Particulate level diagrams play an important role in the way chemists think and understand models and concepts in chemistry. An introductory activity that I use very early in my classroom helps as an advanced organizer of many ideas critical to how chemist organize matter. Pure substances, homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures, phases of matter, atoms, molecules, elements and compounds are all key terms in describing matter. Macroscopic examples of matter can not easily differentiate all of these ideas as well as particulate level models. In addition providing a collection of containers to students with the challenge of how to organize the containers will result in students generating generating all of the terms above for organizing matter.

In my classroom I ask the students to complete an online activity Before Class, than During Class I have them do the specific activity I described above. Following class I ask students to do an After Class online activity that helps the student apply what they have learned During Class.

I have generated a Google Form of the Before Class Exploration (BCE1). For a copy of the BCE1 form for use with your students click in the column titled 'Link' in the table below. When you click on this link a page will appear with a link to make a copy of the form. The form will then be loaded on to your Google Drive. (NOTE: If you do not have a Google Drive, you will need to create one.) For a copy of the Google Sheet with the Expert's responses to each of the BCE1 questions click the link in the table below. The During Class Invention activity (DCI1) that goes with the BCE1 is available in three formats: as a Google Doc, as a .pdf and as a Google Slide. I would be interested in which you prefer. Finally the Google form for ACA1 along with a Google sheet of the Expert's responses to ACA1 are also linked in the Table below.

Once the Google Form of BCE1 and ACA1 are on your Google Drive you can share the form(s) with your students. There responses will be posted into a Google Sheet that you can browse. You can past the Experts responses into the Google Sheet with your student's responses so you can compare their responses to the Expert to see what your students are understanding prior to you discussing the material (in DCI1). After covering DCI1 you can assign ACA1. Those response will be posted in a new Google Sheet. Again pasting the Expert's responses into the ACA1 Google Sheet will allow you to compare your student's responses to the Expert's. This will give you an idea of what your students learned from BCE1 and DCI1.

I would be interested in knowing which form of DCI1 you used, and the usefulness of BCE1 and ACA1. I have posted a Survey (in the table) to gather your feedback. Thank you in advance.

You are also welcome to send an e-mail directly with thoughts/questions/comment. john.gelder@okstate.edu Thank you in advance.

Type of Activity	Type of file	Link	Description
BCE1	Google Form	BCE1	This is the BCE for the Matter DCI: classification of Matter
BCE1	Google Sheet	link to a Google Sheet	This Google Sheet contains the Expert's Response to the BCE
DCI1	Google Doc	MatterDCI	This is a Google doc of the Classification of Matter DCI
DCI1	Google Slide	MatterDCI	This is a Google Slide of the Classification of Matter DCI
DCI1	pdf	MatterDCI	This is a .pdf of the Classification of Matter DCI
DCI1 Answers	pdf	MatterDCI	This is a .pdf of the Classification of Matter DCI Answers
ACA1	Google Form	ACA1	This is ACA1 for the Matter DCI: classification of Matter
ACA1	Google Sheet	link to a Google Sheet	This Google Sheet contains the Expert's Response to ACA1
BCE1/DCI1/ACA1 Survey	Google Form	link to Survey form	This Google Form asks for some feedback on your experience with BCE1, DCI1 and ACA1.