The objective of my grade 7 chemistry unit was to explore that chemistry is around us, and affects our daily lives. Throughout the unit, I covered topics relating while them to students lives. Each topic was followed either by a teacher demonstration, or student lab.
Hands on Science
The unit was very hands on. The final assignment of the unit was a student chemistry science fair. The rules of the project were that students had to find an experiment that involved a scientific topic with the use of everyday household materials. Throughout the unit, the teacher demonstrations consisted of the use of everyday household items to teach the curriculum topics. This was the way to provide scaffolding for the students, thus preparing them for their science fair.
Mentos and Pop Demonstration
We kicked off our unit with a Mentos and Pop fountain, followed by use of oil and water to illustrate the concept of density. We focused on physical and chemical changes with the baking soda and vinegar demo, cooking an egg, as well as some physical changes of taring paper, and crushing sugar cubes. We made lemonade with to exemplify solutions, saturation and concentration.
Pop Can Crusher Experiment
As a result, on the day of the science fair, students came fully prepared, ready to finally have a go at creating and showing their own experiments. There were lots of volcanos, elephant toothpaste, static balloons, dry ice and soaps, egg and vinegar, pop cans being crushed and so on. Students explored topics of pressure, static, membrane loss, physical and chemical changes, reactions, growth and decrease as well as mass and volume. 
Dry Ice and Soap
The result of this unit was to make students aware of all the science around them, and at the end of the science fair, they were extremely happy and excited about their own accomplishments. This was my goal all along, to foster creativity and questioning and allowing the students, through self regulation, to become engaged in what they were learning.
When it came to assessing this unit, and the final fair, I used my inquiry steps.
The unit started with establishing the goal, of which chemistry surrounds us, and affects our everyday lives. Students filled out personal goals, which they set for the unit. The goals set by the students were collected and kept by me. This really help provide a guideline for my assessment at the end of the unit. After the introduction of the unit investigation project, students contributed to creating a rubric, in which they want their final report to be marked on. This part was difficult at first. Students needed scaffolding on what a criteria was and what separates a good criteria. In addition, a midpoint meeting was conducted with the students to ask about what their experiment or demo is on, and how much progress they have made. This midpoint meeting was not only beneficial for the students, but also very helpful for me as a teacher. I was able to see who it was I needed to spend more time with, and who was on the right track.
Class Created Teacher Rubric
Moreover, students had a self- assessment form, in a checklist format, which they completed prior to their submission, to allow for them to be aware of what they have completed and what is being handed in. The checklist provided students with an understanding of what they needed to have incorporated in their project, as well was a great tool for self-regulation and students taking responsibility of their own learning.
Lastly, for the day of the gallery walk, peer assessment was conducted via the use of the “three stars and a wish” sheet. I collected these peer assessment and attached it to the the teacher rubric that I used to provide summative assessment, as well as further feedback for improvement on their report.
From my inquiry investigation, I was able to put theory into practice with an outcome of having a balance between summative and formative assessment.