Innovative, Relevant, and Effective Chemistry Education
The July 2013 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available. This latest issue of JCE plus the content of all past issues, volumes 1 through 90, are available.
Cover: NMR Spectroscopy
Students work together on a guided-inquiry laboratory exercise in which they use nuclear magnetic resonance to explore electronegativity and periodic trends, as discussed in the article How Does Atomic Structure Affect Electron Clouds? A Guided-Inquiry NMR Laboratory for General Chemistry by Michael A. Everest and Jeffrey M. Vargason. Other articles in the issue on NMR include: a model collaboration integrating NMR across the chemistry curriculum; a living, online NMR FID database; a molar relaxivity experiment; natural product experiment.
Editorial and Commentaries on Changes to the MCATs
Norbert Pienta, Editor-in-Chief, discusses in Defining a Playing Field: Where Does “Pre-Med” Fit? how the chemical education community has the opportunity to make changes to the content and delivery of introductory courses in general and organic chemistry. This editorial serves to introduce several ideas about change and the following commentaries on the premedical curriculum:
Rethinking Premedical and Health Professional Curricula in Light of MCAT 2015 by Charles Brenner
Chemistry in the Premedical Curriculum: Considering the Options by Joel I. Shulman
Moving from Recommendations to Innovations: Increasing the Relevancy and Effectiveness of Chemistry Education by Mary K. Carroll
The New MCAT: An Incentive for Reform or a Lost Opportunity? by Melanie M. Cooper
Additional Medicinal Chemistry
Fact or Fiction? General Chemistry Helps Students Determine the Legitimacy of Television Program Situations by Mark A. Milanick and Ruth L. Prewitt
Learning Nuclear Chemistry through Practice: A High School Student Project Using PET in a Clinical Setting by Lucia Liguori and Tom Christian Holm Adamsen
“Molecules-in-Medicine”: Peer-Evaluated Presentations in a Fast-Paced Organic Chemistry Course for Medical Students by Ekaterina N. Kadnikova
Summer Reading
Four JCE book reviewers present a summer’s worth of book and media selections for delving into when you have some spare time.
Chemistry Education Research
In Chemistry Education: Ten Facets To Shape Us, Vincente Telanquer discusses 10 different complementary perspectives from which chemistry content in introductory courses can be analyzed. This multidimensional view may help chemical educators enrich their understanding of chemistry as a teaching subject and enable reconceptualizations of the chemistry curriculum. In addition, assessment is discussed in two articles:
Measuring Learning Gains in Chemical Education: A Comparison of Two Methods by Thomas C. Pentecost and Jack Barbera
Identifying Differential Performance in General Chemistry: Differential Item Functioning Analysis of ACS General Chemistry Trial Tests by Lisa Kendhammer, Thomas Holme, and Kristen Murphy
Practical Paper & Pencil Activities
Understanding Diffraction Using Paper and a Protractor by Michael J. Samide
Thermometry as a Teaching Tool for Graphing: A First-Day Introductory Chemistry Laboratory Experiment by Lea W. Padgett and Catherine E. MacGowan
Innovative Investigations Using Gels
An Inquiry-Based Investigation of Controlled-Release Drug Delivery from Hydrogels: An Experiment for High School Chemistry and Biology by Joanna L. Sylman and Keith B. Neeves
Creating and Experimenting with Fire Gel, an Inexpensive and Readily Prepared Insulating Material by Thomas S. Kuntzleman, Dakota J. Mork, Levi D. Norris, and Christopher D. Maniére-Spencer
Spectroscopy
Hands-On Explorations
Educational Light-POD: An Activity for Middle and High School Students To Explore the Principles of Analog Transmission Using Photoacoustic Modulation of Fluorescence by Lorenzo Echevarria and Florencio Eloy Hernandez
A Caffeinated Boost on UV Spectrophotometry: A Lab for High School Chemistry or an Introductory University Chemistry Course by Kevin Dooling, Kurt Bodenstedt, and Michael F. Z. Page
Understanding Vibrations
Using Atomic Orbitals and Kinesthetic Learning To Authentically Derive Molecular Stretching Vibrations by Adam J. Bridgeman, Timothy W. Schmidt, and Nigel A. Young
QVibeplot: A Program To Visualize Molecular Vibrations in Two Dimensions by Mathias Laurin
Instrumentation
Developing Tools for Undergraduate Spectroscopy: An Inexpensive Visible Light Spectrometer by Jesse R. Vanderveen, Brian Martin, and Kristopher J. Ooms
A Convenient and Cost-Effective Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer Purging Setup for the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory by Ying Sun, Ye Zou, and Gang Ma
Good Laboratory Practice
Good laboratory practice is discussed in three papers by Richard C. Wedlich and co-authors: 1. An Introduction; 2. Recording and Retaining Raw Data; 3. Implementing Good Laboratory Practice in the Analytical Lab
From the Archives: Soapy Science
Soap is a very engaging subject for the teaching of chemistry. This issue contains an example of a soap industry case study that was used to motivate and engage students in the chemistry of daily life. Past issues include other soapy resources such as:
Making Usable, Quality Opaque or Transparent Soap
JCE Classroom Activities: Soapmaking and Colorful Lather Printing
A History and Exploration of the Craft of Soapmaking
JCE Resources for Chemistry and Cleaning
With over 1000 Issues of JCE Available, There’s Always More to Explore
You will find all of the articles mentioned above, and many more, in the Journal of Chemical Education. Articles that are edited and published online ahead of print (ASAP—As Soon As Publishable) are also available.
The January 2013 issue will be available as a sample issue for the entire year. If you like what you read, subscribe! If you have something to share, write it up!