Johnathan Harvell

Tricia Engelhardt
9 March 2017
Lesson #1 Reflection: Holey Moley! : The Chemical Mole Concept and Application
To what extent were the lessons learning targets achieved? (Utilize assessment data to justify

your level of achievement)

In the lesson plan, the main learning targets were presented as: I can visualize the size of

a mole in the context of material described an apply the conversion factor of moles to determine

different amounts of chemicals in different modes of measurement; this means, I can relate the

size of a mole to different types of chemicals/materials, and utilize the conversion factor of

moles to determine the necessary amount of chemicals needed based on molar mass, volume,

atoms/molecules present at standard conditions. Based on the fact that I did not get to the exit

ticket of the lesson to acquire necessary data for the data analysis portion of this lesson, I will be

basing my assessment data on the visual and vocal cues given by students that I personally saw

throughout the lesson. By starting from the beginning in using the Chalk Talk strategy, I could

see that students had a general understanding that there are multiple units of measurements that

scientists use based on the fact that many students were vocalizing suggestions of units for me to

write on the board; however, towards the end of the Chalk Talk activity, I could see that student

were beginning to run out of ideas of units of measurements upon being prompted to suggest a

unit of measurement of volume. This may be due to the fact that they have not been exposed to

units of volume previously in other classes, but I could further understand where I may need to

place further emphasis when going on with the lesson; for example, as I approached the concept

of mole in units of liters, I found that students needed further clarification on what liters

pertained in regards to mode of measurement (i.e. volume). By the end of the lesson, I believe
that students were able to understand that 22.4 L/mol was the conversion factor needed to get

from a number of moles to a number of liters of a substance, but I do not think that they could

still visualize particular volumes in a manner that is useful to them. If I were to teach the next

lesson or had time to review, I would try to show more visuals of volumes of different substances

to help illustrate how large/small some volumes could be depending on the substance in

question, which can be connected to similar analogies between moles/mass and moles/particles.

As the lesson continued, I provided another humorous hook in providing visuals of what

a chemistry mole is not (i.e. an actual mole, and a facial mole). From what I could tell, I believe

that students did not mix up the definitions of a chemistry mole and an actual, physical, mole;

however, in providing My Answers to what a mole was on the power point slide by illustrating

a mole in different contexts, I could see confusion in the students faces. This confusion was

expected, but I do not believe I clarified enough before moving onto the video. I wish I would

have spent more time prompting more questions to the students in why My Answers were

what they were, as well as further addressing the question Does a mole differ based on the

context of what is being described? as prompted in the power point. By omitting these actions, I

believe that this set the students up with smaller amounts of background knowledge than I

intended for students to have upon watching the video. The point of the video was to allow

students first impression of the formal definitions of a mole to grow into comparisons that they

could connect to and comprehend.

After the video, I attempted to provide further connections between the size of the mole

in the context of what is being described by utilizing some personal examples that were

presented by Mr. Gainley. In presenting the first example of iron, I could see that students were

not understanding the connections that I was making (based on blank stares that I saw throughout
the room), thus I decided to move on from the physical examples to the next part of the lecture to

help decrease further confusion that may have been going on with the students. This led into the

mole application part of the lesson, to which I feel was sort of a failure in multiple aspects.

First, upon seeing that I was starting to run out of time, I decided to dive straight into the

units of each conversion factor associated with moles; the main conversion factor that I had

trouble conveying to students was that of molar mass. As I introduced the conversion factor of

molar mass, I could see and hear students not understanding what molar mass was, which led me

to quickly making a verbal comparison between atomic and molar masses of atoms/molecules.

Even with the vocal comparison, I could see that students were still not getting the concept, so I

decided to push forward into the example mole conversion calculations I planned on doing with

students during lecture. As I prompted students to first work on the molar mass conversion factor

problems themselves (due to the fact that they have experience working on problems as a group),

I could see members of each group begin clarifying with other members of their team on what

molar mass was, and how to calculate it. When bringing the students back together to see how

the calculation was performed, some students were vocalizing their answers and methods of

reaching their answers; however, not all students were vocalizing their answers/methods, which

led me to believe that some students were still lost on what molar mass was, and how it is used

as a conversion factor to moles.

Second, during the time allowing students to work on the example problems as a group, I

had a hard time bringing the attention of the class back up front to me, so that I could continue

on with the lesson. Since I wanted to keep the atmosphere for the lesson as a more positive

experience for the students, I decided not to use the mode of yelling to get their attention back,

but did not have another mode to do so. Instead, as a result of me not knowing what to do, some
students decided to help me get the attention of the rest of class by vocalizing themselves. In this,

I came to realize that some of the students were becoming frustrated by the amount of noise in

the room, which could have decreased their ability to learn to a certain degree. With the

frustration of some students present, I found time working for small amounts of time to perform

calculations was not enough to allow students to learn and to settle enough to get the attention of

the class back in a more formative manner; in knowing this and running out of class time, I

decided to move on to the mole conversion mind map that I created on the power point.

This was the highlight of the lesson for me. In showing the steps of creating the mind

map and illustrating the students the mathematical operations of conversion factors to reach each

particular unit presented in the mind map, I could see that students were beginning to understand

the steps of conversions needed to go from one unit of measurement to another; this is further

validated by the vocal realization of connections made by the students when I stated that the

mind map was the same mind map present on their cheat sheet that they use on exams and other

assessments. I was hoping that the students would have an epiphany at this point in the lesson,

and I feel that it was reached by at least a few students.

Overall, based on the visual and vocal cues given by the students throughout the time of

the lesson, I feel that only a few students reached the learning targets associated with this lesson.

I will see the result of this lesson more as I spend time with students in the next few class periods

that I am present in, but, in seeing this, I know that, with an increased time frame and better

clarification of what a mole is/how a mole is used, I can get at least a majority of the students to

reach the learning targets of this lesson.

What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you were to teach again?
 After performing the activity, I found very quickly that this lesson was not meant for the

original 45 minute time frame. As a result, the lesson felt rushed, and the amount of time given

for the students to practice the application of using moles as a conversion factor was decreased,

which allowed for an increase in confusion/frustration among the students in the classroom (from

what I saw visually in the classroom from the students). To prevent this from happening the

future, I plan on increasing the time of the lesson to a 90 minute period instead of 45 minute

period. In doing this, I could allow students up 30 minutes of time to work on example mole

conversion problems with me as a whole class, as well as allowing students to work on mole

conversion problems individually while I assist with each student as needed. This increased time

will allow the students to feel more comfortable in their learning of this concept, and allow them

time to formulate needed questions/requests to give me more opportunities in aiding them as they

learn these new concepts/application of moles.

At the beginning of the lesson, I was originally going to use the Chalk Talk strategy to

introduce the definition of a chemistry mole, so that students could become more engaged by

creatively guessing what a chemistry mole was; however, I decided to change the main question

of the Chalk Talk after finding out that Mr. Gainley had already previously introduced the mole

in the previous class period. With this information, I decided to utilize the Chalk Talk strategy to

get a general understanding of the students knowledge of different units for different modes of

measurement in regards to mass, volume, temperature, and other scientific parameters. The intent

of this change was to allow the student to begin to understand that there are more units of

measurement than the ones that they have previously encountered in their other various academic

experiences. Although I feel that the main goal of the Chalk Talk change was accomplished, I

do not believe that Chalk Talk was necessary at that point in time. The reason being in the fact
that the students did not seem as engaged as I would have hoped, and it seemed that the students

already had good understanding that there are more scientific units of measurement than they had

previously known about. If I could go back in time, I would have omitted the Chalk Talk activity

from the overall lesson that I performed, so that I could have more time for other various

activities in the lesson; however, in future iterations of the lesson, I still do believe that the Chalk

Talk strategy could be useful to introduce this concept to future students, and plan on keeping it

as a anticipatory set for this particular lesson.

Even though I did not have enough time to perform the demo at the end of the class

period, I would have still liked to have performed another type of demo instead of the Elephant

Toothpaste (E.T). The reasoning behind this is based on my belief that the E.T demo does not

really provide clarification on the importance of moles in the context of the lesson performed.

The original demo that I intended to perform was the dehydration of sucrose under acidic

conditions provided by concentration sulfuric acid (D.H); the first reason for using the D.H demo

instead of the E.T demo is based on the fact that materials needed to perform D.H are easier to

obtain than that of the E.T demo. With having easier access to the materials need to perform the

D.H demo, I can help provide better opportunities of students learning in a more efficient, quick

manner than that of searching for the proper material needed for the E.T demo. Second reason of

this demo switching is present in what the demo shows to students. In the E.T, there is quick

release of the oxygen gas due to the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which allows for only

a brief observation by the students of the chemical reaction that is occurring. This does not allow

students enough time to process and speculate on how the chemical reaction is occurring, as well

as enough visual cues of how a mole of substance looks like. In the D.H demo, a slow reaction

between the sucrose and sulfuric acid occurs, in which multiple color changes of reaction slurry
can be observed, as well as the slow formation of a carbon block and water. By performing the

D.H demo, students can have more time to observe the reaction, and what occurs during the

reaction; in regards to the concept of moles, the students can visually see how a big, black block

of carbon emerges from the dehydrated sugar, which would hopefully lead to the realization that

the carbon block is the same carbon that was previously contain within a handful of sugar. Due

to the environment in which this lesson was performed, I could not perform the D.H demo based

on safety reasons (by the exclusion of an in-class chemical hood), which resulted me in choosing

to perform the E.T demo. For future lessons, I will prefer to D.H demo if able, but will keep the

E.T demo on the backburner if I am not able to perform the D.H demo due to safety regulations.

Another omission that I decided to do for this lesson (as well as plan on omitting for

future uses of this lesson) was to use the Avogradros Number video instead of that Mole

Song video that I originally intended to use in the mole size concept of the lesson. The Mole

Song video was sort of cheesy in nature, and thought it could give a basic understanding of how

big a mole is; however, upon stumbling upon the Avogadros Number video, I found that it

would be a good substitute for the Mole Song based on the fact that the video had animations

(which is more likely to grab the students attention better), better background knowledge on the

discovery of Avogadros Number, and better visual illustrations of what the size of mole looks

like (donut analogy, basketball analogy, money analogy, etc).

What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content, etc.)

Based on everything that has been stated in the previous questions, I see future iterations

of this lesson as such. First, I see this lesson being performed in either a 90 minute class period,

or two 45 minute class periods. I would prefer the two 45 minutes class periods in the

assumption that students will better learn by being exposed to the size concept of moles, a break
to assimilate the information, and then being introduced to the application of moles in conversion

calculations. Second, I see using the Chalk Talk strategy to introduce the chemical mole that will

allow for more kinesthetic activity from the students, by having them write ideas on the white

board instead of vocalizing their suggestions of what a chemistry mole is. Third, I see the same

humorous comparison between actual moles and a chemistry mole as seen in the power point,

but spending more time on illustrating the point of how a mole is defined by what mode of

measurement and substance it is describing by invoking students with prompted questions or

leading suggestions of my own. By invoking the students to think about what a chemistry mole

really is in context and not quantity, I can move into the Avogadro Number video to which (in

my belief) makes a great transition of how to think of the mole as both a physical and numerical

size of something.

After the video, I would spend more time reviewing what Avogadros number is in

regards to the units associated with it. By investigating more into the units associated with Avos

number, I will be able to have a better transition into the units of other conversion factors

associated with moles (molar mass and volume) and spend time on clarifying those particular

conversion factors with students having a more mathematical mindset. In having this developed

mindset at this point of the lesson, I can spend a lot more time going over example conversion

calculations with the students, and providing them more individual practice time with prompted

conversion problem while spending time talking with individual students as needed.

With this increased time of group and individual practice, I would feel that students

should have a better understanding of the process of converting to and from moles to other units

of measurement, which would provide the opportune time to present the mole conversion mind

map to the students to help create concrete connections of what they have already learned about
moles so far; hopefully, by presenting the mole conversion mind map, they will be at the level of

understanding of both the concept and application of moles that I would like them to be at the

end of the lesson by giving them that AH HA! moment that I expect them to experience.

Depending the amount of time left in the class period, I would like to perform the dehydration of

sucrose demo to give one last demonstration of how moles can be depicted visually, as well as

lead into how moles are used to understand how chemical reactions occur.

By having this modified set-up of the lesson, I hope to see at least a majority of my

students understanding the size and applications of a mole in the context of what will be

presented to them throughout the chemistry course that they are a part of; however, I must be

prepared to spend either more class time or individual time with students that have still not

reached the learning targets associated with this lesson by providing either differentiated content

to teach the same concepts or other differentiated resources that could be utilized by students to

help have them better understand what moles are and how they are used.