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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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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
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
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.