Name: Scott Hanson
Mentor Teacher: John Radecki
Partner: Angie Turnas
School: Haslett High School
Reactivity of transition metals
 Subject: Chemistry
 Grade level(s): 10th and 11th
 Type of school: Rural
 Tracking level: untracked
We will be doing a laboratory experiment for our lesson. In this experiment, the students will observe the physical properties of ten metal ions in an aqueous solution as well as observe the results of mixing three chemicals with each of the solutions. In a table, the students will record their results of the reactions (if any), such as color change, precipitate formation, bubbling etc, and compare the chemical reactivity of transition metal ions with that of other metal ions. In addition to performing the other steps of scientific method, the students will formulate their own hypothesis prior to performing this laboratory experiment.
Like other metals, transition metals are malleable, lustrous, and good conductors of electricity. However, a variety of physical and chemical properties distinguish the transition metals from other metals. There also considerable variability in the properties of the transition metals themselves. This variability results from the differences in their electron configuration.
What we want students to see with this lab is how different transition metals react differently, and to begin to see why this occurs. We want to show them that because of their placement on the periodic table, different transition elements will react with different compounds, and that not everything will react, but instead they follow trends.
Another goal of this lab will be to reinforce more on the fundamentals of chemical reactions. There are 3 visible changes in a chemical reaction, of which 2 are seen in the lab
(color change and precipitate), and this would be a good time to solidify some of the bridges that may not have been strong.

General Class
1. Transition Metals
2. Transition Metal Ions.
3. Reactions
Specific Examples
Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, etc.
Fe ++ . Fe +++ , Cu + , Cu ++ , etc.
Baking soda and vinegar for a gas
Starch and iodine for a color change
NaOH and CuCl
2
to for a precipitate
Objective
1. Hypothesizing to find why metal ions will have properties different from other metal ions.
2. Recognize cause and effect to see the different ways one can observe a reaction
3. Thinking critically to figure out why KNO3, Ca(NO3)2, and Zn(NO3)2 do not react with any of the other chemicals.
Type
Constructing using reflecting
Added comments were place in because there has to be a little discussion on chemical reactions in a lab where you are trying to observe changes in chemical reactions.
Objective Type
1. Observe the physical properties of ten metal ions in an aqueous solution and observe the differences.
2. Observe the results of mixing three chemicals with each of the solutions (chemical reactions)
3. Compare the chemical reactivity of transition metal ions with that of other metals and discovering why some don’t react (3 from above) using using reflecting
Stage(s) in
Learning Cycle fading fading
Establishing the problem
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Presentation materials (Overhead transparencies or Powerpoint presentations, etc): none
Copied materials: Lab directions/procedure
Pages in textbook: none
Laboratory materials for each laboratory station: 96-well template, pipettes (15), toothpicks, safety goggles, .1M KNO3, .1M Ca(NO3)2, .1M NH4VO3, .1M Cr(NO3)2, .1M Mn(NO3)2,
.1M Fe(NO3)3,
.1M Co(NO3)2, .1M Ni(NO3)2, .1M Cu(No3)2, .1M Zn(NO3)2, 6M NH3, 1M KSCN,
6M HCl
Introduction (15 minutes)
There are five pre-lab questions we will be going over to help the students be more successful in the experiment they are going to perform. The questions should be easily answered because the section on transition metals and trends was covered the week before. Connection to previously learned material will also come from asking a few more pre-questions about reactions as a whole. Some of these questions include “What are the three visible signs of a chemical reaction that you may see today?”
[Properties of Transition Metals – Laboratory Experiment] (35 minutes)
The students will fill their 96-well micro plates with the given solutions as shown in the directions they will receive. While mixing the solutions, they will record their results in the data table provided.
Conclusion (5 minutes)
We will take a few minutes and recap the results of their experiment. Another thing that will be done is to ask the students to include a written conclusion to what they observed in the lab, and the purpose of why we did it. This conclusion can also be used as an assessment task to see if they got out of the lab what they were supposed to.
The first thing that we did was to introduce the lab and ask a few questions as outlined in the lab. We also added a few questions of our own, but it was like pulling teeth to get the answers. He students had lost a classmate the day before, so spirits for doing school were not high. During the pre-lab session, a student confronted us on an attitude problem when we were not really being sassy at all.
After we did the pre-lab questions, we discussed the lab itself and gave all safety precautions to the students, and then set them on their way. While the students were doing the lab, Angie and I went around to talk to them, ask them questions, and observe what they were doing. The students seemed to be able to detect all the reactions and color changes, but had a problem with discerning between a no reaction with a minor color change, and a true color
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change reaction. This does not concern me to heavily considering that the fact that we wanted them to write down all reactions and color changes.
After the lab was over, we talked a little about the lab, nothing really to in depth because we wanted the students to give their full opinions in the conclusion of the lab write up that we assigned to them.
Another notable occurrence was when Angie and I were grading the lab reports. We discovered a growing trend that students were not doing that well on the lab reports, and this trend can have a few explanations. One of those explanations is that the students might not have understood the questions that were being asked of them. This is a common problem in many assessment tasks. Another reason is the before mentioned death of a student. The students were not into doing the assignment, or even with being at school, and this could cause a lower response on the assessment task.
All changes are pretty self-explanatory.
Observe the results of mixing three chemicals with each of the solutions (chemical reactions)
Descriptions of focus students
Pseudonym
Ryan
Academic
Standing
Low
Personal Description
Nicole
Robert
High
Mid
Sits in front of class, but really doesn’t pay attention.
Talks through most of class.
Sits in front of class as well, but pays attention.
Answers questions and asks them as well.
Sits in middle of class. Semi nicely dressed.
Prior Student Knowledge
Once again I have to call to attention that our pre-assessment task was fouled because of the situation that was occurring at the school. The students were not very receptive to answer questions on a topic, and when pressed or motivated to give answers, they reacted in a foul way.
We tried to counter the foul mood with a little humor and understanding, but we could tell that the students were not going to be very receptive to us that day. The questions that they did answer, however, went along with prior knowledge. They correctly identified the different observable changes in chemical reactions, as well as giving insightful answers to the pre-lab questions. There were a few answers that Angie and I had to relay to them, but as a whole, the student body impressed us with their prior knowledge.
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Included with the lab assignment is a set of questions to see what the students found.
There is a data table for their results as well as other question. In addition to these questions,
Scott and I are going to have the students write a conclusion to this experiment. In the conclusion we will be looking for key facts that they gathered from the reactions, like what they observed on a large scale, as well as what didn’t react. Also included in the conclusion will be a brief reason as to why the things did not react.
Incorrect answers to the questions, or an incomplete conclusion, will allow us to know that the students did not really understand the task at hand. It may require another review of the material, or even a larger scale classroom discussion of the lab, followed by another assessment task like writing another 1 page conclusion, or maybe answering some questions about transition metals or reactivity. The first task, and the follow up tasks that could be given all encompass an understanding of reactivity and chemical reactions, which is relevant to our big ideas and focus objectives.
An afterthought to the assessment task is that the task itself was worded well, and all questions easily understandable. The problem that we think we encountered was a general apathy for learning, or answering the questions because of the situation that arose at the school.
Expected Response
The answers to the questions are the same as from the teacher’s guide, which I think you received in an earlier attachment with the pre-lesson instruction plans. As for the conclusion we were looking for something that included the key ideas of transition metals reactivity, chemical reactions, and how there could be a possible replacement order for the transition elements.
Finding and Explaining Patterns in Student Responses
Of my three focus students, only the high student included all the parts that we were looking for in the conclusion. In fact, only 3 students in the class got perfect scores on the conclusion assessment task. When something like this occurs, it makes us wonder if the assessment task was too hard for the student’s. Once again we have to wonder if it was because students just didn’t want to do the work because of the death at the school. I know it seems like in this summary I have included this event a lot, but the difference in the classroom attitude from before the accident, and after are very drastic. The class as a whole usually was very bubbly and energetic, but that day it seemed like they were all dragging around some extra weight.
The chart was filled out correctly by all, with very little to no fouling of the experimental results. That means that all students observed all reactions that they were suppose to observe.
This is a good thing since the assessment task hinged directly on whether the lab itself was done correctly. While the lab was being completed, we walked around and talked to our focus students to see if they understood the purpose of the lab, and what was going on. It seemed to me that my high student just was doing it to get it done, like she had all the answers already. The other two students in my focus seemed to like mixing the chemicals together, but had apathy to the questions that I asked them about understanding why the compounds were reacting as they were.
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In general, all three of my students did accomplish in part all the objectives of the lab, but the understanding part of the objectives is a little shady for my low and mid student. In the end though, all 3 of my students did poorly on the lab, receiving only 75%, 65%, 65% respectively to high, mid, and low. I only wish that we had time to do a better follow up to the lab to see if we could hammer some of the more interesting and informative points into the students heads.
The only improvement that I can think of is to maybe describe the main points that we wanted the students to get out of the lab so that in the end, when they are doing their conclusion, they have a better idea of what to write.
I wouldn’t really revise anything except for what I mention in the previous section.
This teaching lesson came at a very interesting time in my learning teacher career, and that is after all my teaching labs were done. In the teaching lab I learned a lot about how to present material, and how to engage students, and that is one of the reasons that I think I was able to cope with the students mood. If I did not have the teaching lab experience, I probably would have frozen in the situation I was in.
This lesson was very important to me because I learned the fundamentals of how to present a lab to high school students. My CT was very helpful in presenting a model, and then stepping back and letting us run the second lab period. He didn’t interfere even when the student said that we had an attitude problem, and it was helpful because it put us in a situation where we had to react to what was said on the spot.
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