Mayfield's 'Year of Chemistry'

The oversized periodic table—that familiar tabular arrangement of chemical elements ordered by atomic numbers and electronic configurations— hangs high in Room 201 of Hayden for all students to see.

And therein lies the challenge.

“This atomic world, that periodic table is totally abstract—you can’t see atoms,” chemistry teacher Jim Loughrie said. “So what we have to do is teach students to think abstractly about concrete things. We have to show them how this periodic table has real applications in the physical world to solve problems.”

The power duo of Mr. Loughrie, a deeply experienced high school science teacher with a penchant for classroom creativity, and Dr. Alli Akagi, a newly minted Caltech Ph.D. with exacting expectations and a passion for all-girls education, have been at the forefront of student engagement in what we are calling “The Year of Chemistry.”

A peek inside Mr. Loughrie’s class shows the dynamics at work for first-time chem students.

“Chemistry,” he told his students, “is like an adventure story—you think you know the plot, but be prepared for the unexpected. Think of the periodic table as your vocabulary words and equations as your sentences,” he explained.

“The reaction that takes place is the unfolding story,” he said as the students prepared for a lab experiment. “And you are telling it through a set of symbols and equations.”

The surge in chemistry classes was prompted by an overhaul of our science curriculum, designed to strengthen lab-driven courses to better prepare students for upper-division and Advanced Placement science and technology classes. For the first time last year, all freshmen were required to take Conceptual Physics. All sophomores must now take chemistry, as do juniors who are on the old science track.

Next year biology will undergo an enrollment bulge. Then science class enrollment will stabilize. Three years of science, rather than two, are now required, although the majority of students take four years. Many strengthen their science course loads with additional electives.

“Our goal is to take our freshmen girls and give them a very positive experience with science,” said Theresa Peters, Science Department Chair and biology teacher. “We want to remove any fears that girls can’t do science.”

The freshman Conceptual Physics course lays the foundation for biology, chemistry and all other sciences. Sophomore chemistry class introduces students to understanding the world on a chemical level—as simple as calculating the amount of chemicals needed to fill a baggie until it is rigid or as complex as understanding why the coral reefs are dissolving.

Or, in one class session, students learned to tell a chemical reaction story with a surprise ending.

Test tubes and droppers at hand, students in Mr. Loughrie’s class mixed a strong base into a copper solution to produce a blue solid. After heating it, they were surprised to see

the solid turned black. They then added an acid and, like magic, the whole thing dissolved into a blue solution. The final step involved adding aluminum, causing a red metal to form.

“Wait…What? Did we just make copper?” a student asked.

At the end of the experiment, their story looked like this:

Cu(NO3)2 + 2NaOH > Cu(OH)2 + 2NaNO3

Cu(OH)2 > CuO + H2O

CuO + 2HCl > CuCl 2 + H2O

3CuCl 2 + 2Al > 3Cu + 2AlCl 3

“You never really know what is going to happen, but it’s so so exciting to see everything we have learned come to life,” said Jenna Khachatourian ’20. “It’s like each formula means something and when we write it down we are saying what is happening.”

The class work was a combination of oohs and ahhs, laughter and heads-down writing, or “storytelling,” as Mr. Loughrie would call it.

It’s also the kind of engaging learning at the heart of Mayfield’s Holy Child educational philosophy.

Sofia Avila ’20 said Mr. Loughrie’s story analogy clicked with her.

“We are telling about a journey in this experiment,” she said. “All these elements are different and when we combine them we are explaining the story of their transformation...I really feel like today we took our understanding to a whole new level.”

“I feel like chemistry is new and fun today,” Jenna said. “So much is happening!”