This ... is ... chemistry

Indulata Prasad

A recent round of “Jeopardy!” made students in Joe Havens’ chemistry

class a little rowdy, cheering and often speaking out of turn in the

haste to answer correctly first.

“They get to be a little bit more of themselves because of the

game type of environment,” Havens said.

Havens put together a “Jeopardy!” quiz based on the unit the Costa

Mesa High School class had just completed on ionic bonds.

Categories were created according to sections of the unit --

chemical names of compounds, formulas, ions, valence electrons,

potpourri and salts.

Eager hands went up when Havens called for three student

volunteers to be the ombudsman, scorekeeper and computer operator

during the game. The class, a mix of freshman to senior students, was

divided into five groups. To encourage participation, Havens offered

the winners extra credit.

Students admitted the lesson was tough but said the competition

made it fun. While some students had problems remembering and

distinguishing new words, like polyatomic ion, anion and oxy anion or

isoelectronic, others found the math involved more daunting.

“The course itself is hard, chemistry itself is hard, chemical

reactions are hard,” junior Kyle Thorsness said. “It was a good

class. It’s all fun but in a good way.”

Nicole Kapp, 17, said games like “Jeopardy!” prove helpful to

students only if they pay attention. Even though she understands the

periodic table, Nicole said she finds the math difficult.

“Finding out the ionic numbers is definitely the most difficult

because it has to do with math, and I am not good at math,” she said.