How to Use Mole Hills as an Engaging and Self-Checking Activity

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I love using mole hill activities in my high school chemistry classroom. Mole hill activities, or question piles as they are more commonly known, allow students to practice content in a way that is both engaging and self-checking. I use mole hill activities with chemistry to practice molar mass, neutralization titration calculations, and protons, neutrons, and electrons. Mole hill activities can also be used with AP Chemistry classes to engage students in a low-prep activity that allows for students to self-check. Make your chemistry teaching life easier with a mole hill activity!

PNE Mole Hill Activity for Chemistry Classes

What could be better than an activity that is not only engaging, but an activity that allows students to self-check?! Plus, most of them don’t take a lot of time. Unless it is calculation heavy. AND-it requires little prep. Once you have the cards printed and laminated, it’s a walk in the park. If you are looking for additional activities for your students to practice chemistry content, mole hill activities may be for you.

In this post, I am going to teach you how to use mole hill activities with your students. I will walk you through the steps the students need to do in order to successfully complete a mole hill activity. In addition, I will mention my organization system for storing mole hill activities and other task cards.

By the way, did you know you can get a FREE mole hill activity by joining my email list? By subscribing, you’ll get instant access to a document that has links to both a printable (color and ink-saving) and digital mole hill activity for determining the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons in atoms and ions. Hit that subscribe button below!

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Print the Mole Hill Cards

Print your mole hill cards double-sided. You can choose to print the cards in color, or choose the ink-saving option. You should print as many copies as you want groups. I print 12 copies, so that I can have partners for this activity. This would accommodate a class of 24. If you have more students than that, print enough sets for partners to complete this activity. Or if you want groups of three, print less. For durability, I recommend printing the cards on cardstock.

Stack of PNE Mole Hill Cards that are cut and laminated — Cut & Laminate the Cards

Pretty self-explanatory. Cut the cards and laminate them for longevity. A personal laminator is seriously one of the best things I ever bought myself. Laminating pouches can be expensive, but I have not really noticed a difference between name brand pouches and many other pouches. After the cards are cut and laminated, I place each set in a plastic bag. I tend to use thicker bags for longevity, but regular zip top bags can work too.

PNE Mole Hill Cards Answer Side Up — Step 1: Lay Cards Answer Side Up

Have each pair grab a bag with the mole hill cards. They should shuffle the cards, and then lay the cards so that the answer side of each card is facing up. There are 10 cards total, so you can tell your students who LOVE order to put them in a 2x5 grid. Some will order it nice and neat, and others, well…

PNE Mole Hill Cards with One Card Question Side Up — Step 2: Flip ONE card to the Question Side

Instruct your students to flip ONE card, and one card only, over so that they can now see the question on that card (facing up). It DOES NOT matter what card they choose to flip over. I usually say something like “Pick a card, any card” as dramatically as possible. The activity will work no matter what card they start with.

Step 3: Find the answer to the question.

Students flipped a card over in the previous step. That card will have a question. Students should answer that question, and the answer should be somewhere in the answer bank. The answer bank includes all the other cards that are still on the table answer side up.

PNE Mole Hill Stack Begins as Answer to First Question is found and flipped over to get the next question. — Step 4: Flip the Answer Over to the Question Side and Stack

In step 3, students found the answer to their question in the answer bank. Once they have found the answer, they flip that card over to get a new question, and the cycle repeats. It is called a mole hill (or question pile), because after they flip this card, they should stack it on top of the previous card. It’s kind of like dominoes, but instead of laying the cards side by side, they stack the cards into a pile, or mole hill. Get it?! Mole hill…hehehe.

Step 5: Rinse and Repeat

Students continue to answer questions and find the answer in their remaining bank. Each time they find an answer, they flip it over and stack it on top of the previous question. They now have a new question which needs a new answer. Until they get to the end. The last question’s answer should be on the back of the question at the bottom of the pile. It should make a full loop with no problems. If a student or pair cannot find the answer in the answer bank, it means they made a mistake somewhere else in the stack, and can go back and check their work.

Once finished, students should mix the cards back up, put them back in the bag, and return them to wherever they got them from in the first place.

Mole hills are as simple as that! They make for a great, usually quick, activity that is both engaging and self-checking!