What I want you to blog about

So each of you will have your own blog this year. I would like the blogs to start our class discussions. I will be grading your blogs also, and the rubric is posted here. What I expect in your posts: You will be posting whenever we read something after a lab. This will always be after a lab, so you will be trying to connect the reading to the lab. Feel free to ask questions, but if you ask questions then give a hypothesis as to the answer. Feel free to try out theories, and feel free to be wrong. I am not grading these for correctness. Of course you can always go back later and change it. Most of all show me what connections you make and what stands out as good or awesome or interesting to you, since I can often offer more information about those things in class. Here is the rubric I use:

CATEGORY Mastery Expert Intermediate Beginner
Explanation  Main Points of the reading are explained in the author’s own words, and explained with a level of understanding. Think about this like you are explaining to a sibling what you read about chemistry tonight.  Main points of the reading are explained, but details are lacking or the explanation is incomplete.  The reading is not explained completely. Main points are not hit, and the explanation is inaccurate. The reader shows their effort in the explanation, but misses the mark.  The explanation is more of a set of bullet points. A full explanation is not really attempted.
Relation to Lab
Labwork and the reading come together to help understand both pieces better. The blog illustrates the chemical principles discussed in the reading as they pertain to the lab.
Thoughts on the reading are related to the labwork, but hypotheses of how they fit together are not attempted.
A summary of class and the reading is present, but they seem to be two separate pieces of the writing.
Reflections are vague, and don’t illustrate the ideas from class. They are a summary of the reading.
         

 

The first post!

Hi Students, this is my first post. On my blog you can expect to find big assignment deadlines (like the projects) on the calendar on the side, as well as a listing of big things like school breaks and such. In the calendar your class each has a color, as well as a general color for breaks and stuff.

I will also post answers to chem to go questions, and I hope to post images of important things as well. Really, I’m not entirely sure what will end up here, so…here goes!

C

 

Mr. C's Chemistry Blog