Creating Success in Chemistry
At the very simplest level, success in almost any endeavor comes down to two fundamental principles.
- Adopting a positive and effective ATTITUDE
- Taking focused and appropriate ACTIONS
- Your individual resources
- Meeting with your Appointment Teacher
- Our laboratory and tutoring program
Weekly Expectations:
You have five primary resources to help you in learning chemistry successfully.- Your textbook
- A series of YouTube videos
- The Guided Reading and Study Workbook
- Laboratory work and Tutoring Sections
You should plan on using each of those resources in the following manner.
1. Your textbook and Google are active resources enabling you to focus directly on individual terms or concepts.
2. The Guided Reading and Study Workbook is a continuing assignment to be turned in to your appointment teacher on a regular basis. Those assignments will be noted in each lesson on Canvas when required. Please note there will often be a section of questions at the end of each lesson which will be done and graded as part of your overall grade on each block.
3. ALL YouTube videos in each lesson should be watched intently, summarized completely and have important terms highlighted in your summary. Each of the highlighted terms should be defined directly below your summary. These summaries are to be handed in each week.
4. Laboratory Work will count between 15% and 20% of your final grade at the discretion of your teacher. There will be seven or eight weeks in the semester in which laboratory sessions are scheduled. Each session will be scheduled for a two-hour block of time from 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Depending on class enrollment and individual scheduling difficulties, some science labs will be offered two days on those weeks. You are REQUIRED to complete the laboratory component of the course in order to receive credit for the course. Your appointment teacher will provide you with a Laboratory Schedule for labs throughout the semester.
Finally, much of our laboratory work will be done using various laboratory instruments. One of these is an analog to digital sensor called LabQuest 2. Watch the following video to give you a preview of the use of that instrument. As you watch write down any questions you may have or items you want to remember.
Introducing Vernier LabQuest 2
As a student in an independent study school there are a few areas you need to make tangible decisions about.
The first, and perhaps most important, is addressed in the following video.
Time Management for Independent Study Students
The next important concept is that you will NOT be spoon-fed in an independent study school, especially in the science lab program. You need to learn how to make many decisions on your own and decide alone or with your lab group how to attack a problem. Original and creative thought is a learned behavior. Watch the following to help you get started... if you aren't already there... in choosing to think creatively, analytically and totally in an original matter.
The surprising habits of original thinkers
ASSIGNMENT:
1. Write a Summary of each of the videos above.
2. Select and define important "words to remember" from each video.
