Take-Home Quizzes: Learning to Learn in
Introductory Chemistry - by Holly Walter Kerby and
Karen Anderson
A Brief Description
- Take-Home Quizzes (THQs) are packets of 8 to 10 challenging, multi-part problems assigned weekly or bi-weekly.
- Problems are designed to challenge students to do what they need to do to learn chemistry. Problems ask students to address misconceptions, make connections to previous topics and everyday phenomenon, reflect on their learning process, exercise various learning styles and, of course, practice, hone, and apply basic problem solving skills.
- We encourage students to work on THQs in small groups by setting 3 or 4 one-hour study sessions per week. These sessions are facilitated by an instructor or a student tutor.
- Students are normally given a week to complete each THQ. Since it would be a Herculean task for an instructor to grade all THQ problems for 50 students each week, we usually grade only 3 or 4 problems per quiz. Which problems are graded is determined by lottery. Graded THQs are returned to students within 4 days with an answer key for all problems.
- THQs take the place of in-class quizzes and comprise 15 to 20% of the total points used to determine the course grade. Exams and lab reports make up the remainder of the grade.
- A non-graded "feedback" question section is included on most THQs. Student also comments about THQs on general questionnaires distributed 2 or 3 times per semester.
Tell me more about this:
-
A brief description
Types of problems
Examples of problems
Student feedback forms
What students say
Some advice and reflections
Why I like this activity
More about Holly Walter Kerby and Karen Anderson
