Tuesday, February 8, 2011

More work with Poll Everwhere

As a warning to any editorial-minded folks, I'm mixing tenses...

Today marked the first time that I deployed an SMS polling service in my general chemistry class.  As I introduced in an earlier post, the application I am employing comes from Poll Everywhere, and in my class I am using  simple multiple choice questions that test my students' understanding of stoichiometry calculations based on chemical formulae (see poll below).





The polls were structured so students could give the correct answer, two other answers that are based on common misconceptions of the concept, and a "Don't know" option.  I administered several polls during a class period, showing only the instructions for the poll, with a five minute time limit on participation in each poll.  After time was called, I revealed the results of each poll to them as a graph.  The results of each poll were then displayed in the graph form shown above.

 My students gave me nothing but positive feedback during this session.  They asked questions about different ways of presenting the concepts within quizzes, common misconceptions were addressed, and problem solving strategies were introduced to them.

All in all, the experience of SMS polling proved very positive for my students, at least in the engagement department.  Whether or not this strategy results in improved test scores, rests, as always, on the shoulders of my students.