Chemical+Reaction+Movie

Project Description:
In January, as the final assessment for our Stoichiometry Unit, pairs of students chose a chemical reaction to research, to carry out and on which to perform a yield analysis. The students were to identify the limiting reactant, calculate the theoretical yield for one of their products, measure the actual yield of that product and calculate the percentage yield. Additionally, they were to present another Chemistry concept, skill or idea from their reaction that we had not yet covered (i.e. pH, exothermic and endothermic, nitrate formation, solution concentration...etc.). Below are links to the assignment rubric (created as a google doc form) and an example of a completed assignment.

Rubric:
Chemical Reaction Movie Rubric

Student Examples:
[|Elephant Toothpaste]

Reflection: The quality of the movies submitted by my students was less than what I had anticipated. Even considering only the content and not the organization and presentation of the content, the quality was poor. The students provided good qualitative observations of the reactions they studied, but did not emphasize the quantitative data that they needed for their calculations, the focus of the assessment. They were so caught up with the wow factor and the freedom of investigating on their own that many of them strayed from the point of the activity - to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of stoichiometric calculations. The students who did spend time with this data and calculations using the data did not appear confident in their own understanding. Regardless of the quality of their work, I still value the creation of a movie or other presentation as an assessment, because it allows the students to explain and demonstrate their understanding in a practical and applicable way. What the quality of the assessments has shown me, is the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of my instruction of the topic. My students could quickly and correctly calculate the theoretical yield of a particular product in a reaction, given the amount of the limiting reactant and the reation formula - because they can perform the mechanics of the calculation - but they cannot or would struggle to explain the how's or why's of the calculation.