Many of the experiences in this class will be hands-on activities. During the activity, you should record the questions and write your answers directly beneath each question. I will try to structure the questions so that you should be able to write a discussion by using the questions as a guide or outline for writing your discussions. When you write your discussion, you will be trying to convince me that you understand the concept. This is accomplished by answering four basic questions in an essay.

1. What were you supposed to learn from the activity? Often, you can do this by restating the purpose of the activity.
2. What did we do to try to answer the purpose? Describing the lab activity. Identify the variables and controls used to test or illustrate the concept. Write this as a narrative about what you did (in other words, don't use bullets or lists of steps). Explain (when possible) why specific procedures were used. Be sure to include the details on solutions used such as its concentration and composition.
3. What did you find out? What were the important observations or key measurements you made. Data tables and drawing are appropriate here - don't make references to you activity sheets like "see data table." If you made a graph, describe the graph (Does the line rise or fall? etc. What trends does the graph show us?)
4. What does your results tells us about the purpose? Identify any trends or patterns in the data collected (including details about the graphs made such as shape. If you have an equation for the line, identify what the constants represent and what variables are.)Explain how the data illustrates or supports the concepts and answers the purpose.

The discussion is the major portion of the grade for any activity (40-60%). You need to participate in the activities and your participation will be certified with a stamp on your recorded data. Without the stamp, you will not receive credit for the activity.