Hello there! I hope you’ve been able to take the summer to relax and recharge for this upcoming school year.
First, I’d like to thank you for your support over the past school year. ChemQuiz.net went from being an idea I was tossing around with a few of my colleagues during the 2020 lockdown to an educational website that has added over 1,000 users and has had over 900,000 hits! I’ve truly been humbled by the positive feedback and constructive criticism I’ve received during that time. Numerous teachers (you know who you are!) requested new quizzes, suggested new features and pointed out lots of bugs that helped me improve the site and allow me to focus on doing something positive instead of worrying about covid-19 and what school would look like in the fall.
Several of you have already signed up for site licenses, which is awesome! If you had a free account last year but your school isn’t “economically disadvantaged” (I hate that term, btw) with at least 50% of your students on free/reduced lunch, please consider purchasing a site license this school year for only $50. Website hosting isn’t free, so my first goal by selling site licenses is to break even, and then I’m planning to upgrade the hosting so that ChemQuiz.net runs much faster and can support thousands more Chemistry students and their teachers. I can accept payment through Venmo, Zelle, school purchase order or personal check, so please contact me at chris@chemquiz.net if you’re interested in purchasing a site license!
On to the exciting news – LOTS of new features! I’ve been working over the summer to try to squash as many bugs and add as many new features as possible. My focus was on trying to make ChemQuiz.net easier to use while also increasing its usefulness to Chemistry teachers and students, so I hope I’ve accomplished those goals. Here’s what’s new:
New Quizzes!
- NEW Scientific Notation Quiz
- convert between scientific notation and decimal notation, includes multiple choice questions
- NEW Chemical Equilibrium Quiz
- write chemical equilibrium expressions, convert between Kc and Kp, and calculate equilibrium constants and chemical quantities
Improvements to the Dashboard:
- teachers can now assign a quiz to multiple classes or students
- teachers can delete multiple student accounts or generate new passwords for multiple students accounts
- teachers can archive multiple quiz results once they’ve been reviewed
- quiz results from 2020-2021 school year have automatically been archived
- added a giant “join link” popup for teachers to show on the screen for easier student enrollment
- Dashboard automatically generates a QR code for each assignment
- cleaned up the overall appearance and improved the interface of the Dashboard
- custom assignment names now show up in CSV result exports
Additions to documentation:
- instructional videos on how to use the Dashboard, including creating student accounts and quiz assignments
Improvements to all quizzes:
- new Presentation mode! (I’m really excited about this!) One question per screen with larger font and immediate correct answer (site license required) – try it out on the Significant Figures Quiz!
- simpler given values for most quizzes to make math problems easier
- better scientification notation handling so students can enter a number like “6.02 x 10^23” instead of “6.02E23”
- fixed formatting on quizzes and results so that they look similar
improved formatting of “printable” quizzes - added cute “Generating Quiz” and “Scoring Quiz” animations!
- add placeholder text to some input boxes to make wanted values a little more obvious
- updated the example quizzes on the Sample Chemistry Curriculum page to include new features
- LOTS of other under-the-hood improvements!
Quiz-specific improvements:
- Balancing, Identifying & Predicting Chemical Equations Quiz:
- added option to filter by reaction types
- added difficulty levels based on the complexity of the chemical equation
- added acid-base neutralization reactions
- Molar Conversions Quiz:
- added two-step molar conversion problems (e.g. grams to moles to particles)
- Naming Compounds & Calculating Molar Masses Quiz:
- multiple choice questions!
- new option to choose compounds based on whether they have single or multiple charge ions (e.g., aluminum vs. copper)
- added extra error message for I’s and L’s to compound naming quiz
- added alternate formulas for some compounds
- Significant Figures Quiz:
- added option for multiple choice questions
- Stoichiometry & Limiting Reagents Quiz:
- added liters as a unit option
I’m also working on several new features and quizzes that I hope to finish soon:
- new Lewis dot structures quiz
- new photon wavelength & frequency quiz
- new reaction rates quiz
- better integration of Dashboard features so that they’re faster and easier to use
- prevent students from resubmitting answers for the same quiz instead of retaking the quiz with new problems
- more quizzes with multiple choice questions
- better quiz result filtering in the Dashboard
- and more!
If you have any suggestions for new quizzes or features, please feel free to drop me a line at any time at chris@chemquiz.net or by filling out the Contact form. Also, please spread the word about the site:
- tell other Chemistry teachers about ChemQuiz.net
- consider following my Twitter at @ChemQuizDotNet
- add your school to the list of schools who are using ChemQuiz.net by checking the opt-in box in Dashboard > User Info and clicking “Update your info” (this displays your school name on the About page)
Thanks again for all of your support this past school year, and I look forward to doing what I can to make this upcoming school year a little easier for you and your students. Take care and stay safe!
-Chris