A good closure activity for summarizing a lesson or a week's worth of class material is a game of Chemistry Tic-Tac-Toe. You should have a list of key concepts and terms that you emphasized during lectures and lab activities. Hopefully, some of this information has been transferred to your students, as well! Ask the students to brainstorm for a few minutes and list the key terms and ideas that they have learned.
To begin playing the game, draw a tic-tac-toe board on the blackboard. As you read off your list of key terms and ideas, randomly place the words in the 9 squares of the board. Each term or idea can be briefly described as it is being placed on the board to re-emphasize its definition or significance. The students should check the teachers list of words in the squares for words that they also have on their list. When they get enough words on their list to complete a line on the tic-tac-toe board, then they yell, "Chemistry". After teacher verification of their answers, declare a winner and give out some sort of prize (homework pass, school supplies, chemical oddity, etc). Any terms used that may need further explanations or discussion can be reviewed at this time. If time permits, play another game.
This technique can be used for a short concluding activity at the end of a lecture/discussion, or it can be expanded into an entire unit review. If this technique of review is used on a regular basis, the students will begin to pay closer attention to what is being said in class. When its used early in the school year, the students learn how to pick out the key concepts, which will improve their note taking skills. Many thanks to the tupperware ladies for this useful teaching technique!
Submitted by Mark Case