Feedback

Feedback on the Summer Chemistry Course:

1. What has worked well this summer?

I think that the labs were a success this summer because it taught us to actually work together and get the job done. We followed the directions and made compromises and set positions to complete the procedures. Each lab was different, but they were all extremely informative and educational, yet fun. I enjoyed doing the labs even though group work is not my favorite thing in the world. I am more of an independent learner, but this year I realized that group work could be helpful and convenient.

2. What suggestions do you have for tweaking or changing the course?

In my opinion, we had an excessive amount of homework this summer that was mostly irrelevant to what we were learning or being tested on. I think that in order to further improve not only our education, but our test scores, we should do more review on what will actually be on the tests and mini quizzes. I understand that were in class to expand our knowledge, but I feel that in an environment like Buckley the pressure that were under requires us to focus mostly on how were going to get a high grade instead of what we need to know in the future.

3. How can we go even further with presentations about individual interests a la economist reports? Can we make some of them group presentations, even more creative, mini research projects, or even videos or performances or experiments?

I really enjoyed doing the economist reports because they were educational and taught us all a lot about things going on around the world. We never would have thought that all of the articles of the website would be connected to science because they were all so random. We can improve these reports by incorporating articles from other magazines as well because it seemed that we repeated the same articles several times.

5. Should the instructor check all homework on the blogs?

I don’t think that the instructor should have to check the homework because it is straight from the textbook, so nothing we put on our blogs will be irrelevant. It would be hard for the teacher to check all of the homework because he would have to grade 18 student’s homework’s everyday. Although I think that homework should not be graded based on our answers, I do think that it should be graded based on effort and whether or not we actually did it. Homework should be a grade booster, not something that would lower our overall grades.

6. With a new head of school who is calling for more creativity, even in science, what whacky vision do you have for learning Chemistry that has more joy, less fear of G.P.A, and more excitement about learning about science?

I think that less pressure for tests and quizzes would allow us to learn in a more comfortable environment because we wouldn’t be worried about preparing for them everyday. Instead, we would be focused on what were learning and have fun in class! The pressure that Buckley puts on us to do well on tests and keep a high G.P.A causes stress for many of the students that attend it. Finals, especially, cause anxiety and even panic attacks! I don’t think a child should be dreading going to school; they should be looking forward to learning around their peers. I have experience with getting panic attacks in the middle of my science final, and I felt that I couldn’t breath, and I was being trapped. This kind of stress really hurt my body and since then I am highly afraid of taking finals, and tests in general. This was a traumatizing experience and I hope with our new dean, we will not have to undergo the pressure that we have been under for years.