The Alchemy Club

1
The Alchemy Club

• An after school science club at West Catholic
  High School.

2
The Club

• I choose the name to create a little mystery.
• I also only wanted the students who knew what
  alchemy was.

3
The Goals

• The goal of this particular year was to get
  students interested in science.
  
• I wanted to meet one day a week after school for
  extra class time and another day to help
  struggling students in my classes.

4
The Goals

• The goal for the younger students was to get them
  interested in science.
  
• Get them young, and give them good training to
  stay in honors classes.
  
• The goal for the older students was to get them
  ready for independent study in college.

5
The plan

• The main hook to get students involved was a
  little extra lab time.
  
• I also wanted to investigate some experiments
  that had already been done.

6
The Plan

• The basis of this would be the Mythbusters. This
  is a popular TV show that challenges urban
  legends.
  
• We could recreate some experiment they did and
  double check their results

7
The Plan

• The second part of the group was to help tutor
  students who are struggling in the regular
  classes that I teach.
  
• This has its history in that I used to use
  students in class to help tutor after school.

8
The Plan

• This gives the students a learning environment
  that is a little less formal, but still
  controlled by me.
  
• Most of the tutors not only get greater
  understanding, but also service hours for school.

9
The Execution

• I have called many meetings to date.
• For the most part they are attended by the best
  students in the school.
  
• I have had students from all four grades in my
  school.
  
• It has been anchored by two seniors that earned
  high grades in my chemistry class, and continue
  to do will in physics.

10
The Execution

• The group is nicely staffed with four very
  promising freshmen, one of which is a female
  student.
  
• All are very sharp and interested in advancing
  their scientific knowledge.
  
• I have also heard from fellow teachers that some
  students are really excited about it.

11
The Problems

• The biggest problem is that the best students in
  the school are members of every other club and it
  was difficult to pick a day to meet.
  
• We were really only left with Fridays. Trying to
  get students to stay on Friday afternoons is
  really difficult.

12
The Problems

• When the students did come, it was difficult to
  make them stay.
  
• Most of them just thought we were going into lab
  to play around. If we did not, they usually
  wanted to leave right away.
  
• They also think they are elite enough to cut
  corners.

13
Conclusion

• In order to start up a brand new club at a
  school, you have to skirt the established ones.
  
• If attendance was mandatory, everyone would have
  to be kicked out.
  
• Some kind of paper reminder would be a good idea
  for next year

14
Conclusion(Next Year)

• The club is worth trying each year. With greater
  access to the younger students I believe I will
  be able to build the club over the next years.
  
• The new goal is now to establish the club over
  the next few years.
  
• It was a rebuilding year.