Newark Academy Science Department Course Reflection 2013-2014

1. Select from the following:

Teacher

Select

Mr. Bitler

Ms. Celente

Mr. Erlandson

Dr. Hobson

Ms. Hone

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

100.0% (11)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

Course

Select

Interactive

Interactive

Interactive

Investigation

Discovery

Systems

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

Biology

Chemistry

0.0% (0)

100.0% (11)

Chemistry
Honors

0.0% (0)

Physics

0.0% (0)

Physics
Honors

0.0% (0)

Slot

Select

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

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2. Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements below based on your personal
experiences in this course thus far.
Rating

Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Not Applicable

0.0% (0)

72.7% (8)

9.1% (1)

18.2% (2)

0.0% (0)

11

18.2% (2)

63.6% (7)

18.2% (2)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

11

27.3% (3)

72.7% (8)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

11

18.2% (2)

63.6% (7)

18.2% (2)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

11

18.2% (2)

54.5% (6)

27.3% (3)

0.0% (0)

0.0% (0)

11

45.5% (5)

18.2% (2)

27.3% (3)

9.1% (1)

0.0% (0)

11

27.3% (3)

63.6% (7)

0.0% (0)

9.1% (1)

0.0% (0)

11

answered question

11

skipped question

Count

I have found that my teacher

explains course material and
expectations clearly.
I have received helpful feedback
from my teacher on my work and
performance.
I have received timely feedback.
I have been given opportunities to
demonstrate my learning on a
variety of assessments.
I have been given opportunities to
engage in independent thinking.
I have found the learning
environment appropriate and
positive.
The teacher has been sensitive to
my needs.

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3. Describe your experience in this course.

Response
Count
11
answered question

11

skipped question

4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your
skills? Please be specific.
Response
Count
11

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answered question

11

skipped question

5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this
instructor's teaching?
Response
Count
11
answered question

11

skipped question

6. Which labs were most helpful? least helpful?

Response
Count
11
answered question

11

skipped question

7. Was the average workload for this course reasonable?

Response
Count
11

4 of 17

answered question

11

skipped question

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Page 2, Q3. Describe your experience in this course.

This class is difficult. Sometimes we go through the material too quickly, and I find that I do not actually understand what
is going on until the night before the test. At the start of the year, we didn't take notes in class. It was more that if you did
the homework, then you should be able to understand what is going on. I have adjusted to this, but more formal in-class
notes would be helpful.

Jan 7, 2014 6:37 AM

My experience in this course is that the material is learned at home. A lot of the material we learn or go over in class is
extremely confusing and often not taught in the best way possible. I've noticed several other students having no idea
what was going on in the class, only to ask another student to explain it in a different way that they clearly and easily
grasp.

Jan 7, 2014 6:35 AM

I find chemistry to be my worst class. Mr. Erlandson explains things once and expects us to be able to memorize it from
him saying the information one time. Then when we do ask a question he makes fun of us or yells at us for not listening I
just do not find it to be a positive learning environment. If a human loses focus after 11 minutes then we are bound to
miss some things especially if the class is so dry. Also we receive practice problems for homework which fools us into
thinking we know how to do the problems then the test comes around and they are ten times harder. Now Mr Erlandson
is a great guy, but I feel like the learning environment needs to change.

Jan 7, 2014 6:34 AM

Overall my experience in this course has been good.I feel that I have learned a lot this year, and have gotten better at
being able to study for these types of tests as well as learning how to better write a lab report. Chemistry is one of my
better classes, and even though i am not doing excellent in it i feel that I am defiantly making an improvement from
Biology.

Jan 7, 2014 6:33 AM

This course has been a struggle for me. In the begging we moved fast and didn't slow down to fully learn the material. I
think in general the class had a hard time. Most of the class needed the final to improve their grade, showing that the
assessments in the past were to difficult or there were not enough.

Jan 7, 2014 6:32 AM

This course is somewhat interesting although i do believe that the material is pretty useless. Mr. Erlandson can get a little
sassy in class when we ask questions and when we answer questions and sometimes can be kinda mean towards some
students. overall i do like Mr. Erlandson as a teacher but some of his teaching methods and his attitude sometimes seem
to be bad and rude.

Jan 7, 2014 6:31 AM

I enjoy the course a lot and Mr. Erlandson is really good with making time for extra help. The class is fun to be in and
while I find it to be tricky, I really enjoy the class. Mr. Erlandson really accommodates my needs and helps with any
confusion.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

The regular Chemistry course has been exactly as I expected it. The level of work required makes it challenging, but not
too much so. I very much look forward to more difficult work in the coming term, and the prospect of working more with
my classmates.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

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Page 2, Q3. Describe your experience in this course.

Chemistry is a hard subject for me to grasp but Mr. Erlandson is helpful

Jan 7, 2014 6:27 AM

10

Even though chemistry is a challenging course I have found that I have been learning a lot.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

11

I don't learn that much in class but when I meet outside of class I understand a lot better. I find that in general our
assessments are spread out pretty nicely.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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Page 2, Q4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your skills? Please be
specific.

The homework isn't really helpful when it is just reading, because I don't remember most of it by the time I get to class. I
think it would be more effective to take it one section at a time, instead of reading the entire chapter as a one or two night
homework assignment. Worksheets, where we get the answer key in class, are much more helpful because I know the
types of questions Mr. Erlandson would be more likely to ask on tests.

Jan 7, 2014 6:37 AM

The assignments and in class activities did not help me understand the material very much. The labs such as the light
spectrum experiment had only a slight connection to what we were currently learning in class, and the writing of the lab
was simply plugging in numbers to a formula, rather than observing and making conclusions based on the data.

Jan 7, 2014 6:35 AM

The assignments are he readings and questions which help us understand. We do not do any in--class activities besides
the labs which sometimes apply to the material in which case they help.

Jan 7, 2014 6:34 AM

The assignments are very key to being able to understanding the topic. If all the assignment, class activities, and labs are
done well then it is very easy to develop my skills and understand the topic a lot better.

Jan 7, 2014 6:33 AM

The homework assigned is the most ineffective work I have probably ever done in high school. He assigns a reading and
questions, and then the next day we learn the material that we was on the hw the night before. I think that he should
teach the material first and then assign the hw. That way we could know how much we actually understand it.

Jan 7, 2014 6:32 AM

The interactive activities such as labs or really anything that makes us stand up and do something seem to really drill the
material into my head. assignments that we do on our own, however, do not help me understand the material. its hard to
understand a topic like this without it being shown and explained to you by a teacher.

Jan 7, 2014 6:31 AM

The labs help me understand what we are going over as well as the in-class activities. However, the assignments such as
homework do not always make sense because the class is given them the night before the lesson is taught.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

All three very much contribute to my understanding. The homework is short and informative, and the review in class helps
deeper understand the concepts presented. Labs present an opportunity to work with what we have learned, though I
wish we gave more time to do them sometimes.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

The homework assignments aren't helpful because you have the homework before we cover the material in class. It
would be more helpful if it went class to homework as opposed to homework then class. The other assignments are fine
but I wish we did more labs.

Jan 7, 2014 6:27 AM

10

I think that the mix of labs and formal assessments allows me to not only learn the material for the tests but understand it
for the labs.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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Page 2, Q4. How effectively do the assignments, in-class activities and labs help you understand the material and develop your skills? Please be
specific.

11

We always have hw on topics before we have actually learned about it which is really unhelpful. Homework has not
helped me to understand the material at all because I can never answer the questions just by reading from the textbook.

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Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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Page 2, Q5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this instructor's teaching?

Mr. Erlandson has a tendency to run through the material very quickly, which can be really tough for students. However,
when you find the time to ask questions, he always gives thorough and detailed answers.

Jan 7, 2014 6:37 AM

My teachers instructing is not very effective in general. I find the teacher often assumes the students understand his
teachings immediately, and if they don't understand the way he explained something, he rarely takes a different
approach, and simply repeats what he just said and then continues to move on. As previously stated I find I learned more
from doing the homework of reading the text than teachings in class.

Jan 7, 2014 6:35 AM

The most effective is if there is a demonstration which would be nice if we had more often. The least effective is the
typical talk for 50 minutes while we write down what he is saying. We just can not absorb info if all we are doing is taking
notes because then we can't actually focus on the concept we are just writing down what he says.

Jan 7, 2014 6:34 AM

For the most part the home work and the in class work has been successful. Even though the homework is pretty long
some nights and can take me quite a bit of time I find that they are key to learning the topic. Sometimes when he goes
over the material in class it can a bit confusing just by the way he says it, and I have to find other ways of understanding
the material.

Jan 7, 2014 6:33 AM

The teacher is flexible and will meet when you want to help with your problems. He least effective aspect about Mr.
Erlandson's teaching is that he moves very quickly and doesn't really ever give you time to process the information. The
review days are never useful too.

Jan 7, 2014 6:32 AM

Something that is ineffective about Mr. Erlandson's teaching is how he assigns the homework for us to do on our own
which nobody in the class understands. The next day after that assignment he explains it perfectly for us all to
understand. instead of trying to learn it on our own, we should just learn it in class and have that material assigned for
homework, therefor not wasting as much time doing Chem homework that nobody understands. the material is absorbed
better when you practice it while knowing what you're doing, instead of when you practice it not knowing what you're
doing.

Jan 7, 2014 6:31 AM

Extra time and asking Mr. Erlandson questions has been most affective for me. His clarifications are helpful and actually
make sense unlike the some of the textbook. Having homework on a lesson the night before it is taught is the least
effective thing in Mr. Erlandson's teaching.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

Mr. Erlandson's teaching methods have been very effective, presenting information in a steady flow that is
understandable. The teacher's largest issue has been maintaining control over the class, but it has improved as time
goes on.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

He is very thorough but he expects us to understand whats in the reading even if we don't

Jan 7, 2014 6:27 AM

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Page 2, Q5. What has been most effective for you about this instructor's teaching? What has been least effective for you about this instructor's teaching?

10

I think that overall Mr Erlandson's teaching is solid. s

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

11

He is always available to meet so that has been really good for me since it has been effective for me to meet one on one.
The least effective thing about his teaching is the fact that we have hw on topics that we haven't learned yet.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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Page 2, Q6. Which labs were most helpful? least helpful?

The light lab was hard, but really helpful in terms of information.

Jan 7, 2014 6:37 AM

The most helpful lab was the products and reactants lab where we mixed different substances and looked for a reaction.
If a reaction occurred then we wrote out the reaction. The least helpful lab was the light spectrum lab as it was not very
engaging and slightly off topic

Jan 7, 2014 6:35 AM

The solubility helped my understanding a lot. I did not understand the light lab.

Jan 7, 2014 6:34 AM

For the most part I found that all of the labs were helpful and even though they were very time consuming they made me
better understand what was going on in the topic. I was not their for the light spectrometry lab so or that one it was very
difficult to get the results that I wanted.

Jan 7, 2014 6:33 AM

The labs that were most helpful were the ones i received high grades on. The least helpful ones were the ones in which i
received bad grades. In general though the labs were not that useful and caused lots of stress. The class would wonder
whether or not we needed a graph, how to make the graph, if we needed percent error, and how to calculate percent
error specific to the lab.

Jan 7, 2014 6:32 AM

Jan 7, 2014 6:31 AM

The light spectrum lab and density lab were most helpful and the least helpful lab was the absorption lab.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

All of the labs were helpful to my understanding of material, as application is something I personally do well at.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

the most helpful was the light lab while the least helpful was the lab with the compound substances

Jan 7, 2014 6:27 AM

10

I didnt think that there was a particular standout among all of the labs

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

11

The labs that had us practice things that were on the test were pretty helpful but labs like the light one weren't really that
helpful at all, just really confusing.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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Page 2, Q7. Was the average workload for this course reasonable?

I think so. It didn't make sense when we had to read an entire chapter for homework because I couldn't retain all the
information.

Jan 7, 2014 6:37 AM

yes

Jan 7, 2014 6:35 AM

I would say the homework is fine, but sometimes we have labs then tests within two or three days which is unacceptable,
especially when we have four other classes that are giving assessments. There just is no room for success when we
have that much.

Jan 7, 2014 6:34 AM

It really varies some nights even the regular homework can take me a lot of time were on other nights they are short. The
labs and tests on the other hand always force me to spend many hours. Usually I sound somewhere between 6-8 hours
writing a lab and sometimes more over the course of a couple days. The tests I usually like to study for a bout 2-4 hours.

Jan 7, 2014 6:33 AM

The workload was fairly hard in the class. The readings and questions are extremely difficult because we have not
learned the information yet and the textbook doesn't fully explain it, so we can't answer the questions.

Jan 7, 2014 6:32 AM

For the most part the workload for this course was reasonable. some labs seemed to be a bit excessively long but that's
ok.

Jan 7, 2014 6:31 AM

The average workload for the course is reasonable. However, when the test comes it seems that sometimes I am not
prepared as well as I could be for the test no matter how much studying I have done. For instance, some concepts may
not be addressed as much on the homework and appear on the test.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

The workload was absolutely reasonable.

Jan 7, 2014 6:28 AM

There was quite a lot of work, possibly to much

Jan 7, 2014 6:27 AM

10

Sometimes there was a lot of reading but other than that it seemed reasonable.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

11

The average workload is pretty reasonable except sometimes we have too many questions which is especially difficult
since we aren't familiar with the material.

Jan 7, 2014 6:26 AM

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