Chemistry Unit 5

By the end of this unit, teachers will be able to:

• create online quizzes publicly and privately for students
• join an active chemistry user community
• safely handle student data online
• save time marking, while still tracking students' progress
• access thousands of pre-made learning resources
• enable students to develop their own surveys and view the results.

it is likely that the social, economic and environmental impact of alcohol has been covered in previous years through personal and social education, tackling the topic through a chemistry context presents teachers with a challenge to make it interesting and relevant.

The YacaPaca approach provides an opportunity for teachers to probe students' understanding using a quiz format and banks of questions previously tried and tested with other groups of students. It can also provide an opportunity for students to develop their own action research project, by building a survey for their peers around this context. Either way engagement with the topic using this type of online format is likely to prove stimulating for students.

These are some solutions to the potential barriers to effective teaching and learning in this area:

• Lack of up-to-date subject knowledge so teaching of this topic is didactic
  In these activities teachers can discover pre-generated content reviewed by subject experts.
• There need to be improved and creative ways to find out prior knowledge
  Formative assessment is important to the success of a lesson. These activities looks at how this can be achieved in a creative and fun way. Teachers will be able to use a survey with their students ahead of teaching. They can then perform a sequel survey to assess understanding.
• Sometimes lack of time means that teachers use the same methods to assess students' awareness of a topic. This can become repetitive and disengage students
  This unit explores ways in which teachers can use or adapt existing materials to respond to changes in the triple science specification
• Students jaded from many drugs talks
  Students respond well to quick quizzes in an interactive format which allow links to other resources or larger projects.

These are the software and hardware requirements:

• an internet enabled computer
• access to the Yacapaca website

• User guide to Yacapaca
• Demo video on how to use Yacapaca

To view a quiz from the student point of view go to Yacapaca website and sign in as a student:

• Username: student9398
• Password: 023h

Yacapaca could be used by students to run surveys for their peers. The results are easily downloaded in CSV format, which all spreadsheet application can read. Have students setup their own free 'teacher' access to generate the quizzes.

There is also the ability to set extended projects for students to create e-portfolios and websites. Although this is beyond the scope of this guide, there are video help files which walk you through this process. Start with the instruction for setting your own quiz, but follow the links to 'Create ePortfolio Task' and view the 'Video How To' on the top right.

Other online science quiz tools

Quiz School (free): ProProfs Quiz School website

Pros: Active user community, with lots of science quizzes already. You have the ability to discuss tests and see how well other students have done on the test at the end. The site can also help you create other good learning resources, including flash cards, books and tutorials. You can link to more materials/explanations for incorrect answers.

Cons: It's not possible to make private tests for your students only. There is no tracking of students' scores and no way of linking a series of tests into a class. This drawback could be overcome if the teacher had the class doing them together in a computer room then wrote down their scores from the final page, or if student score tracking is not important. ProProfs Quiz School website tour

Zoho Challenge (free): Zoho Challenge website

Pros: Very good user interface and functionality, which includes many additional features. It is also part of larger editing and collaborating suite, which could be good for other e-learning tools.

Cons: It is designed as a recruiting tool and therefore further development may make it less suitable for the school learning environment.

Articulate (£££: ) Articulate website

Pros: Amazing power, flexibility and ease of use. In many ways it is the gold standard for e-learning and has won several awards.

Cons: Price US$1000.

Open Mark (free): OpenMark Examples

Pros: As it has huge versatility and power, the Open University uses this system for their courses.

Cons: Requires JAVA programming experience and extensive time investment to use.

Additional reading material

• There is an interesting article on quizzes in learning, focusing on English grammar learning at Quizzes in learning