Adrian Dingle’s Chemistry Pages - The Blog

Audit: Alternate Approach success

Just thought some of you may like to know this;

Due to a combination of somewhat out of the ordinary circumstances and my own personal philosophy, I was not able (at least with a clear conscience and any professional or personal integrity) to sign off on the lab commitment part of the audit. After much gnashing of teeth and “toing and froing” with my administration, we agreed that we would submit a syllabus that listed an Alternate Approach to “one double period per week”. HOWEVER, our Alternate Approach did NOT outline a huge portfolio of virtual labs, rather it stated that I would cover all of the likely lab material via a combination of some wet-labs, demos, virtual labs, and other experiences. For many reasons my “hands-on” lab program is not very extensive (approx. 14 labs, a couple of computer simulations and a few other things), and it only covers nine of the recommended 22 (the other labs ARE fully discussed in class but not actually “done”), BUT we do work lab based problems over and over and over again to cover every single lab situation ever asked on the AP exam. Part of my syllabus document was based upon this document at my web site;

http://www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com/aplabsummary.pdf

Why tell you all this? Well, it appears that the term “Alternate Approach” can be used with a LARGE amount of latitude, and that a successful audit does NOT necessarily mean that you are doing a huge lab component either wet, virtual or frankly at ALL in your AP chemistry course, but what maybe is important is that you are covering the lab material in some manner.

Anybody else with “Alternate Approach” success stories?

AP TOPIC 17 Pop-Up questions now added

TOPIC 17 Pop-Ups now added.

Audit anecdotes?

I plan on collecting your anecdotes about the audit and turning them into a narrative once the process has finally finished. Please send me an email to adrian@adriandingleschemistrypages.com with your story. Good, bad and indifferent I’d like to hear them all.

Subscriber Update

The following AP Worked Answers have been updated in the relevant subscriber areas;

1991, 2; 1993, 2; 1998, 2; 1999, 7

Subscriber Update

A few extra adjustments have been made to AP Worksheet 17a and the answers that should make things a little clearer.

Subscriber Update

AP Worksheet (and answers) 17a have been updated in the relevant subscriber areas.