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Need Help?

Dear Labby,
I am a new teacher this year. There are two other science teachers in my department, so we are quite overwhelmed. I teach AP Chemistry, General Chemistry and Environmental Science. I would love any advice on how to manage lesson planning or altering a general chemistry lab for my AP students. What are some labs/demonstrations/activities I could use that are easy to alter for multiple learner levels? Do these exist in AACT's classroom resource library?
Sincerely,
Swamped with Subjects

Dear Swamped with Subjects,

I completely understand how juggling multiple subjects can feel overwhelming, especially in your first year! The good news is that there’s a lot of overlap among AP Chemistry, General Chemistry, and Environmental Science, so you can adapt some labs for different levels. For instance, you can tweak Determination of the Ideal Gas Law Constant from the AACT Classroom Resource Library by giving your AP students more challenging calculations. You can also use Investigating Popcorn with the Ideal Gas Law as a simple experiment for General Chemistry but dive deeper into analysis with your AP students.

Scaffolding labs is a huge timesaver. The Starch-Iodine Clock Reaction and How Fast Can We Remove Tough Stains? labs, for example, can be simplified for beginners or adjusted to include rate laws and reaction mechanisms for AP. Cross-curricular labs, like Investigating Acid Rain, are great for both Chemistry and Environmental Science—your chem students can run the experiments while your Environmental students analyze the data.

Finally, stagger your labs to avoid overwhelming lab days, and reuse chemicals and solutions across courses whenever possible to streamline prep. The AACT Classroom Resource Library is a goldmine for finding adaptable activities, so take advantage of that to save time. You’ve got this. Best of luck!

Yours in Chemistry,

Labby