Alchemy I ~ Intro Quiz (Sept 2059)

[addaellis]

𝔄𝔩𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔪𝔶 🇮‌

Classroom: The alchemy classroom is in the dungeons. Two of the walls consist of several bookcases, a storage cabinet for common ingredients, and a few blackboards. In front of the blackboards and one bookcase is a long bar-like platform and desk space visible to the entire classroom. This serves as the professor’s desk, demonstration table, and ingredients bar as needed. To one corner is a basin into which ice-cold, purified water pours from a gargoyle’s mouth.

Round, student stations surround the rest of the room. Each alchemy station has room for a couple books or notebooks, several alchemical apparatuses (which can be stored underneath the station when not in use), and includes dedicated space for a cauldron, inkpot, and wand. Two stools flank each station.

Class is Tuesday during Block 5 (14:00 - 15:00) (2pm - 3pm)

Office Hours: General office hours are held Tue/ Wed 10-11am and other times by appointment in Vihaan’s office, accessible from the dungeon floor

Yr 3: Philosopher’s Stone/ Corrumpo Spell/ Inveratus Spell/ Baleful Brew

Notes for Roleplayers
This thread is also being used as a test for different ways of running classes. Thus I will rarely actually follow the curriculum as listed on the List of Knowledge for scenes, but please assume potions/ spells in the list of knowledge are all taught at some point in the year. Thank you for your patience.

 

[addaellis]

𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔡 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔬𝔟𝔧𝔢𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔳𝔢𝔰

Upcoming. I'm...still writing it >.>"

ℌ𝔬𝔴 𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔰 𝔯𝔲𝔫

Vihaan is generally an upbeat professor who encourages collaborative work and thinking. He encourages students to submit notes how they think is most useful.

All exams and quizzes are open-note, open-book, and open-partner collaboration unless otherwise stated. In 5th and 7th years there are a few preparatory exam days that are not open-note, but he is very clear what these days are. Directly copying another student’s answers or without citing a reference is still plagiarism though. For the sake of keeping a quiet testing environment, open-partner means only the other person sharing the alchemy station.

Vihaan’s philosophy is that there is no way anyone can memorize every reagent and every side effect, every herb use and every potion ingredient. What they must know is the general use cases, and they must have the ability to quickly look up this information and put that information to good use. If they see an unknown ingredient, they should have enough knowledge to guess how to extract the desired magical properties, and more importantly, safely be able to perform the needed technique once confirmed. Use your resources includes using people: if you know your partner who will be there will know that answer, it may as well be in your notes. Basically, “by the time you get to OWL and NEWT exams, you will have already memorized everything you need to have memorized for the exams.”

• Engage: After a quick check of reading notes, class time always begins with like 5 minutes of answering questions about the homework or just talking about it.
  
• Explore: The main part of class is working on a specific spell or potion, or working on a puzzle (15-20 minutes)
  
• Explain: Lecture or Discussion breaks down the activity, presents any vocabulary, and basically crystallizes the experience they just had into theory structures and practical uses (20 minutes)
  
• Evaluate: Time to wrap up the activity or an an open-note “pop” quiz (5-10 minutes)
  
• Extend: Homework– Usually a short puzzle scenario that applies the lesson to a real-world example or something outside of alchemy.

Homework usually consists of two parts:

• The primary homework is a work sheet question set with 5-7 questions:
  
  • The first part is 2 short answer history questions: Question 1 is a straightforward prompt or set of prompts that can be written from reading/ class lectures. Question 2 is a more reflective question usually with no single correct answer, asking for analysis on a particular procedure or a brief description on a historical alchemical figure.
    
  • There are also 3-5 alchemy puzzles of increasing difficulty. Question 3 is usually quite simple: something like “list 5 use cases for this spell”. Puzzles increase in difficulty and complexity such that Question 7 is something could be something as complicated as a theoretical problem and set up that will use multiple potions and spells to achieve any number of acceptable solutions.
    
  • If a student puts in significant effort but cannot figure out the answer, they can put a “I tried but can’t figure it out, my notes are attached” and still get almost full points. Extraordinary effort or particularly insightful ideas are rewarded house points. Sometimes Question 7 is entirely for extra credit or house points.
  
  
• Reading: Students can choose any single reading they want, as long as they read and make notes on one of the readings. NOtes can be a summary paragraph, bullet points, a diagram, highlights and column notes–whatever makes sense for the student. Readings are designed to prepare them for the next week and are checked coming into the classroom (or after if they’re late).
  
  • (General reading) The standard reading is usually a chapter from the year’s official textbook. It often has the best diagrams.
    
  • (Theoretical) The theoretical or experimental reading is usually an academic literature review or book that covers the topic. It has a lot of great detail but can be obtuse to comb through, and some of the detail is found in the references workds which can get much longer.
    
  • (Practical) The practical reading is usually a research article or handbook chapter that deals with how the topic is used in another field. It has a lot of the shortest readings, but also might require other knowledge to parse out and fully understand, which makes up for the short length.