Why wrong answers belong in chemistry.
We hate being wrong. Some of us more than others. But we all hate being wrong.
It was 1988. I was given a test to see if I qualified for the TAG program at school. I knew it was important that I do my best. The psychologist was flashing cards in front of me, and I was to name them as fast as possible. And then up came THE picture. It was a girl in a tutu with her arms gracefully arcing above her head. I knew what it was. I just couldn’t remember the word. My mind spun as I could hear the seconds ticking away along with my chances of being considered smart. I knew it wasn’t right, but I opened my mouth and out came “ballette.” I can still see the upturned corner of the psychologist’s mouth as she smirked and flipped to the next card.
Being wrong impacts the way you think. And remember.
And yet in our chemistry classes, we can tend to only set kids up to know answers. All the time. There is value in letting kids think, try their best, be wrong, and the fix their thinking. In fact, it might be the best way. Here are some ways that I insert being wrong to help them learn.
Warm-ups always have a question they don’t know.
Many of us do bellringer style questions. If you want to read about my system, here is the link to the blog article. The third question in my system is a future question. That means they haven’t heard about it yet. They do have to answer it. Even if they know they are wrong. And it never gets graded for content. All the kids engage their brains, take in as many context clues as possible, and write an answer. Often in class I won’t even talk about those warmup questions. I let them naturally get answered over the next couple of days. Then I wait to hear “Oooooh, that’s what that means.”
Play guessing games in class.
Frequently throughout the year I will have students play “Price is Right” with a science value. They have to guess it without going over. I ask the question, they turn to each other and guess their value, and then I reveal the answer with drama. If you listen as they talk you will hear what kids think about those values. For instance, I had them guess human body temperature in Celsius when we were talking about temperature scales. I could hear numbers from 20-95. Almost all the guesses were too high. Then I can address that problem. We are used to thinking in Farenheit (what we call the F word in my class, no one is allowed to use the F word). So I can highlight the differences. But the key is that they had an opportunity to engage with the content, even while being wrong, and then correct their thinking.
That was also the line of thinking that lead to the creation of Metricize. Kids really don’t have number sense concerning the metric system. So the game creates repeated opportunities for kids to estimate metric sizes and be wrong. The tagline is “The most fun you’ll have being wrong.”
Make AP students attempt FRQ’s before they are ready.
My AP chem class starts with an FRQ. Literally. Two minutes into class they get an FRQ from the college board that they can only do part of. I set them loose with no instruction. They generally remember how to do stoich, though it can take a couple minutes. Then it progresses into questions they have never learned. It doesn’t matter. Use context. Use creativity. Search for a free point embedded in the scoring. I have them embrace being wrong and pushing forward anyway.
Opportunity for being wrong also means opportunity for being right.
Consider the kids that can be asked a question that they are “supposed” to miss and then getting it right! What elation. I write a very hard, but doable, challenge question at the end of my chemistry final. It’s multi-layered. On any given year, they will all attempt it (given they have enough time) but only about 5% will get it right. Just last week I had a mom mention to me that her son was still talking about getting that question right. In fact, she said that it really reinforced that he could be a science kid. The kid was still glowing three months after getting a question right. That is powerful.
How can you give your students opportunities to be wrong in a safe place today? They don’t always have to know the answer. They don’t need to ask ChatGPT. They don’t need to wait until you put the right answer on the board. They need to be wrong. And then they need to fix it. It’s an elegant dance of right and wrong. Just like a ballerina.
Interested in letting your kids be wrong about metric system? Playing Metricize will give them a safe place to build metric number sense while laughing and competing with their friends. One board game has enough boards for 5 simultaneous games serving 30 students.
What number would you put in the blanks to make the values equal?
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