Grade 12 College Chemistry

Students are informed of the final assessments on the first day of class, including a science fair and a NOS portfolio. This was during COVID times when final summatives did not count if they lowered student marks and students knew that. The science fair is open-ended student choice, but they must relate it to the curriculum and is an investigation. The NOS portfolio follows the same format as the grade 9 portfolio above, in terms of having three sections and requiring that students describe five points per section about how science works and provide evidence from their course activities. The major assignments in this course that I suggested students could reflect on for the NOS portfolio final were:

• A history of atomic structure where students choose from an extensive list of atomic structure discoveries/ inventions/ concepts and look at three scientists involved in it, then focus on one for the assignment. Students research the scientist’s socioeconomic background, what their initial research was, how those may have affected their later experiment, and whether or not the experimental conclusions are still valid today. (Historical Case Study)

• Personal Action Plan, where students choose an issue described in the media related a government initiative or regulation that is intended to improve air or water quality and evaluate its effectiveness. They then create a Personal Action Plan with reasonable goals and actions that they can take immediately to make the situation better. (Contemporary Case Study)

• Various investigations into solid identification through qualitative analysis, structures and properties of organic compounds, limiting reagent, and a science fair topic of their choice. Students also conduct their own research and create a safety video explaining safe use of equipment from a list so that their classmates could use it. (Investigations)