There seems to be a widespread perception that online tutoring is necessarily inferior to in-person tutoring.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  While the quality of any tutoring depends largely on the skills and experience of the tutor, online tutoring can be just as effective as in-person tutoring and when you consider the convenience and cost, even better.  Here are some tips to ensure that you make the most of your online tutoring experience.

  • For best results use a computer with a large screen that is hard-wired to the internet.
  • Make sure that your camera and microphone are both working and turned on.  Some students are shy about being on camera, but visual interaction is key for the success of both the tutee and the tutor.
  • Be ready to enter the online classroom before the scheduled start of the session.
  • Have materials ready to use: paper, worksheets, calculator and any other documents that might be required like a periodic table for example.
  • Send documents and topic information to the tutor well in advance of the session (preferably 24 hours).  When sending documents, pictures will work but good quality scans will show up best during the session.
  • During the tutoring session, verbalize your actions and thought processes as much as possible. This will allow the tutor to know what you are writing and how you are coming to conclusions.  It has also been shown that verbalizing can be a key aid to the learning process.
  • Don’t be afraid to suggest answers, ask questions and actively participate.  

With the right online tutor (me for example), following these simple guidelines will help make your online tutoring experience at least as good as in-person.  Considering the convenience and cost, it will be even better.

Contact me now to set up a free half-hour trial.

Get Online Chemistry Tutoring In British Columbia

High school chemistry can be a challenging subject.  However, with the right instructor and/or some online chemistry tutoring it can be the most interesting, enjoyable and rewarding subject you will ever study.  At BCTutoring Online, I am an experienced chemistry teacher and an expert tutor specializing in only British Columbia curricula Chemistry 11 and Chemistry 12.  And I do it all online.

Chemistry 11

Chemistry 11 is an introduction to chemistry.  It builds on the chemical concepts and skills that students learn in Sciences 8, 9 and 10.  Beginning with an introduction to matter and a review of naming and writing chemical formulas, the course introduces the mole concept and its application to Grade 11 chemistry tutorstoichiometry.  In addition, students learn more detail about atomic structure, bonding, solution chemistry and an introduction to recognizing and naming organic compounds.  For students planning on studying Chemistry 12, the two most important pre-requisite units are stoichiometry and solution chemistry.

Chemistry 12

Chemistry 12 is an advanced course in chemistry, bridging Chemistry 11 to the experience that students will have in a university level chemistry course.  It focuses on 3 concepts: chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium and oxidation  grade 12 chemistry tutor reduction reactions.  Chemical equilibrium is by far the most prominent topic and includes solubility and acid base equilibria.  Understanding, the concept of equilibrium early in the course is fundamental to the student’s overall success in Chemistry 12.  While a basic proficiency in algebra is important in the study of both Chemistry 11 and 12, good algebra skills and to a lesser extent the understanding of logarithms are critical to student success in Chemistry 12.

When Should I Get Tutoring?

Remember that a little tutoring help early in the course can be far more beneficial than a lot of tutoring near the end.  I see far too many students that require a lot of tutoring just to pass the course when they could have received a little tutoring here and there throughout the year and probably gotten an A or a B.

Chemistry is much like math, in that many concepts learned early on are used repeatedly throughout the year as building blocks for other concepts.  Not learning the material as it is presented can make the entire course much more difficult than it should be.  Getting some online chemistry tutoring could  be just what you need.

 

Contact me now to set up a free half-hour trial.