Thursday, June 28, 2007

 

AP scores trickling in...

Wow, the College Board must need money; they have opened up the phone lines for AP scores already!
So far, Varsity has its first FIVE! Updates soon...
let's make that 2, TWO, "FIVES" ah ha ha...I feel like "The Count" from Sesame Street!
more updates soon...
three, THREE "FIVES" aa aah aaah!
keep it going! more to come...
okay now, for the 4th of July, let's make that FOUR "5's" !!!! yes!
updates soon, I hope!

BY THE WAY, an unprecedented REVOLUTIONARY event has occurred in biology; this is probably going to be as big as the invention of the computer:
ARTIFICIAL LIFE!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

 

Happy Summer!

I wish you all a happy and healthy (they go together) summer! School is a four-letter word for the whole summer but keep your minds active and try to learn the things that you didn't have time for during the school year (like remembering how to have fun, haha). Good times.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

 

GOOD TIMES!

Here's how we did on the Regents:
ALL's WELL THAT ENDS WELL!
Class averages:

D: 95.2 % scales to a 93.3
I can see from almost all of the test booklets that you put in an awesome effort. Thank you all!
G: 95.0 % scales to a 93.3
Congrats on a great performance. Again, the clarity and conscientiousness demonstrated on almost all of the tests deserves several hearty rounds of applause (and raises in allowance!).

E: 86.2 % scales to an 84.6
(probably THE highest (or very close to it) Regents-class average in NY!!! Way to go window-sill gang!!!) Nobody failed. Repeat. Nobody failed. IN FACT, there were only four scores below 80% .
Go back to play! Commence enjoying the summer!

Thanks to all of my classes on the successful completion of our chem course. I hope that you learned that hard work, real schoolwork, has value and meaning, that it can make you a better student and even a better person, and that you do not have to shirk any challenge in your future. Best of luck, continued success, and happy vacation to you all!

 

so far....

so good! We have TWO perfect scores, one from Honors, one from Regents!...more updates later!

now make that THREE perfect scores! and TWO unbelievably near misses; question 63 states that the volume of Ne was 24.4 L NOT 22.4 L; that was a total psyche-out but it shows the IMPORTANCE of CAREFULLY READING, UNDERLINING, CIRCLING key data and TRIPLE-CHECKING YOUR ANSWERS! Oh well, getting 84 out of 85 is something to be extremely proud of!
TWO, make that THREE more 100's were prevented by not checking the melting point of LEAD directly on Table S AND converting the Kelvin temperature to Celsius. Anyone can make that error but that mistake is easily caught upon reviewing your work.
Again, super scores (!!!) but they could have been the ultimate with just a little more explicit checking.

NOW, for my rant AGAINST the NY State Regents Board:
LOOK AT THE UNFAIR SCALE that they make us use to grade the Regents:
Chemistry Regents scale June 2007
Notice that there are NO 99's ! No 97's! No 94's! No 91's!
Take ANY score above a 76 (divide the number correct by 85 to get the true percent correct answers) and see that your score was scaled DOWN by about THREE POINTS!!!
So, just know that I KNOW that you did better than your NY State Regents "scaled (down)" score. NOTICE ALSO that people who got ONLY 56% of the credits got a 65 scaled score !!! So, those who did very well (you guys) were significantly penalized, and those who "failed" were lifted over the passing bar. Way to go NY Board of Regents. Don't bother complaining to them either; they will NEVER change no matter what happens. It is a nameless, faceless bureaucracy that answers to nobody.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

 

Drum roll please...

Here are the class averages for the multiple-choice part of the Regents:

D: 47.4 out of 50 (happy tiiiimes!); THREE students got 50 out of 50 (those bonus Regents exams and review sessions HELPED!); FIVE students got 49 out of 50!

G: 47.2 out of 50 (niiiiiice!); TWO students got 50 out of 50 (frequent bonus Regents and review session attendees, of course!)
FIVE students got 49 out of 50!


E: 43.3 out of 50 (highest Regents-class average! kudos!);
ONE student got a 50 out of 50. TWO students got a 48 out of 50.

 

Initial impressions...(updated!)

First of all, I want to thank you for the maturity and diligence that you demonstrated today. To see "all" ( 99.9% !) of my students voluntarily stay for at least 2.5 hours and to have many of you "go the distance" makes me so proud of you.
My initial glance at the part I grades:
VERY GOOD! I am REALLY IMPRESSED especially with the REGENTS class multiple-choice performance (Honors did great so far, too)!
SIX students are still in the running for a 100!!! These students all frequently attended the Regents review sessions.
About a dozen of you got only ONE wrong; the questions involved:
a CATALYST gives a reaction an "alternate pathway" that has a LOWER ACTIVATION ENERGY. Anyone who drew a PE diagram showing the catalyzed and uncatalyzed paths naturally got this right. Also, the "alternate pathway" phrase is VERBATIM from the review book and the NY State Regents standards AND I repeated that mantra with "finger quotes" (though not rock n' roll finger quotes) in class, many times.
Also, some of you did not convert Kelvin to Celsius correctly. That is an error that anyone can make but usually gets corrected on a double-check. Oh well, 49 out of 50 isn't bad.

This exam was SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult than last June's exam, though not difficult at all to pass. The exam was similar in difficulty to the one in January; there were REAL chemistry questions, some of which forced you to think or draw out what was happening. Most of the quantitative questions REQUIRED, for the FIRST TIME IN YEARS, an ACTUAL CALCULATION instead of the bogus "correct numerical setup". As I warned, do the test the right way and you are prepared for changes such as the ones just mentioned!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

 

Sound Advice

For each of the past three Regents, I posted this timely advice; as I scrutinized the Regents exams then, I could see that the advice was taken to heart and spectacular results ensued. So, let's do the same this year:
Most students are not as good test-takers as they could be. When they get through a test, they just sit and squirm or stare at the ceiling and do nothing until time is called. Here's what you can do instead:
Here are some tips on how you can thoroughly check your Regents exam if you finish before our classes' 2.5 hour minimum test time (though I encourage you to go the distance and put in an "A-game" 3-hour effort; yes, you will hear a stampede of failing students rushing out after two hours so that they can register early for summer school).

1. After you SLOWLY and carefully re-read a given question, carefully read your response and make sure that it contains the KEYWORDS from the question and, most importantly, that your response ANSWERS the question. You can always add clarifying details to your answer. Do not let space be a concern. You may write outside the boxes as long as you draw an arrow showing the continuation of your answer.

2. Make sure that your answer is EASILY readable/legible. PRINT BLOCK CAPITAL LETTERS IF YOU HAVE TO. Carefully cross out anything that you are editing out and clearly write in what you are correcting.

3. DRAW PICTURES/DRAW DIAGRAMS/ DRAW PICTURES/DRAW DIAGRAMS!!! to enhance your explanations EVEN/ESPECIALLY if you did not initially do so!. This may be the single best tip that I can give you. A clearly drawn and LABELED picture can organize your thoughts and it also paints a thousand words.

4. Plug your numbers back into the question to make sure that they produce the correct total. Check all values that you (mis)READ off of the Reference Tables.

5. Add SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of anything that you are writing about in general.

6. Directly above your solved quantitative answer, write the GENERAL EQUATION for the specific calculation that you did and make sure that you placed the numbers AND UNITS (that you correctly labeled from the question) in the correct location in the equation and that you didn't leave out any part of the equation.

If you follow these tips thoroughly, you WILL improve your test score ; also, performing these steps will keep you engaged and productive for the entire allotted Regents time.

A lot is riding on your performance. I will see and check everyone's complete test including scrapwork. You should display/demonstrate every sound test-taking technique that you now know.

My classes last year certainly followed this advice and we lived happily ever after with TEN perfect scores, nine 99's and a 97 class average, too.

 

Bonus Regents Exams

More kudos and plaudits to those of you who have taken bonus Regents exams over the past four weeks. I am surprised that only about six students frequently took advantage of these opportunities. Those six students now regularly and easily score in the mid to high 90's on each exam (we did get a 100 today also!) and, as a result, their quarterly averages have significantly increased. This increase will be compounded when these students naturally do very well on this year's Regents exam (that's what has always happened in the past, anyway).

For those who have not taken advantage of these bonus tests, there is still Wednesday's exam for you to display your level of preparation and knowledge of Regents Chem. Thoroughly marking up your test and Reference Tables, providing examples and illustrations, and writing clearly and carefully (use LOTS of scrap paper, 20 pages if you must, to outline your thoughts BEFORE you write in the test booklet!) are all factors that will demonstrate your degree of preparation for this test. My past students boldly displayed these skills and their results were beyond stellar. Let us continue this tradition of excellence.
Cheers!

 

Voice of Experience

The following is an excerpt of a post from one of NY's most dedicated and experienced Regents Chem teachers, Mr. Mark Rosengarten. He nicely summarizes some of the common errors that his past students have made; learn from this list and avoid these errors on Wednesday (forewarned is forearmed!):

I have been focusing on those areas for the last 15 years
to figure out a way to make those topics more accessible for the
students. Know what I found out? Those kids who take the time to learn
it do just fine. Here are the specific weakness areas I have been
addressing, that show up in item analysis year after year after year:

1) Molecular formulas. The kids have the most trouble remembering how
to determine the molecular formula given the empirical formula and the
molecular mass. Most of it stems from a refusal to just acquaint
themselves with the definitions of empirical and molecular formulas,
because if you understand the definitions, the calculation makes all the
sense in the world. One thing that throws them is that a molecular
formula can sometimes be an empirical formula, and unless they really
are good at knowing how many bonds an atom can form and take that next
step to actually drawing the molecule, they continue to be confused
despite my continued efforts to refine how I present it and how they
work on it.

2) Mole-mole problems. Again, despite endless refining of teaching
methods here, students often do not make the connection between
mole-mole problems and the use of the coefficients of the balanced
reaction. We start off with the analogy of making pancakes, and we use
a recipe's ratios to scale the recipe up or down before we move on to
the mole-mole problems.

3) The difference between molecular polarity and bond polarity. I have
even split the two topics up into completely different units and bring
it together. They always want to go with the symmetry. They look for
the easy way to remember, and that does not always work.

4) Colligative properties. You would think this is a simple game of
simply memorizing that boiling point goes up and freezing point goes
down when solute is added, and the effect is magnified at greater
concentrations. I show them the chart on the antifreeze container, show
numerous videos, do demonstrations, but it comes down to them just
remembering!

5) Electrolytic cells. Ever since my song "You Start At The Anode", my
kids have become champs at voltaic cells, but they simply do not get
electrolytic cells. I have a fuel cell car model that includes an
electrolytic hydrogen generator that I use to model the process, but
they still cannot grasp the concept.

6) Natural decay reactions. They are excellent at them when reminded
(endlessly) how to do them, but test them on it (write the decay
reaction for I-131) and they will write the half-life. If they do
actually write what looks like the decay reaction, they put the decay
particle on the left side. I have demonstrated this using a nerf foam
ball gun...the gun with the ball represents the unstable nucleus, then
you draw the arrow...then I fire the gun to show the decay particle
exiting the unstable nucleus, and that the two particles are now
separate. I show them video clips of the process. Makes no difference.

7) They are champs at nuclear fusion (Why Does The Sun Shine, by They
Might Be Giants, does a great job at this), but they cannot for the life
of them remember artificial transmutation or fission, or the fact that a
tiny bit of mass is destroyed in the reaction and converted into vast
amounts of energy. Tried about a million things to get this across.

8) Atomic number and mass number, what they mean and how to find them.
Same goes for nuclear charge, number of electrons in an ion and the
charges of the subatomic particles!!!! This is simply studying. I have
come at it from all different angles to try to appeal to everyone's
learning style, but it slips through their minds like some vague
slippery thing. Given them practice, and throughout the year.

9) Half-reactions for diatomic species. Even my honors students have
difficulty with this. I approach it by using drawings, basic
configurations, dot diagrams...any way I can explain it, I tackle it.
They have a very hard time with it.

10) Acids and bases...just the fact that acids yield H+ ions and bases
yield OH- ions confuses them to no end, despite the Reference Tables and
repeated demonstration and evaluation and diagramming.

11) Electrolytes vs. nonelectrolytes. Acid solutions and ionic
solutions are electrolytes, molecular solutions are not. End of story.
Acid formulas start with H+ or end in COOH, ionic compounds contain a
metal and nonmetal or polyatomic ion, molecular formulas contain all
nonmetals. DOH! I bring the concept of electrolyte and nonelectrolyte
to most units, starting from day 1. I don't know how else to teach
them. I have to say that this year the students have done much better
with it than ever before, due to massive repetition of the concept.
WHY? Because charged particles in motion can carry electrical charge.
If they are not in motion (ionic solid) then they can't carry charge.
If they contain no ions (molecular) them they cannot carry charge.

These seem to be the main ones I contend with. There are other smaller
issues, but I chalk most of the others up to a lack of doing assigned
work, inattentiveness and copying off of other students' papers. If you
don't DO, you don't LEARN. Pure and simple.

Mark

Each year, Mr. Rosengarten hosts the Regents Review Live show on public television and he also provides other chem teachers with a lot of instructional materials. Kudos to him; let us heed his words and put in the ultimate effort on Wednesday's Chem Regents.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

 

Monday's Review

Thanks to those who came in on Saturday; you probably can tell that each three-hour review (which is the equivalent to a full WEEK of class-time!) will gain you points that you otherwise would have missed on this Wednesday's exam.

On Monday afternoon, we will again take and analyze a full-length Regents exam. After that, we just have Tuesday and then the final very informative short-term memory load-up Regents-day review. I expect EVERY single student from D,E, and G Periods there (outside, near the Pidgeon Hill Road entrance) that morning. That last review has always been solid GOLD for my past students but those who did not attend that review (and there really has to be something wrong with you if you do miss that opportunity) missed questions that we JUST did during that session minutes before the Regents.

Looking forward to a very successful Regents day; that exam is your final opportunity to show what you have learned this year, especially for those who have not performed well during the school year.
Remember my philosophy: ALL's well that ends well!

Friday, June 15, 2007

 

Saturday Review

Good review today though I won't break up any more review sessions to go over bonus Regents because that took too long (I only did that today for the first time so I didn't know how long that would take). If you need to go over a bonus Regents with me, you'll just have to do that after the review session. Those who are cleared for their next bonus Regents may, as usual, start their tests after the one-hour mark.
Okay, this is the final weekend for Chem Regents Review. Next weekend, I hope that all of you will have NOTHING to do but bask in the glow of a great effort and a well-earned high score on the Regents (and thus an increased course average, too)!
I am optimistic for many of you who have been getting the needed review and clarifying whatever you didn't get in the past. Review has been fairly well attended and I thank you for that. There is still time for more solid improvement and progress:
we'll have a Periodic Table and Redox review on Saturday, then, on Monday, a FULLY analyzed and reviewed Regents exam with test-taking skills emphasized, and, on Tuesday, our twilight review of Orgo and Nuclear.
But that's not all!...you'll also get an amazing last "minute"/two-hour review JUST before you walk into the exam! We'll just do specific questions and examples, VERY nice and easy, no pressure-all good explanations, mnemonics, and Reference Table markup practice literally seconds before you head to the classroom.
Two and a half or (preferably) three hours later, you can walk out with an amazing score!
Keep up the hard work; there's not much more to do. The harder you work now, the greater the catharsis (sense of relief) for you after the exam.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

 

Learn from Math B

As I proctored the Math B Regents today, I noticed some poor test-taking practices that I want you all to avoid next Wednesday:

1. Let's start with basic BIOLOGY/PHYSIOLOGY: during a long test, some people tend to lean back in their seats and slouch; they then end up slinking down farther in their chair. This POSTURE causes shallow breathing which lowers the oxygen supply to the brain, which lulls the person into confusion and sleepiness (I personally witnessed this today!).
During the test, sit up and lean forward over your test. Take an aggressive stance and shift your position from time to time in order to stay comfortable; this is all part of bringing your "A" game; attack the test! If things ever get hazy or confused, check your breathing and your posture. Put your head down for a minute or two, you will NOT run out of time and the breather will refresh you and your cognitive ability.

2. There WILL BE a GRAPH on your Chem Regents. DO THE GRAPH IN PENCIL. REPEAT: DO THE GRAPH IN PENCIL!! I saw some ATROCIOUS graphing with wild crossing-out; the graphs were a mess and they couldn't be fixed because they were done in ink!
ALL other work must be done in blue or black pen BUT THE GRAPH IS TO BE DONE IN PENCIL. Furthermore, USE YOUR SCRAP paper to practice writing your scales BEFORE you write out your final graph, even though it is in PENCIL.

3. Don't worry about the scantron until you have completely written out your numerical choices on the detached answer sheet from the answer booklet. After you have done all of the multiple choice questions (NEVER leave an answer blank, there is NEVER a penalty for a wrong guess on ANY Regents exam), then CAREFULLY bubble in the scantron. If you mess up with the bubbles, REQUEST a new one; that is why I provide your proctor with EXTRA scantrons, just in case!
If your scantron does NOT match your answer sheet, your answer sheet takes precedence and is used for OFFICIAL scoring purposes; nevertheless, do the scantron correctly and double-check it with your answer sheet.

4. Many of the questions on the test were susceptible to backsolving or plugging in numbers and checking the result for agreement with the equation. On the CHEM exam, many problems will involve checking data and trends on the Reference Tables. AFTER the test just begins, MAKE SURE that you thoroughly mark the Tables with any and all MEMORIZED mnemonics, labels, and examples because you WILL use these to help you throughout the test!
As discussed in extra help, you can pick out ONE example of a given category and use it to backsolve many chem questions.
Example:
Metal- good conductor-malleable- high melting point = IRON
Non-metal - low melting point -non-conductor = SULFUR
Ionic compound- salt - high melting point- nonconducting solid- conducting liquid/aq - NaCl
Molecular compound- non-electrolyte- H2O
Acid - electrolyte - HCl (aq)
Base- ionic - electrolyte - NaOH
Binary compound - NaCl
Element- N2
Most metallic - Cs
Most NON-metallic = F (exists as F2)
This list can help you to generalize about these different substances because, in chemistry, things that are classified in a particular category all behave similarly!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

 

Complete Regents Exam

Kudos to those who participated in the full three-hour Regents exam review. We finished question 85 just at the three hour mark, while having time to "predict and pre-phrase" each answer with illustrations, equations, and table references. Today's session was your TEMPLATE, your blueprint for EXACTLY what to do and how to take the Regents correctly. I will be looking for the application of these techniques as I grade your Regents exams and compile your final grades.
Of course, you could apply the techniques and advice from this session to any Regents or standardized test and your scores will automatically improve, perhaps drastically.
I will do another session in which we take a full exam together, most likely on Monday- be there, everybody.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

 

Review Session #5

Thanks to those who have been regularly attending the review sessions. We have reviewed for a total of TWELVE HOURS so far (if you have participated in all 12 hours, that is 60 points towards your quarterly average in addition to all of the knowledge gained!). We have covered, in detail, four major chemistry units and I know that many of the questions that we did WILL be asked in practically the same way on this year's Regents exam. So, no matter what, make sure that you download these review question files and that you know completely how to answer, in detail, each question.
For tomorrow's review, we will do a COMPLETE Regents exam, August 2006, with full test-taking skills modeled/applied/displayed on screen as well as thoroughly written/drawn/explained answers.
If we have any time left over, we will also do the part B-2 and C from June 2003.
Again, good for you if you've been coming to the reviews and improving your knowledge of chem theory, application, and test-taking skills.

For those who have not yet attended review or are infrequently there (which means that you probably are not ever going to read this), I am still grading your last class exams and the results are very poor. These exams contained REGENTS questions. The last exam WILL impact your quarterly grade. You may want to attend every remaining session to partially undo the damage from: 1. your complete neglect, 2. ignorance (key root= IGNORE) of my last week of in-class review and test-taking advice and 3. apathy, which resulted in your very poor last tests.
So far, according to YOUR test answers, only one person out of ANY of my students knows what "hydrogen-bonding" attractions are or what molecules have them as their intermolecular attractions (hold the FON?). Many tests have no key words circled/underlined/identified and, as a result, have answers to questions that were NOT even asked while the ACTUAL question was ignored! Our test-taking process should be completely ROTE by now and ingrained for the rest of your lives. How many more errors will you make before you adopt this simple technique?

Saturday, June 09, 2007

 

Third Jewel of the Triple Crown


The 139th Belmont Stakes runs today; talk about a long tradition and a LONG race (1.5 miles).
Sadly, due to a combination of poor sportsmanship and stupid-greed (by contrast, there is smart-greed, which is practically a virtue), Street Sense, the horse who won the Kentucky Derby and then lost the Preakness by a few millimeters, will not run in today's race.
Anyway, Curlin, the winner of the Preakness is going for his 5th win in the 6th race of his life. He's been through a lot: getting bumped and blocked throughout the Derby yet still finishing third; he tied the stakes record time in the Preakness with an amazing comeback run at Street Sense.

I will be routing for Curlin but I think that a fresher horse is going to win this long and tiring race.
The horse is Tiago, who is the brother of Giacomo, the 2005 Kentucky Derby winner. He likes to take it easy early and then come flying in the stretch, so I expect him to do so today. The other longshot possibility is CP West, who is trained by good old native New Yorker, Nick Zito.

The race takes about two and a half minutes and there have been many crazy upsets in the past. Should be fun to watch; the race goes off at 6:25 PM, long after our review session today.
Enjoy the weekend! I have to recover from walking in direct sunlight for 10 miles at Six Flags yesterday.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

 

New Zoo Revue

Today's review session was well attended and quite successful! We had some laughs and covered a LOT of problems that you WILL see on your Regents on the 20th. If all subsequent review sessions go this well, I think that we will end this year very successfully.

I posted a file that contains "properties of matter" questions so you should do those questions soon to see how much you garnered from today's session. I was impressed with the turnout and saw that you all were generally focused for almost FOUR hours! (try not to go into a daze and look out the windows, though) .That is awesome and bodes well for you (the Regents is three hours, after all).

Bonus Regents takers, I'm going to have to find time to review your tests with you; that will be dictated by the attendance. Here's what I think should work:
If I can get to the review session 20 or 30 minutes before the scheduled start, you can go over your test with me then, otherwise we will have to go over the test at the end of the review session.
If there are no questions towards the end of a given session (as happened today), I will end the review session early and just go over the bonus Regents that were taken earlier.
Generally, a test can be corrected in about 20 minutes if you didn't make too many errors. As you get better at mastering the material, a test can be reviewed in less than 5 minutes!
See you on Nitro at Great Adventure!

 

LI News from yesterday

This was in the newspaper just yesterday. One of my main goals is to see that students who have taken my class understand everyday things that they may read regarding chemistry or science in general. Try to read this brief article and see whether the experience of the past 9 months enables you to get more out of what you now encounter:

Hempstead contamination level a record high

BY WILLIAM MURPHY


June 6, 2007, 10:26 PM EDT
The Village of Hempstead for the first time has acknowledged that the level of an industrial contaminant found in one of its water-supply wells was the highest ever recorded at that well.

The water is safe to drink, village and county officials said Wednesday, but Well No. 5 remains off-line and the source of the contamination is still unknown. The well is one of nine used to serve the village's 56,000 residents.

On Wednesday, officials began to give a more detailed report on the incident as the village mailed out notices to its water customers as required by state law.

Water from the affected well had 11.8 parts per billion of trichloroethene, TCE, an industrial solvent, when it was tested April 3, more than a week after a routine quarterly test showed a level of 10.1 parts per billion -- twice the allowable limit of 5 parts per billion, the notice said.

The 11.8 reading was "the highest ever seen in this well," according to the village.

The most recent sample, taken May 30, had a reading of 5.9, said Mike Taylor, superintendent of the village water plant. He added that the village was working with the Nassau County Health Department to devise a treatment that would bring the readings down to allowable levels, but there was no time frame.

TCE is hazardous to human health only after prolonged exposure. The notice said a typical person would have to drink two liters of water with the elevated level of TCE daily for 70 years to have an increased risk of developing liver problems or getting cancer.

So, that's the article. You know the formula for parts per million so the formula for parts per billion should be easy for you to figure out also. Could you draw the structural formula of TCE? Could you tell whether the molecule is polar or non-polar? Could you think of one type of organic reaction that TCE can undergo? I really hope that you can; that's important to me and it's important for you to have grown academically this year.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

 

Last DAY!

I hope that you all had a fun last day of school, I certainly did. Would that every day could be just as much of a good time.
Thanks everybody.
Here's a link to a guy who combined liquid nitrogen with watermelon. Yikes!!

Okay, I have the room assignment for the review sessions!
Our official review site will be in Room 116.
Sessions start tomorrow, Thursday, from 1PM to 5PM
followed by another one this Saturday from 12PM to 2PM. I am posting the full review schedule on the website tonight.
Remember, each hour of actively engaged review is worth 5 points out of 5 towards your quarterly total (each class has accumulated about 750 points so far this quarter). I will tally your bonus points after the last review session before the Regents.

People who are taking Regents must be at review for an hour before they can take a bonus Regents; they must also go over any previous Regents test with me before they can take a subsequent test. You must also notify me that you are going to take a bonus Regents 24 hours (or more) before the review session so that I can have a test printed for you.

Looking forward to getting you further prepared for the Regents so that you will have your highest Regents grade in Chem; you can then brag about that for the rest of your life even if you never take any chem again. See you at review!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

 

Last Day Demos


Tomorrow, we will be "experimenting" with the ultra-cold liquid Nitrogen. That should be big fun. If you can bring in some flowers or a rubber ball or a balloon or anything that you want frozen beyond recognition (remember N2 is triple-bonded and thus inert, so it won't chemically react with anything; I may even make some ice cream with it), bring it in.

Also, we are supposed to create silver-mirror glass bottles tomorrow. If you cannot bring them past security, ask them to set the bottle aside and specifically tell them that I, Mr. Cicale, will pick them up before homeroom. If they give you a hassle, take the bottles to the commons area and put them underneath the tables, preferably in a bag. I will pick them up there for you.
This redox experiment works best with clean (well-rinsed), dry glass bottles. They make a nice paperweight or objet d'art for college.

p.s. if I returned to you the in-class exam from last week, be sure to give me the part II questions with your name on that paper so that I can grade your part II over the next week. I will return your part II's at the review sessions. You can email me for your grade at the end of next week.

 

Chemistry Regents Review Sessions

Part of the reason for the unprecedented Regents results of my previous classes at St. Anthony's and at Smithtown HS is the great number of review sessions and the tremendous quantity of review that takes place at these review sessions.
I will answer ANY question, no matter how simple or complex. Do not worry about hearing, "HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT?!" That is not going to happen. I APPRECIATE that you are at the review sessions and I am there to help you quickly and without ceremony. I encourage ALL of you to attend; those who are already doing well might join the 100's club, a very rare and distinct group of excellence, as a result of the reinforcement and extra information. Those who have performed fairly or poorly can succeed with a serious and prolonged concerted effort through June 20th, the day of the exam.
The tone of these sessions will be light/low pressure (unlike in class!) but we will be almost all business and efficiency. We can play ULTIMATE frisbee after each session if you would like to.

Each session has a given INITIAL review topic. There is a QUESTION SHEET that you should download and look over before each review session. Get to the review session at the scheduled time because I go through all of the review sheet questions before continuing with any general questions on any topic from the review group. If you have to arrive later, you may still do so but enter quietly and be ready to work.

You will EARN POINTS towards your fourth quarter average, five points for each hour of review that you actively participated in. That means that if you attend ten sessions at three hours each, you will have the equivalent of scoring 150 out of 150 on a test taken this quarter towards your average! That can be a very nice boost PLUS you will end up doing much better than you would have on the Regents without this formal review. A good Regents grade will also nicely lift your course average!!

The schedule with Room #'s will be posted soon.
For a strong start, our FIRST review session will be on Thursday afternoon from 1PM to 5PM (room to be posted soon).
The topic will be "Physical Properties of Matter", which is the longest unit in the review book.
You do NOT have to wear your uniforms to ANY review session. Be comfortable and learn is all...

History has shown that those who need review the MOST tend to come to the fewest review sessions ( the OPPOSITE of what should occur!) and that continued apathy definitely hurt most of those students who ended up with either very low averages or failure and summer school.
Do NOT let that happen this year. I will be looking for certain people at EVERY review session and others at MOST of the review sessions. If I do not see you, you WILL hear from me and I will talk to you seriously about your problem and its consequences.

 

Penultimate Day 5

One more day of "regular school" and then we begin two short weeks of "review school". After that, I hope that we can all enjoy a well-earned and well-deserved summer vacation. For most of you, that is going to take a lot of review over the next few weeks.

I meant to mention this subtle test-taking tip in class today, so here goes:
You all know that parts A and B-1 contain 30 and 20 multiple choice questions, respectively. You also know that the questions are in the order chronologically of the topics that we learned this year.
The test-taking tip is to USE the multiple choice QUESTIONS, DIAGRAMS, and ANSWER choices to help you in answering the written part B-2 and C questions. Even familiarizing yourself with the topics based on the part A and B-1 questions will help to focus you on the given part B-2 and C topic, so make sure that you look back at the multiple choice parts as you do the B-2 and C parts.
The more you know...

Honors and Regents: we finished Jan. 2007 and continued with review of Aug. 2003 with particular focus on the meaning and requirements for answering questions that have the keywords "explain" (how and why...DRAW your explanation and THEN write it!), "describe" (tell WHAT happened, in full sentences), "list", "name", "identify" (you only have to write a word or a phrase to answer such a question).

Monday, June 04, 2007

 

Mon-Day 4

Today was the final day of morning extra help: ONE student showed up at any time before the first period.

Honors: we reviewed parts of the Reference Tables...be sure to look at Table S and see all of the information available including the DENSITY data; write the formula for density (D = mass/volume) at the top of that column so that you can solve the density question.
We then finished reviewing January 2007. Tomorrow, we will look at Aug 2003 and Jun 2004 from the weekend assignment.

Regents: we finished the nuclear unit with a look at the applications of various radioisotopes. These isotopes are ALL listed on Table N; your job is to know the uses of the isotopes that we discussed. Once again, I encountered a generally unprepared class that did not do its requisite homework. What are you doing? Where is your work ethic???!!!!!
You have a QUIZ on the nuclear unit for the last 15 minutes of class tomorrow. Be prepared!

We continued our "review" of, curiously, part A questions. These are MULTIPLE CHOICE questions! Almost all of the answers/information for those questions are directly in the review book AND in your class notes (where the given topic is even explained). Where were your written response questions (the questions that make or break your Regents score)??? There weren't any because MOST of you aren't doing them. You don't even know what you DON'T know!!! School is over and most of you have wasted most of the past two weeks. This degree of negligence is completely unprecedented among REGENTS classes that I have taught.
I only had TWO Regents students taking a bonus after-school Regents today. This is also unprecedented. Most of you aren't even trying to improve your averages!
I had better see STANDING ROOM ONLY at every review session over the next two weeks.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

 

Regents Exam HW correction


I incorrectly posted the June 2005 exam, which we have already taken and analyzed, instead of the June 2004 exam. I have the '04 exam posted on the website now. Sorry if this led to confusion but, then again, taking an old Regents exam for a second time is an EXCELLENT practice in reviewing for the Regents exam. Yes, you will probably know the answers but that is what it feels like when you write a 100 test anyway. Also, since the pressure is off, you can analyze the questions and generalize about what the test-writer wanted from you, the test-taker. Getting into the head of the test-writer is one of the highest levels of test-taking that you can practice.
Anyway, DO take the June 2004 exam and score yourself so that you know how far you have come or how far you have to go in preparing for this important test on June 20th.

I have the part I's from last week's exams graded.
CAREFULLY read the analysis that I will post soon. I will go over the most common errors, many of which were completely UNBELIEVABLE for any student who studies AT ALL, i.e. conditions for ideal gas behavior = low pressure and high temperature. Aside from the fact that this is completely drawn out in the notes and has been reviewed many times AT THE PARTICLE LEVEL IN TERMS OF INTERMOLECULAR ATTRACTIONS AND KINETIC ENERGY, A CHILD knows that gases become LIQUIDS (i.e. NOT a GAS anymore!) at low temperature and high pressure!!!!!! Any child who has ever seen his own breath/water vapor condense into a liquid on a cold day or seen a liquid compressed-butane or propane lighter knows that gases don't behave like gases (they become liquids!) under these conditions. When I see errors like these made by more than HALF of the class, I KNOW that those people are not working and probably are not even trying.
For those of you who are committed to going to summer school, I can't make you study, unfortunately, but NEVER forget that there are consequences for your neglect and you are about to face them.

Friday, June 01, 2007

 

Fri-Day 3

Look for another Regents to be posted over the weekend. You should be totally accustomed to the Regents format, by now, and you also should also be familiar with each question type, no matter what the topic. If not, you still have many more exams and review sessions to take before you can begin to consider yourself prepared.
The first review session will take place next Thursday; the designated room will be posted.

Regents: we almost finished our Nuclear unit. Over the weekend, finish reading that unit (especially uses of radioisotopes, which must be memorized) and do all questions therein. I will give a quiz on that next week.
We will finish the Jan. 2006 Regents and do the Jan. 2007 Regents next week.
On Wednesday, the last day of regular school, we will have some pretty cool (or cold) demos with liquefied nitrogen and also, we will turn ordinary glass bottles into silver mirrors, so that should be fun; that is, if we get all of our work done on Monday and Tuesday, so be on time and come prepared with questions on those days.

Honors: G had their final test of the year before the Regents; D went over the Jan. 2006 Regents and some of the Jan. 2007 Regents, which we will continue on Monday.

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