second-year undergraduate

Beginning and Becoming: Introduction and Invitation

Hi everyone! My name is Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh, and I am a new Lead Contributor/Blogger for the Two-Year College component of ChemEd Xchange. I am beyond thrilled, though, to join ChemEd Xchange and learn more about your interests on this platform. I am hoping you, as the audience, will help guide the topics I write about so that we can focus our discussions to interests both you and I share.

The Periodic Table- Economic Elixir and Agent of Destruction

The history of the world is joined at the hip to the elements comprising the periodic table. The rise and fall of geopolitical empires, the quest to colonize new lands, the ballerina of regional and global diplomacy, the relentless exploitation of the natural landscape, and the driving force of world commerce past, present, and future- and not to mention what's in your refrigerator, pantry, on your person, and in your garbage can- all have the same starting point- the periodic table.

 

Video-Enhanced Automatically-Graded Web-Based Pre-Lab Tutorials

In our freshman Chemistry laboratory course at Nicholls State University, tutorials (with embedded quizzes) are used as pre-lab assignments. The text and graphical information provide a sufficient basis to answer all the questions, but YouTube videos are embedded for students who may need additional help. The tutorials could be easily adapted for flipped instruction in high school and college lecture courses.

The Blue Butterfly Effect

The June, 2018 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education contains an article that describes a simple, yet fascinating experiment that you and your students are going to love! It involves the use of butterfly wings from the genus Morpho

Capping Off a Unique Redesign of the Laboratory Curriculum

A few years ago, the faculty in our department at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania decided to switch to an atoms first approach to the General Chemistry course. We took advantage of this change to systematically redesign the first semester of the laboratory curriculum to be a true “laboratory course” that focuses on laboratory practices, techniques, and equipment rather than on chemical theory.