Chemistry 1 Parent Newsletter
January 16, 2015
What's going on in class?
We are currently learning about acid-base reactions. We have spent quite a bit of time this week in lab looking at the pH of various substances, learning about how metals react with acids and bases, and learning about neutralization reactions through micro-titration. We are also learning to write different types of equations for acid-base reactions.
Study Habits - Hints and Ideas
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/
There has been research that links writing notes by hand to better learning. When students are studying at home, encourage them to rewrite their notes from class several times by hand and to rework problems on paper several times. Doing this will help them to remember it better and longer. This will also better prepare them for studying in college. Follow the link above to the article from Scientific American Magazine about this.
Some study-time friendly apps:
Avoiding distractions is hard for all of us. With multiple forms of social media being much more interesting than school work, and readily available on so many devices, it is no wonder our students are easily distracted during study time. There are two apps available that can help with this. Cold Turkey (for PCs) and Self Control (for Macs) will temporarily block specific websites for a period of time that the user can specify. I am not suggesting this as something that you impose on your child, but something that you discuss with your child as a tool to help them develop personal responsibility. A lot of college kids are using it when they study for tests and write papers to help them be less distracted and manage their time more efficiently.