A weekly update of activities, ideas, videos and webinars of work Cheri is doing with her AP Chemistry students.
Week 1: March 23 – 29 – Getting Started
Just getting accustomed to this new normal. Here’s the initial webinar from Edvantage Interactive after they announced all digital resources would be free until June 30, 2020. Lionel Sandner from Edvantage Interactive gives an overview of edvantagescience.com
Week 2: March 30 – April 5 – My First Week
First week back was hectic. Here’s the webinar from April 2 where I talk about and show a short clip from first day back.
And of course, everyone is asking what to teach and not to teach during this time. I put together a summary of my thoughts based on my two books.
Also, put together a couple of short videos about how to teach Atomic Number vs Atomic Radius and Successive Ionization Energies.
Week 3: April 6 – 12 – Reviewing the Unlocked Resources
Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 3 pm PDT: Reviewing the Unlocked Resources.
Educational companies are helping teachers come online by making their resources available during this time. Join me as I explore some of the best options to support your AP Chemistry. Come see how I use the resources from our friends at AACT, Flinn Scientific, ACS and PhET.
Here’s a summary of good resources I’ve shared with folks and will explore on the webinar.
And the files I used today:
- Activity 4.2 – annotated activity
- Websites visited during webinar, plus some other key links
- Online Assessment Phone and Computer Setup – Here’s the explanation from a colleague on how to set up a phone camera and computer when students are taking a test at home.
Week 4: April 13 – 19 – Reviewing the Unlocked Resources
Yesterday I received an email from the College Board with all the links to the Update webinar for AP Science Teachers. Here’s all the info they sent.
Subject: Thank you for Attending the Presentation: 2020 AP Exam Updates for Science Teachers
Thank you for attending the presentation 2020 AP Exam Updates for Science Teachers on 04/14/2020. It is now available for on-demand playback.
Feel free to forward this email to your colleagues who might benefit from the information. In the webinar we mentioned a variety of resources that are available to support AP teachers, schools, and students with online testing:
- Playback the 2020 AP Exams Updates with Trevor Packer presentation
- Review the Updates for AP Students and Schools Affected by Coronavirus website including:
- Let us know about Students with a Need for Mobile Tools or Connectivity
- Join and participate in the AP Teacher Online Community – a professional learning network connecting AP teachers worldwide. Register using your College Board professional login.
- Register for our 2020 Exam Day Updates for Teachers presentations, starting April 28.
If you had a question that was not answered, please contact the AP Program at apexams@info.collegeboard.org or apexams-intl@info.
Thank you for attending.
Advanced Placement Program
Great opportunity from AACT
Just registered for AACT’s Mock Exam webinar. Here’s the info:
Dear Cheri,
Thanks so much for registering for AACT’s, Scoring AP Chemistry Free Response Questions – An AP Chemistry Mock Reading webinar.. Linda Cummings and Paul Price have made several resources available for you to download in advance of the presentation on Tuesday, April 21st. These resources can be found in the sidebar of the AACT webinar page.
- Presentation Slides
- 2018 FRQ1
- 2018 FRQ1 Scoring Guidelines
- Scoresheet
The presentation slides include student responses to the 2018 FRQ1 and the Scoresheet will be used to score student answers during the webinar. Please familiarize yourself with FRQ1 and the Scoring Guidelines before the presentation.
We are looking forward to having you attend the webinar next week
Attention Canadian Chemistry Teachers – Canadian Chemistry Contest Update
Yesterday I received this email from the Canadian Chemistry Contest folks about having my students re-register for the contest on April 24, 2020. Here’s the email with the re-register link:
Subject: Re-registering for the postponed Canadian Chemistry Contest
Hello Cheri Smith,
We hope you are well and coping with the swift changes your lives because of COVID-19. Perhaps you saw on the Chemistry Institute of Canada website that we have been working hard to modify the Canadian Chemistry Contest (CCC) to an online format. You registered 15 students for the CCC which was originally going to happen on April 6th in schools. Due to the need for social distancing, the contest will now occur online on Friday, April 24th, 2020.
To take the CCC online exam, students will have to register themselves using the rescheduled CCC participation confirmation form.
We would greatly appreciate your help in informing your students that they need to personally register. Please share the link to the registration form with all of the students you think should register for the exam. We cannot securely link students to the exam unless we have their completed registration form for the rescheduled exam. We will hold spots until April 19th for students who registered through you for the original exam. There are limited spots and so quick registration is important. If there are still spots left, registration will close on Wednesday, April 22nd at noon as we need to distribute the contest to hundreds of students across Canada.
Thank-you so much for your help in sharing this information quickly with your students. Wishing you all the best health and safety!
And here’s our webinar recording from yesterday. Great turnout and if you couldn’t join us, hope you can next week.
And here’s the handouts from the session:
And the slide everyone asked for. My interpretation of the format for the two AP questions on this years exam.
Week 5: April 20 – 26, 2020
One topic I find my kids struggle with is Net Ionic Equations. Here’s a short video of me teaching this to my class.
April 23 Webinar: Going Deeper into Student Review and Exam Prep
Great session on sharing College Board information and some resources for unit review. I tried to make sure everything I referenced in the webinar is listed below. Thanks again for joining the session and see you next week – same time, same place!
- My recommendations for what to study from my Edvantage Science AP Chemistry books.
- How to find the green shield questions on AP Classroom.
- Example of my students making summary notes
- Great review resource summarizing everything from AP Live Review videos – thanks to Anthony Tedaldi.
Week 6: April 27 – May 2, 2020 – Big College Board Update!
This has been a full week with a huge College Board update with regards to processes for the exam. I cover the key points in my webinar below. I also have a variety of key links that I’m either using or sharing with my students.
And here’s some key links I’ve been using this week.
The AP Chemistry Exam demo is now live!
All the key key dates and links from the the 2020 Exam Day Update for Science Teachers.
Great activity and video for Determining Kc for FeSCN synthesis from Chemistry Resource Library.
Week 7: May 2 – May 9 – The Push to the End!
We’re getting close to the exam day. Lots of updates and clarifications from the CB. I try to cover it all in this week’s update.
The CB AP Chemistry review videos. Note the playlist is the icon with three short, horizontal lines near the top right.
The slides I used to explain final changes to the exam process.
The slides Part 1 and Part 2 reviewing actual student responses.