CEC FIPP Activity Report
Name Karla Coti
Date 11/30/2010
Department Mathematics and Science
FIPP Partner Holly Schumacher
Class title & section # Chemistry 20, 9185
Name of Activity/Strategy Feedback and Evaluation - Happy/Sad Face
Category: (Please select only one.) (Reminder: You will submit one report from each of
the categories.)
Classroom Activity
Classroom Environment
Classroom Expectations
Feedback & Evaluation
Homework & Out-of-Classroom Learning Experiences
Briefly describe the activity/strategy, providing enough detail so that a colleague can
replicate the activity/strategy.
1. Introduction This activity was completed after the students did a 5- to 10-minute
presentation reviewing a topic to be covered on their upcoming exam. The
students were asked to draw a happy or sad face on a piece of paper to signify
that they walked out of class that evening better prepared for the exam and to
also rank their desire to repeat this activity in the futre.
2. Set-up & Supplies A blank piece of paper and a writing utensil.
3. Directions I completed this activity two times. During the first time, students
were given 30 minutes to prepare a five to ten minute presentation reviewing a
topic that was to be covered on their upcoming exam. I made a list of possible
topics and students picked a topic to prepare and present. During the half an
hour or so that the students had to prepare for their presentation, I walked
around the room explaining and answering questions to help the students
become "experts" on their chosen topic. After all of the group presentations,
students were asked to anonymously draw on a piece of paper a happy face
indicating that they left class that evening with a better understanding of the
material or a sad face if they felt that the completion of the activity did not
helped them prepare for the exam. They were also asked to rank, from 1 to 5,
their willingness and desire to repeat this activity througout the semester. The
ranking was as follows: 1 Strongly disagree to repeat activity; 2 disagree to
repeat activity; 3 neither agree nor disagree to repeat the activity; 4 agree to
repeat activity; and 5 strongly agree to repeat this activity. For the second time,
I had the students pick their topic two days before their presentation, so they
could have more time to prepare.
What worked well? Twenty students completed the activity and survey the first time; the
findigns are summarized below
a. Out of the 20 students 17 drew a happy face and only 3 drew a sad face.
The ranking was as follows:
1. Strongly disagree to repeat this activity - 3 students
2. Disagree to repeat this activity - 2 students
3. Neither agree nor disagree to repeat this activity - 2 students
4. Agree to repeat this activity - 10 students
5. Strongly agree to repeat this activity - 3 students
Without me asking, some students wrote the following comments:
I enjoyed this activity. It helped me become an "expert" on one topic and work with other
students that explained things I was not sure about. We also got to ask Dr. Coti
questions on our topic and she helped us explain it.
I was actually involved during this activity and because students were presenting the
material we were able to make funny comments if they did not explain the topic
correctly.
I did not liked this activity at all. I do not like presenting in front of people and half and
hour was not a lot of time to become "experts" on the topic. I rather have Dr. Coti do the
review and not the students.
I had fun today reviewing for the exam. I feel a little relax now.
During the second time 23 students completed the survey and this time I got 20 happy
faces and 3 sad faces. The rankings were as follows: 1. 3 students strongly disagree
(the same students from the first survey); 2. 1 disagree; 3. 3 students were indiferent; 4.
10 students agreed; and 4 strongly agreed to repeat this activity. No one wrote
comments this time but one student told me that this time it was better because they
had more time to prepare their topic, a group of three students told me that they liked
the activity because now they knew how to prepare the presentation and had more time
to think of how to explain the topics. One student told me that the activity was not to
his/her liking still.
What would you change? Give more time to the students to prepare, two days, and allow
them to meet with their group 5 minutes to regroup or ask me any last minute questions.
I will also survey them differently to get more descriptive information from the students. I
will use the questions from the FIPP survey, or something similar to it to poll the
students and ask them to write a comment on the effectiveness of the activity.
Would you use the activity/strategy again? Why or why not? Yes. I will modify with the
changes indicated above. I believe this activity provided the student with a review of the
material for their upcoming exam, but most importantly it helped them build
interdependence, or participate in collaborative learning, active learning, selfmanagement, self-confidence, and presentation skills. I also think that because it was
the students presenting the material, the "audience" felt more comfortable aksing
questions that they might not normally ask me if I did a "traditional" review on the board.
Please describe any student learning and/or changes that you observed after the
implementation of the activity/strategy. I immediately saw a difference in students'
attentiveness and involvement. On the exam previous to the first time I used this
activity, I did a review on the board for them but they were not as engaged as they were
for the students' presentations. Overall, the students were asking more questions during
the students' presentations than when I am the one presenting the material.