feedback

feedback....ooops, I mean feedforward, it's the newish politically correct term for providing your students with guidance on past assignments and exams with a view to improving their future performances.

[Feedforward not feedback]
"Focusing on solutions, rather than mistakes, on the future, rather than the past, will enhance the self-image of business leaders and employees alike and propel them on the road to success."

Dr Marshall Goldsmith

In this blogpost, I'll refer to feedback as I think it is...feedback by hey call it feed up, feed down, feed sideways whatever you like.  Now, let's get down to the gist of it all, what do we actually mean and does it really help our students?

To me this means valuing making mistakes, reflecting and learning from past experiences rather than classifying an experience as a failure.  In my experience, girls are generally far less willing to take risks than boys and on the occasions where (usually) high achieving girls achieve at a level lower than they are used to their self esteem takes a real knocking which has a resultant effect on their learning in the classroom.  More on how boys and girls learn another time...

So as teachers, what kind of environment and beliefs is conducive to providing feedback? 

"A recognition of the profound influence that assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of students.  A belief that every child can improve.  The establishment of a classroom culture that encourages reflection and interaction and the use of assessment for learning tools.  The establishment of a safe, non-threatening, affective learning environment in which students see making mistakes as an integral part of learning.  Active involvement of students in the learning process. The negotiation and use of learning criteria and goals.  The tracking of individual student progress, through the criteria towards those goals"

OECD Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms (2005)

 Well, one would hope that all of the above applies in every learning environment.

"Feedback is forward looking with a positive focus on next steps for improvement"

Sutton, R School-wide assessment, Improving teaching and learning.

NZ Council for Educational Research (1998)

"Feedback to any pupil should avoid comparisons with other pupils which can lead to failure avoidance rather than a failure tolerance pattern of motivation"

Black and Wiliam: Inside the Black Box (1998)

Ruth Butler’s research of 132 Year 7 (12 year old) students, cited in Black and Wiliam's article above suggests that assigning grades or marks:

l"is not conducive to learning,
l tends to undermine the motivation of weaker students
l encourages students to become more concerned with model answers or finding the right answers or trying to guess what the teacher wants rather than focusing on the learning process, their own ideas and how they can progress towards learning goals."

Butler’s research shows that:

l"Students given only grades or marks made no gain from the first to the second lesson

lStudents given only comments scored on average 30% higher

lStudents given marks or grades in addition to comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments."

and we thought we were doing a good job scrawling detailed (legible/illegible!?!?) comments on our students work!
The following comments on evaluative and descriptive feedback are excerpts from a number of different sources which include "Feed Back…Feed Forward: Using Assessment to Boost Literacy Learning” by Anne Davies.
Feedback is generally classified into 3 groups: motivational, evaluative and descriptive.

Motivational Feedback is to make the learner feel good.  I have found it particularly useful with lower ability students although irrespective of ability, I feel that a feedback session should always start with some Motivational feedback.

Feedback that is intended to encourage and support the learner.  — —does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning.

examples of motivational feedback are... “I like how you completed the assignment.” — —“You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes."

Evaluative Feedback (ego related)

The goal is to measure student achievement with a score or a grade.  Students in general like to know their personal grade in terms of percentage, marks out of etc.. and others like an idea of the class median and mean to get an idea of their placing. Top placing particularly appeal (in general) to boys competitive nature.

Feedback with performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings typically uses a single measurement —may compare students to each other —does not give students information about specific elements (knowledge, skills) they perform well —may encourage competition —sometimes linked to rewards vs. punishments —stifles learning —generally summative type of assessment  — —feedback that is intended to summarize student achievement.  — —does not give guidance on how to improve the learner’s reasoning.

examples of evaluative feedback are... That’s a good essay. You’ve done well. typically uses a single measurement     73%    You’ve shown improvement   You need to try harder performance standards with numbers to indicate ratings 8/10 checks on a checklist letter grades

Descriptive feedback (task related)
The goal is to improve student achievement by telling the learner what steps to take in order to move forward in the learning process.  

Feedback that is specific about what is working and points out next steps in the learning describes features of work or performance —relates directly to learning targets and/or standards of quality using exemplars, rubrics and/or samples  —points out strengths and gives specific information on how to improve —provides strategies for moving forward —promotes learning by increasing motivation —formative assessment

examples of descriptive feedback are...  "In your essay you have successfully covered the main points related to energy conservation. What could you add to the section on the water conservation to deepen your reader’s understanding of the issue?” “Most of your spelling is accurate. I found only two errors. See if you can find them.” “You used a lot of details as was shown in our samples. You mentioned seven different things you liked about dogs.” “Your map legend has all of the required key elements needed to identify the geographical landforms.” “You accurately found the number of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes.  You now need to divide this number by the total number of students to get the overall percentage of students in Year 7 who wear size 8 shoes."

Clarke states that

"Teachers give their students too many criteria making it very difficult for specific feedback to be given too much information in their marking which students find overwhelming and difficult to take in."

Clarke suggests that

"when giving written feedback that teachers highlight three successes in the student’s work and one area here some improvement is necessary."

Clarke: Feedback that fits, (2001)

If you're interested in some more relevant readings on feedback have a look at... Fisher and Frey: Feed up, Back, Forward (2009) and  S Brockhart: Feedback that fits, (2008) 

"The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.  The simplest prescription for improving education must be ‘dollops of feedback."

Hattie, 1992

Here are some more suggestions on how to provide feedback to your students.

PMI (plus, minus and interesting) 2 stars and a wish (Two "I really liked how you"... and one "I think you could improve your work by..." one-on-one personalised feedback discussion in class time while other students are occupied or outside of class time. insert track changes in Microsoft Word (tools, select track changes), type in comments, insert ticks (insert symbol, search for wingdings: tick), while you're there you might as well create a shortcut for future use eg CTRL t I have found track changes particularly useful for providing feedback to students on their attempts at longer "discussion" or "evaluate" style questions students to use a marking schedule to write comments on to their own work, then peer or teacher comments peered marking of assessments (provided that you are totally confident that students will be respectful of other students work, if not) try marking of fictitious persons answers teachers can post general class or individual feedback on a cyberwall with "stickies", I recommended Wallwisher for this.

and finally here's some actual exam answers, which is a bit of a worry!

 

burnt toast

burnt toast, graphite, diamonds, buckyballs and the relatively recently discovered nanotubes all have one thing in common....they are made up of carbon atoms.  

Organic Chemistry is the study of carbon compounds.  There are are close to 10 million carbon compounds, they make up 99% of all of known compounds, so, organic chemistry is pretty important, now that's an understatement!

This video from NOVA and adapted by Teachers Domain gives a lovely intro to carbon before getting our teeth into the nitty, gritty stuff.

More often than not I find that students have real difficulties with Organic Chemistry, they "can't see the forest for the trees".  As teachers, and particularly Chemistry teachers we usually work on small sections of a topic and build on students knowledge piece by piece, a little like doing a jigsaw puzzle.  It's wonderful when that lightbulb flicks on and one day they just "get it".  However, with Organic Chemistry I have found that providing my students with an overview at the beginning of the topic helps them to see where we are going with the topic.  See below the basic organic and detailed organic overviews that I have produced, they are available to download from here but even better on completing the topic get your students to produce their own overview using Inspiration or a good ol' pen and paper.
Here's my overview of basic organic chemistry...

and an overview of more detailed AS level organic chemistry...

See below for a list, a long one...of useful organic chem resources,  most references are stated, just click on the titles to download

Fractional distillation

Cracking
Alkanes and Alkenes

Molymods are an essential tool for helping students to visualise the structure of hydrocarbons, if you don't have any, plastercine or polystyrene balls and cocktail sticks will work almost as well.  The 3D visualisation too, Chime (as mentioned on one of my previous blog posts "water hydrant") is also very useful to help students get a clear picture in their mind of what these molecules actually look like.

See below a link to a powerpoint and video on alkanes and alkenes from Continuing Chemistry by Anne Wignall and Terry Wales.  

Powerpoint on Alkanes and Alkenes which covers cracking, addition and substitution reactions by reaction with bromine water, Markovnikov's rule, formation of diols using potassium permanganate

Continuing Chemistry is designed for students sitting exams in New Zealand but without a doubt would be beneficial for those studying organic chemistry in a secondary school anywhere around the world.  This highly, highly recommended resources is so much more that just a 226 page book with CD.  Continuing Chemistry has straightforward explanations, clear examples, original questions with answers, interactive revision tasks, interactive and write on examination style questions. The Powerpoints and accompanying videos are of a consistently high quality.  Continuing Chemistry and other related resources are available to purchase here.
This book and CD are without question in my top 5 of recommended resources to Senior Chemistry students, irrespective of what country and which examination board they will be assessed under.  But, don't take my word for it, buy a copy and judge for yourself.

Use of a "double bubble" helps students to reinforce their understanding of the differences between alkanes and alkenes and their reactions.

This is a good opportunity to introduce data books to your students as they research the melting and boiling points of alkanes and alkenes before plotting a graph of the melting/boiling points in relation to the number of carbon atoms in the molecule.  Sure, they can find out the answer on google, but every chemistry student should have the experience of gripping a data book and sifting through the pages to find the information that they require and ensuring that they take the time to reading the keys for the titles of the columns correctly. The first time they do this it will seem a little daunting.

Isomers

Click here to download a pdf which summarises the different types of isomers: chain, positional, functional group, geometric and optical.

Optical isomers give you the opportunity to discuss thalidomide because it exists as two optical isomers, one of which levororatory (L) is a severe tetragen.  Caraway seeds and spearmint are made up of the same molecular structure but have quite distinct and different odours due to being optical isomers of each other. Click on the text for a good teacher explanation and student experiment info sheet

and the following 3 animations help students to grasp and understanding of polarised light and enantiomers.

Combustion of alkanes and alkenes
One can recap on the use of a bunsen with the door open (oxygen in, noisy blue flame, therefore complete combustion) and door closed (limited oxygen in, orange flame, therefore incomplete combustion) but there are far more exciting demo's available such as methane bubbles and exploding can as shown in the videos below

and students can practise balancing equations using the animations below, this is also a good opportunity to discuss the importance of using gas fuelled cookers, heaters etc in a well ventilated area with a carbon monoxide alarm at hand. First Alert Carbon Monoxide alarm

Polymers
These are great last day of term activities, make a polymer superball, make slime and the nylon rope trick and the following animations help students to visualise what's actually happening to the molecules as they form polymers

Alcohols

To introduce alcohols I usually carry out the whoosh bottle demonstration, burning money and errie green glow, they are outlined on my previous blogpost flash, bang, wow attention grabbers

By lighting a few ml's of different alcohols in a watch glass students can observe the differences between the alcohol flames undergoing complete and incomplete combusion.

Aldehydes and ketones

This giant silver mirror example of the usual Tollen test for identifying aldehydes is very spectacular, worth a try!

RSC - a giant silver mirror

Esters

Students enjoy the experiment of making esters although the smells produced range from glue to vomit smelling, not as fruity as they should be, see below a handout on making esters and an copy of "Making methyl salicylate" which is 1 activity from a booklet of 37 of high quality thinking skills activities (with answers) for Senior Chemistry students.  This is produced by McTogi, click here for an order form.
Soap
See below a good powerpoint outlining how to make soap (both in theory and practice) as well as clear diagrams on how soap works.

Real life organic chemists and their stories
Another good end of term suggestions is real life stories or real life organic chemists, the videos and additional information are from Teachers Domain

the impact of technology - nylon	synthesising a steroid	synthesising a alkaloid
fuel cells	the hydrogen car	Catherine Drennan

Finally, a couple organic chemistry beauty tips...

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream is perfect for lips, elbows, knees.  The active ingredient is petroleum jelly aka soft paraffin (56.8%).  Petroleum jelly is a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons with a chain length of 25 or more carbons.  However, a tub of Vaseline will do the trick for a fraction of the price or for those health conscious ones amongst you, beeswax is a better option.

Estee Lauder has a extensive range of luxurious face creams and there are hundreds of different body moisturisers out there.  My tip, ask for a tub of Cetomactogol cream at your local pharmacy, it is a top quality moisturiser and apparently the base for many expensive face products and being available so cheaply it makes a wonderful body moisturiser too.

L'Occitane Shea Butter soap is gentle on the skin, however a soap made from glycerol aka glycerin helps the skin to retain moisture and is safe to use on eczema and the most sensitive skins.

Time to put my face mask on, feet up and relax,
Have a great week!

climategate

Climategate, the phrase coined by James Delinpole on his Daily Telegraph blog, to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in November 2009.
In the video below, Edmund Jenks gives his take on those hacked emails and the response from the media and conspiracy theorists around the world. 

and The Huffungton Post has a well documented slideshow on The six most dubious claims about the supposed "Global warming hoax".

So...global warming as a result of increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, thus resulting in a warming of the Earth's atmosphere in a effect similar to that of a greenhouse, hence referred to as The Greenhouse Effect.  Have we, humans caused this increase in levels of CO2, thus setting our atmosphere a little out of kilter, or is this a natural occurance?

Well there's two camps...one, it is real, it is happening and has been occurring since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution....two, it just a natural cycle of warming and cooling.

 

Where do you lie? which side of the fence?  hmmm...you want evidence for global warming...here it is....

The Annual Mean Global Temperature increase, there is more info from RealClimate here 

Thermometer based temperature trends compiled by NOAA (The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with data from NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) and CRU (UK Hadley Center Climate Research Unit), there is more information from the NOAA National Climate Data Center here

The Arctic Ice cap is thinning, there is more info from NASA here

The Arctic Ice cap is also shrinking, there is more info from NASA here

Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice anomaly, more info from NSIDC here

 There are interactive animations on the sea ice in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres here at Cryosphere.

Antarctica areas where melting occurred for a greater number of days (indicated in red) see additional information from NASA here

Antarctic changing temperatures since 1957, more information from NASA here

 Antarctica ice loss has speed up, see more information from NASA here

The first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record, see graphs and information from NASA GISS (Global Institute for Space Studies) 

Carbon dioxide does cause global warming, more information from Zfacts here

This research paper "Stabilizing climate requires near zero emissions" states" H. Damon Matthews and Ken Caldeira,, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, XXXX, 2008 Matthews and Caldeira state that

"International climate policies aimed at climate stabilization must reflect an understanding of the lasting effect of Greenhouse Gas emissions: year 2050 emissions targets currently being proposed are likely insufficient to avoid substantial future climate warming.  Stable global temperatures within the next several centuries can be achieved if CO2 emissions are reduced to nearly zero."

and a related article from the New Scientist

William R. Wilson has a superb series of posts titled "Evidence for global warming",

Finally, an interactive timeline from The New York Times on the Science and Politics of Climate Change

and if you haven't been bombared by enough facts, figures and graphs watch the Oscar winning documentary film "An Inconvenient truth" presented by the former United States Vice President Al Gore, the man who helped make climate change the number one dinner party conversation.
Convinced yet??
Now, what changes will you make to reduce your carbon footprint???