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[crankychemist]

Help, forumites!  I'm in my first year teaching gen chem, a required class for pre-meds, bio majors, and chem majors.  We have a lot of material to get through, and the students' backgrounds are quite varied.  I'm pretty sure, though, that this class is deadly dull for most of them.  I try to spice things up with real world examples and with having them work problems in class and sometimes put them on the board, but still.  Other suggestions from (probably mostly science peeps) about how to make a class like this more fun?  I've previously taught much more topical/pop science type stuff, and I am (if I may say so myself) quite good at those.  My students get engaged, and stay engaged quickly, but it's such a different type of class. Also, this class is 40 people- not so huge, but too big for some of the "tricks" I've used in my pop. science classes in the past.
Thanks!
CC (with some cranky students, too...)

[cc_alan]

Video clips if you know how to do it. I use clips from Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and more.

I've also made short videos of reactions since I can't do demos in my classrooms.

One common eval comment I receive is that the students like the short video clips.

Alan

[unusedusername]

It sounds like you are doing a good job already.  The fact that you "spice things up with real world examples and with having them work problems in class and sometimes put them on the board" are all great ideas.  It breaks up the class a bit and keeps them engaged.  I second cc_alan's suggestion of short video clips (but not long movies), and try to do some in-class demos if you are allowed.  I think a lot of students are already interested, especially if they are science majors.  Even a lot of non-science majors will engage the material too if you broadcast your enthusiasm for the subject.  Also, remember that the first month of general chem is foreplay: learning nomenclature, significant digits, ect.  Soon they'll get to reactions, which are more interesting.  Don't worry, be happy.

[fermis_golden_rule]

Thanks for posting this, I'm interested to see the replies.

I'm in my 2nd year of teaching Gen Chem; my class is a bit larger than yours, about 80.  At my institution, Gen Chem is a two-semester sequence, but I know that that's not always the case.  If you have to cover the whole class in one semester, my sympathies!

In any case, I definitely agree that showing interesting videos of demos that you can't do because of safety reasons or what-have-you is a good way to keep up class interest.  My students said that they really enjoyed those last year.  With my class size, I find it a little difficult to have students come and do board work in a controlled manner, but small 5 minute group exercises have been helpful at keeping them engaged.

On the real world examples front, one thing to do (which maybe you already do) is to use examples that your students are interested in academically.  On the first day of class, I have my students fill out a short form giving their rough course schedule, intended major, and reason why they're in the course.  It turns out that most (2/3 or so) of my students are bio majors / pre-meds, and so I try to include a fair number of bio-related examples.  For instance, the aerobic respiration of glucose is a redox reaction that they may be more interested in than the usual inorganic ones used as examples.  When I get to thermodynamics in the second semester, I make sure to talk about protein folding and DNA base pair formation when discussing enthalpy and entropy.

Admittedly, it's easier to do this when you get to topics like kinetics and thermodynamics.  When you're talking about the early stuff, there's a certain amount of drilling that you just have to slog through, though hopefully you can choose interesting compounds and reactions to illustrate calculating molar mass and balancing equations.

FGR

[crankychemist]

Thanks for the suggestions, all. I hadn't though much about video clips, but that sounds great.  I think I am in the part of the term where we just HAVE to do some dull stuff- a student just came to my office, I taught him (I think for the first time) Scientific Notation, and he was SO relieved and happy when he left.  It's dull, and 80% of them know it, but for the other 20%, oh, it is so so important.
Finished nomenclature, dimensional analysis, and sig figs this week.  Honestly, it's just dull material. 

[ms_turtle]

Try to point out correlations with other topics. For example, "When we get to chapter 18 and xyz topic, this process that seems really dry now will become critically important." It helps. Like many, many other things in life, you have to do a lot of prep work before you can do the fun stuff.

[threefive]

Google: "POGIL chemistry".

[august_leo]

I'm in a different field but also use video clips effectively.

(I use an apple so I take videos and then use cinematize to rip the clip and iMovie to crop it and then save as a .mov. I also sometimes reorder things or cut boring middle bits out).

My rules for video clips are:
1. Only use a clip if it makes a point/adds something
2. Each clip should be no more than 3min (unless it is really varied)
3. No more than 5 clips in 45 minutes
4. Don't put clips back-to-back but space them out so that it keeps the lecture interesting

-----
Another thing I do is really simple. I try to keep my slides interesting. No, I don't do cute animation. I just keep the slides really simple, only a few points per slide. I was taught 1 slide/3 minutes. But I really do about 1 slide per 1.7 minutes. the result is that I am changing slides more quickly (while making sure they have enough time to write everything down) so the lecture is more visually interesting. I do use different colored fonts for key words and interesting pictures related to my field if there is space.

Also, I abbreviate anything I want students to abbreviate on the slides (e.g., btwn instead of between). Most students won't abbreviate in their notes if it isn't modeled and so this helps them take notes faster, I find.

[cc_alan]

(I use an apple so I take videos and then use cinematize to rip the clip and iMovie to crop it and then save as a .mov. I also sometimes reorder things or cut boring middle bits out).

I heart august_leo.

I use a Canopus analog-digital box to bring clips into iMovie and then I put these clips onto a DVD using iDVD so I don't have to worry about compressing them myself. My campus is standardized on Windows so making a DVD allows me to play it on anything that recognizes the disk.

Alan

[patchouli]

I'm in the humanities, so take this for what it's worth.  Have them work through some sort of hypothetical ethical dilemma and have it relate to the day's  or week's topics.

[barred_owl]

I echo ms_turtle's suggestion.  As a bio major once upon a time, I yearned for examples that would help make the connections between the chem and bio courses I was taking (same thing for stats classes).  Your bio/pre-med students will probably appreciate whatever connections you can make between those bio topics and the content of your chem class.

[daurousseau]

Show up one day with just a low-hanging top and nothing else. They won't be looking out the window.

[dr_evil]

Not so much exciting as helpful, but I've found having students work problems in class works well for Evil Science.  Send people to the board if you have to, or have them work in groups.  It seems as though they don't work practice problems outside of class so I have to find class time to do it.  It might mean I get a little less done (which yes, does frustrate me some), but it really helps their understanding.

[scienceguy]

What students REALLY like is anything involving fire or explosions.

Video clips of such reactions are extremely easy to come by.

I, for instance, will show them a Youtube clip of the thermite reaction (there are some great ones showing it melting through an engine block).

As a group exercise, they then calculate the delta-H of the reaction.

Lather, rinse, repeat with cesium metal in water, detonation of nitroglycerine, a comparison of the combustion reactions of an alcohol vs. a hydrocarbon, etc.

[stapler]

My strategies are similar to those above:

1) show short video clips (typically <30 seconds, but sometimes a couple of minutes)

2) try to relate the seemingly mundane material to something of larger scope ("incidently, process xyz not only operates in this fashion here, but is also responsible for super-neat phenomenon abc, upon which such-and-such component of the economy completely depends.").

3) enthusiasm in lecturing; at least some students will become more interested if the instructor is excited about the material