Stephanie O'Brien's blog

Celebrating our ChemEd X PAEMST Finalists

It may come as no surprise that three of our very own lead contributors have been named as  Finalists for the 2021 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) at the secondary level in their states. We would like to recognize them along with all of the amazing math and science teachers across the country that have earned this honor. 

NGSS during e-Learning Part 1

With the end of school upon us and the possibility of remote instruction in the fall, here are some techniques  to address four NGSS science and engineering practices; Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Developing and Using Models, Analyzing and Interpreting Data.

 

  Why is Chemistry so Difficult?

One reason so many students find chemistry difficult is the abstract nature of the concepts. Research based on the constructivist model of learning has shown that as an educator teaches, the learner makes meaning of the content by drawing from their background knowledge, attitude, abilities and everyday experience and this often results in a different construct than that of the teacher.

NGSS-ify Alka-Seltzer Rockets

Given a guiding question, students determined what they wanted to test, did the experiment and got their CER boards ready for review. Instead of a regular argumentation session, we had a glow and grow session, where students had to provide positive and negative feedback for each board.