What Science Center Students Had to Say About A DOE Final Exam in 11th Grade
Chemistry
Students were required to design, perform, analyze, and then
write a report on an acid rain experiment for their final exam.
Here are some of their comments.
- "In our opinion, this type of final exam is better than
a test. First, with this type of exam, a person does not have
to sit down for hours trying to rack their brain for
information which they quickly lose in a week anyway. They
work with chemistry daily, so the facts seem to stick in the
student's minds. In addition, the person also gets to have fun
working in a group on an experiment. The students learn to
work together for a common goal. This is not accomplished with
a test. It is also better because it allows the students to
see how the information they have learned through the year can
be used in a real life situation. The students actually figure
for themselves how to use the information they've learned and
see how important it is in the real world."
- "We feel that a final experiment is much better than
the normal final exam. By doing an experiment we are able to
use all the skills we learned throughout the year. We gained
new knowledge from the experiment and worked together as a
team. Evaluating our performance on this project is a much
more accurate way to get a final grade than grading us on a
hundred question multiple choice test. We hope more teachers
use this approach in the future."
- "We would recommend this experiment over a typical
final exam because we were able to pool our knowledge of
chemistry into running an important experiment. In this way we
were able to interact with our fellow classmates since, in
real life, one must be able to solve a problem using the help
of others. Instead of reaffirming our knowledge of chemistry,
we were able to expand our knowledge."
- "Overall, we feel that this opportunity to actually
design and execute our own DOE experiment greatly enhanced our
understanding of acid rain and DOE in general. When problems
arose, we could just revamp our process. We felt it was
necessary to be able to tackle problems and make decisions on
our own, rather than following a set procedure; now and in the
future."
- "Doing a research project like this DOE lab is more
beneficial to the students than a typical written exam because
they feel more involved and are forced to adapt to any
problems that may arise. This type of experiment also requires
more responsibilty and imagination. Also, it allows a student
to show his or her originality, which cannot be done on a
scan-tron."
- "This type of final, compared to a generic final, had
its pros and cons. It is good because we do not have to cram
our heads with knowledge we forgot or dig up lost information.
Stress is relieved and we will remember more because we
actually applied what we learned instead of reading and
writing. This type of final also utilizes all of our past
chemistry knowledge to successfully run and complete the
experiment. The bad part is it takes longer to research and
for the teacher to grade, so it might delay report
cards."
- "A DOE experiment was a much better choice for this
final exam than a 'typical' exam because this way we could
apply book knowledge we had gained during the year to real
problems of our own devising. This experiment required
chemistry knowledge, ability to solve problems as they arise,
the ability to relate book knowledge to real life, and many
other things that would not be covered by a typical
exam."
Comments from non-college bound 11th grade
students:
- I liked everything about the
class. I thought it was neat how we could interact over
the television. I learned through this course that there
is way more to statistics than I thought. Thank you Mr.
Peterson, Mrs. Peterson, & Mr. Crossen for all your hard
work.
- Thank you for the time you invested in helping our class learn
about Statistics, and how it applies to everyday life. It
was very interesting to say the least. The only problem I
had with the class is the repeating of the same procedure over
and over - it was sometimes boring. But other than that,
the class was fine.
- This is the first time I have ever enjoyed a math class.
This course is very easy to understand. The tests
sometimes don't make sense, but that would be the only downfall
to the course. I have learned a lot from this class.
For me book work is very hard to understand. It is easier
for me to learn by hands-on experience. It made this class
easier to learn. This is also the first math class I have
received B's in. My grades prior were C's and D's.
- I liked the course because there was a lot of hands on
activity that helped me to learn a lot easier. It's fun
when you can get involved when learning. One thing I
didn't like about the course was that at sometimes, like during
the 3-D cube (in the beginning), it kind of felt like we were
moving through it too fast, and it took me longer to
understand. From this course I learned a lot about
statistics and now I have a better understanding of how they
work.
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