In the science department, the chemistry teachers use several methods to improve student engagement. One way they keep students engaged is by rotating labs. 

Zachary Rhodenizer is the department head and teaches AP, DE, and honors chemistry. 

  “We do try to rotate some of our labs to make them a little more modern. Back in the day, they would do, say, like a nuclear chemistry lab with pennies or with M&Ms, and they would do statistics to show half-life. Today, we do have a Geiger counter. We do have some radioactive samples. So we try to add more modern demonstrations to some of the labs that we couldn’t do before,” Rhodenizer said. 

Another way the chemistry teachers keep students engaged in the classes is by prioritising hands-on work.

 Sherry Brown is the general chemistry teacher and also teaches environmental science.

 “A goal of mine was to make sure that my students are always getting the seat work time in, but that we are getting hands-on experience in how things work. That’s really important to me” Brown said. 

However, with the large amount of labs, the chemistry teachers are forced to spend extra time researching and planning labs so that students aren’t bored. 

As a multi curriculum teacher, Brown spends a large amount of time maintaining her classes.

“I’ve spent a lot of my summers doing teacher workshops and teacher research programs and trying to keep myself current on the updates that are happening in my field making sure that students have the opportunity to hear about the newest applications happening in chemistry,”  Brown said.

 Another time consuming aspect is the set up and prework for labs, Rhodenizer commented on that part of lab work.

“The labs are more in depth. They take more time to set up. You have to make, you know, specific solutions, dilutions, chemical preps that it takes a pretty significant amount of time,” Rhodenizer said.  

The chemistry classes continue to work hard to create a fun and engaging class.