1. Can’t Judge a Powder (B)
By Lin Wozniewski

2. Disclaimer
This presentation was prepared using draft rules.  There may be some changes in the final copy of the rules.  The rules which will be in your Coaches Manual and Student Manuals will be the official rules.

3. Safety Students must wear: Closed shoes
Slacks or skirts that come to the ankles
Lab coat or lab apron
Indirect vent or unvented chemical splash proof goggles. No impact glasses or visorgogs are permitted
Long-Sleeved Shirt (if wearing a lab apron)
Gloves are encouraged

4. What Students Can Bring
test tubes & racks, spot plates, well plates, reaction plates, beakers or similar small containers for mixing
something for scooping & stirring
pH or Hydrion paper
hand lens(es)
Beral pipettes
9-Volt Conductivity tester
paper towels
Test tube brush

5. Conductivity Meters
Do not have to be fancy or expensive but can be

6. What Students Can’t Bring
Reference Materials
Calculators
Writing instruments of any kind
ANY materials other than on previous slide
Ranking below those who have followed the rules
The Penalty?

7. What Supervisors Will Provide
1 Substance
1 M HCl
1 M NaOH
2 Different writing instruments
Waste Container
Wash bottle of Distilled Water (ROI)
Instructions about whether refills of the powder are allowed
Instructions on how to use probes or extra reagents

8. What Supervisors MAY Provide
Thermometer
Balance
Hot plate
Anything else the supervisor decides to distribute. If the supervisor feels instructions are needed in order to use something provided, the instructions will be available

9. Main Focus Observations
The distinction between an observation and an inference
How to prepare students
Scoring the Exam
Resources

10. Observations
Emphasize to students that the purpose of this lab is NOT to identify the powder. (That is the Science Crime Buster event-not this one)
The purpose is to characterize the powder!
This event hits all of the Middle School National Physical Science Standards.
Therefore it is an excellent event to actually use in the classroom to teach observation and the difference between observation and inference

11. Observations
Students need to learn to write down observations, not inferences.
Students need to be as specific as possible.
While both flour & cornstarch might at first glance be described as “white powders”, flour is generally more of an ivory white or creamy white, whereas cornstarch is more bright white
Students should be as quantitative as possible
Students should state how many grams of the substance were attempted to dissolve in how many ml of water and from what temperature to what temperature the water changed during how long a time

12. Observations
Students should do tests on the reagents they are given as well as the powder.
If you do not know for sure if the liquid you are attempting to dissolved the solid in does or does not conduct electricity, you can not say for sure what the solid did
If you do not know what the temperature of the liquid was before you start dissolving, you can not know by how much the temperature changed.

13. Observation & Inference
If the student attempts to dissolve the .1g of the powder in 1 ml of water and the temperature goes down from 22.1C to 20.9C, that is an observation
If instead the student writes down that dissolving the powder is an endothermic process, that is an inference.
You would use the first observation to answer the question of whether or not the dissolving is exothermic or endothermic.
But you would get less points for answer 2

14. Observation vs. Inference-What’s the Difference
Observations are things that you use your five senses to discern. (No-you are not allowed to taste or touch anything in this lab!)
Inferences are anything that does not use your senses to discern.
So you can see a thermometer and observe a temperature or a temperature change.
But you have to infer that the act of dissolving then takes in or gives off heat based on your observation of the temperature going up or down.

15. How to Prepare Students
Have students start by observing powders and reagents and doing sample tests
Students need to make the observations on the reagents first, and then the same observations on the solutions (if any)
Students need to make observations with any “extra” reagents or equipment the event supervisor gives
Students need to get out of the habit of trying to answer the question. They put the observation number as the answer
Coach or assistant scores test and goes over results with students

16. How to Prepare Students
Have students get out powders and make up tests for each other
Students score tests themselves
This event is very much like Write-It, Do-It. Students will get unbelievably better if they have to make up questions and score results.

17. Questions
The questions the event supervisor is likely to ask can be divided into two main categories:
“Standard Questions”
What color is the powder?
Is it a powder or a crystal or a granule
Etc
“Powder specific questions”
You can not ask if dissolving the powder in water is exothermic if the powder is insoluble in water.
Etc.

18. Resources For Event Supervisors For Lesson Plans for classroom use
For Lesson Plans for classroom use

19. Questions?
Thank you

20. Time to Play -Observations
Before you is a powder, a spot plate, microspatula, stir rod, conductivity meter, DI, conductivity meter, HCl, NaOH, Iodine solution, Benedicts solution, balance, pH paper, and thermometer. There is a hot plate and hot water on the side of the room for doing the Benedicts test. A positive reaction for reducing sugars is a green, yellow, or red color. A Biuret’s solution can be made by adding a drop of Benedicts solution and a drop of NaOH to the powder. A positive reaction is a purple color. (You provide your own pen)

21. Observation Time
Please take ~20 minutes to make as many observations as possible on the powder.
This will work best if you make the observations as you think middle school level children would make them and not like the trained scientific observer educators that you are.
Please use a pseudonym or your school name and not your name to do this.

22. Answering Questions
At this point in a real tournament we would clean up everything, put everything away, and pass out new writing instruments.
We are not going to do that because I need everything out for the next event
You are on your honor.

23. Question time
Take about 20 minutes to put the question numbers by your observations Please use the pen to write on the question sheet
Please use the same pseudonym.
If you know the answer to a question, but did not write down an observation on it, you can write the answer on the line.

24. Answering Questions
We will be writing the letters of the questions the observations answer in the columns to the right of the observations.
It is best to write the observation’s numbers on the lines after the questions too.
Nowhere do you, or your students ever actually answer the question.
You will not actually use many of your observations.

25. Scoring the Exam
The I and O at the top of the Observation sheet columns are for Inference and Observation.
The scorer would go through and mark one column or the other for the “observations”.
This makes scoring easier
The observations that most completely answer the questions get the most points.
“Observations” that are really inferences receive a maximum of 3 points
Observations written in the second writing instrument receive a maximum of 2 points

26. Scoring We are now going to look at scoring a sample student’s paper
In reality, a single paper can not be adequately scored.
The people who get the 5’s for a given question are the ones who have the best answers for that competition
So an observation that might get a five at the first invitational of the year, might get a 2 at Nationals.
You have to have both the student’s observation sheet and answer sheet to score.
After you have gone through a few papers you will remember better what the questions are

27. Scoring
The first thing I would like to point out about the score sheets in front of you is that the partners made 48 observations in 25 minutes???????
The observations are simple and yet redundant
Your students need to come in and get right at making the observations.
The students have used every item they were given to observe multiple times.
The students have used presumably every reagent they were given for observations.

28. Scoring Are any of the “observations” inferences?
The observations keep talking about using 1 ml of the liquid and .15 g of the solid
But the student can use the same liquid and solid for all of the tests.
After the temperature, pH, and conductivity of the 1 ml of the liquid is taken
If using a well plate students should know what the volume of the well plate is, so measurement is easy
The solid can be added and the tests all retaken.
How did the students do?

29. Practice Scoring Please exchange papers around the tables.
You will need both the question and observation sheets
You will see that the observation sheets have a place to mark if it is an observation or inference.
Now we will look at question 1
Does anyone have an observation number to answer the question? If so, please (one at a time) tell me what the observations say
The point here is not the “right” answer, but the “best” answer.