Since our high school chemistry program is far more abstract and mathematically rigorous than our high school biology program, students who base their selection of a chemistry level on their biology performances may find themselves poorly placed and may subsequently need to schedule a level change. The mixing of levels makes such level changes extremely easy and convenient for all members of the academic community.

To our surprise, the numbers of students who transfer up a level usually exceeds or equals the number who drop a level. Students in chemistry 2 are able to see and experience the chemistry 3 program and often will work towards it in the low pressure atmosphere of the chemistry 2 grading scale. These students, who ordinarily would be pretty much locked into the lower program, are now free and encouraged to extend themselves beyond the expectations of the lower level chemistry course.

In a conventional classroom, most if not all of the level changes are probably downward, since students in lower level classes fall further and further behind those in the upper level classes. Each day it becomes more difficult to consider transferring up. This means that the initial class sizes of the lower level courses should be less than optimum size to leave room for transferring students. The class sizes of the upper level classes should be larger than optimum since some students will probably drop down a level. If this is not done, then the lower level classes will rapidly fill up and become closed to the students seeking transfer. However, with the design of this program, students are never locked out of a chemistry course or into a chemistry course because the classes in the level which they seek are full. All students can take the course level most appropriate to their needs based upon informed decisions made within the chemistry program.

The program is cost effective since chemistry students do not have to be fit into three separate groups but can be scheduled as one large group. If one is aiming for a class size of 20 students, it is easier and/or less expensive to achieve this if you do not need to worry about having only 14 chemistry 1 students, 98 chemistry 2 students, and 50 chemistry 3 students. The 162 students can be fit into 8 chemistry sections of 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21 without having to consider how to distribute the numbers 14, 98, and 50 into either more than 8 sections or greatly unequal class sizes.

We find that a mixture of students provides a more interesting and dynamic classroom atmosphere, providing the atmosphere is maintained as a healthy one for all students. Our chemistry 3 or accelerated students tend to be mainly sophomores while our chemistry 2 and chemistry 1 students are all juniors and seniors. The greater reasoning skills and disciplined work habits of many of the accelerated sophomores are offset by the greater maturity levels and social confidence of the juniors and seniors. The potential for a fine and interesting mix is certainly there if students treat other students well. This generally requires that the teachers clearly and openly respect / admire students equally in all levels of chemistry.

It is much easier to maintain safety standards in a laboratory program when the teacher has full knowledge of all of the chemicals being used in a laboratory. Prior to adopting this method, one chemistry class was using glycerin as a lubricant and was studying the solubility of potassium nitrate with changes in temperature, and unknowingly shared the room with another chemistry class using concentrated sulfuric acid. Hmm.

Related posts:

1. Disadvantages of combining different levels in one class. Actually, we do not find these disadvantages but rather limitations. And the limitations are just the ways in which we prefer to be limited, however...
2. Mixing and Maintaining Course Levels We believe that students do not benefit from being isolated into different ability and interest groups. Such isolation may remove the most enthusiastic students and...
3. Delocalizing the Teaching Staff or Who’s Up There Teaching Our Class Now? Since our program is research oriented with a strong emphasis on question development, it is essential that students have access to chemistry teachers at all...
4. The Art of Chemistry Assignments in this course are divided into three different levels (we do not mean chemistry 1, 2, and 3). On the first level, the student...
5. The Advantages of Late Assignments Most tests and quizzes can be made up or retaken any Tuesday or Thursday afternoon after school. There are many other opportunities for retaking tests...