Study Card Rings

There are a tremendous amount of great sites online for creating online study aids
(see - quizlet.com), but nothing beats creating and working through your own set of study cards.   Whether it is a full stack of 3 x 5 cards wrapped in a rubber band, or one inch strips cut from 3 x 5 cards and hole punched on a snap key ring.  The actual pocess of creating hand written study cards is a study staple for most students.


I demonstrate this process to my chemistry students when they need to learn the cations and anions that will be used in naming and creating inonic formulas.  To assist students in learning the ions, I create three sets of twenty ions that students are responsible for knowing.  On one side of card stock I have the names of the ions neatly organized in a four card by five card grid created on an excel spreadsheet.  On the opposite side I have the ion formulas with their ionic charge.  On this side I do not put grid lines.  When students cut them out, they only use the name grid lines and that way the lines do not need to match up (for some students this is a distraction if there are random lines on their cards).

I take part of a class period for the students to cut out and punch the cards and place them on a snap ring that I provide for them. It is worth the class time to have students complete the task.  This garauntees every student has the complete set and leaves the student with the idea that they are of some importance since you gave up class time to make the ring card sets.

I have divided the ion sets on three separate color cards and quiz the students on each set separately.  I find that ionic naming, writng balanced chemical equations and stoichiometry all go more quickly and smoother when the students know these ions from memory.


I then suggest that students can create their own study sets in any of their classes by cutting the
3 x 5 cards into one inch strips or they can by the pre-made blank sets at most bookstores or teacher supply stores.

Half the job, is having the correct tools.

Quizlet - Great Online Tool

Although I am an advocate of project based learning and utilizing education that serves the multiple intelligences, there are some basic skills, ideas and concepts where learning comes down to rote memorization.

I use a very practical,useful and intutitive site online to provide flashcards to assist students with that material which must simply be learned through memory and rote skills.

Quizlet (http://quizlet.com/) is a wonderful site for educators and students to create and use flash cards to provide learning and study opportunites for vocabulary and definitions, formulas, terms, elements and symbols, etc... etc...

Educators and students alike can create their own databank of flashcards for any content area. Sets of flashcards can be assigned to specific classes or students or they can be made public for anyone registered with Quizlet's use.  For most content and subject areas there are vast amounts of pre-made flashcard sets produced by both students and teachers available for public use.

Quizlet provides opportunities for students to learn, review and practice at their own pace, through a variety of options built in to the Quizlet program.   Students can work through the flashcards one side at a time or both sides simultaneously.  Once students feel comfortable with the material they can check their understanding through a learning tool where they must complete the information from the opposite side of the card that they are being shown.  Students can also test themselves with a Quizlet generated test based upon the information in the flashcard set.

Students can also learn and practice through two games, scatter and space race.  Scatter provides both sides of the flash cards randomly placed on the computer screen.  Students must move the partners together to make them disappear. My students enjoy scatter on the SMART Board where they can compete with each other for the best time to remove all the terms.  The space race game is completed by typing in the correct answers before the clue slides off the screen.

Quizlet, provides great options for both students and teachers to tap into those concepts that must simply  be processed through repetition and rote memory.