Want a gas-law demo that students talk about all year? Try launching ping-pong balls with liquid nitrogen. This article shares how a pep-rally idea grew into an explosive, high-engagement lesson—and how the chemistry behind it creates a moment they won’t forget.
At our October meeting, teachers shared creative ways to make practice more engaging and meaningful. Kristen Vanderveen demonstrated a movement-based station activity for gas laws, while Sue Biggs presented her Molar Mass of a Gas lab that blends instruction with review and reflection.
The September AP Teach session focused on the application of Coulomb's Law in various sections of the AP Chemistry Curriculum and Exam Description (CED) and strategies for helping students write better responses.
In this one-day, remotely delivered, immersive, and interactive mini-institute, participants will learn how to use the VisChem Approach.
What if your students derived the periodic table’s masses before they ever learned about moles? This piece reframes “classic” atomic theory as a data-driven approach to building O:C ratios, uncovering the law of definite proportions, and explaining why oxygen’s relative mass is 16 when carbon's is 12. The result is a historically grounded, quantitative model of Dalton’s ideas that makes atomic theory feel discovered—not delivered.
What if the key to better chemistry review wasn’t more class time—but less lecturing? In this article, Sarah English shares how creating short, targeted videos transformed her exam prep process and helped her meet students where they are. With printed notes, embedded questions, and thoughtful accountability, Sarah's flipped classroom approach turned passive review into active learning—and made her teaching life a lot saner.
Balancing redox reactions doesn’t have to feel like a guess-and-check process. Once students master oxidation numbers, they can follow a clear “script” to keep every atom, charge, and electron on cue—even in acidic solutions like Fe²⁺/MnO₄⁻ → Fe³⁺/Mn²⁺. This article shares a student-ready, color-coded, animated PPT and a step-by-step routine (LEO/GER, electron equalization, H₂O/H⁺ balance) that turns messy equations into solvable scenes.
The August AP Teach session focused on beginning a new school year with a review of student performance on the 2025 AP Chemistry exam. Jennifer Cambre shared ideas for how to interpret and analyze the data from the Instructional Planning Reports.
In the July 2025 AP Teach session, experts walk through the features of the online Desmos graphing calculator.
Grading can feel tricky when school policies and student expectations don’t quite match—especially when students assume turning in all their classwork should equal an A. To bridge that gap, I created the HELP system, which lets students earn extra “HELP points” through things like going beyond the required work or scoring above the benchmark on tests. These points act as a kind of currency that students can redeem to recover from a low quiz score or a missed assignment. The system keeps students motivated, gives them ownership of their progress, and turns grading into more of a growth experience than just a final judgment.
