Chemistry: Final Exam

My students took a pretty traditional comprehensive final today, with some problems and questions from each unit of the trimester. I don’t like this final as much as my physics one; I tried some new things in my physics finals this year, and feel like those finals were pretty in line with the rest of the course, while the chemistry final feels very separate from the collaborative, hands-on elements of the course. One of the barriers to changing that is many of the students in this chemistry course have an IEP that includes testing accommodations that I need to be creative to apply to a lab-based or collaborative final. A lot of IEPs call for students to take assessments in the special education resource room, but I’m betting the case managers of these students would be willing to help me find a solution. A little trickier is the students who take their tests orally; that could get tricky for an individual, lab-based final. If I teach this course again, I should sketch out the final I’d like to give well in advance, then talk to some members of the special education department to come up with a plan to comply with the IEPs while giving a more meaningful exam.