National Chemistry week 2014 will be upon us in a little over a month. As you may have heard in Erica Jacobsen’s posts, this year’s theme is “The Sweet Side of Chemistry – Candy.”
Shelly Belleau is a chemistry and physics teacher from the Denver metro area. This school year she is working as a teacher on special assignment at the University of Coloroado, Boulder. Shelly anaitcipates returning to the high school classroom next fall. Below is our coversation about inquiry.
1. How do you define inquiry? or What does inquiry look like to you?
Every year when the day came to discuss the rules for significant figures in measurements with my classes I would write the rules on the board, we’d work through a couple examples, and I’d try to find a way to explain why we needed to use them when reporting measurements. This has never been my favorite topic to teach, mostly because I had a difficult time helping students see why these rules for measurement and reporting uncertainty were important.
National Chemistry Week this October 19–25 offers a chance to take a trip to the candy shop with the theme "The Sweet Side of Chemistry—Candy." Looking for some tasty chemistry resources? Two upcoming webinars will help you stock up.
Statement from the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety regarding the “Tornado Experiment” Explosion in a Science Museum in Reno, Nevada
Another chemistry demonstration accident has happened. This one was at a museum in Nevada. In preliminary reports, it looks as if several children were injured. One child was held overnight in the hospital.
On September 2, the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) launched its official website, loaded with lots of resources and member benefits. If you visit teachchemistry.org, you will find many great tools that K–12 teachers of chemistry can use in their classrooms; the new online periodical, Chemistry Solutions; professional development opportunities; and a community for you, in addition to many other benefits.
If you want to liven up your chemistry course with some music, check out the Griep Research Group Website. They are at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Many suggestions for music can be found. You may also be interested in suggestions for movie clips that you might want to include.
Deanna Cullen wrote about her decision to move forward with a blended model this year and asked for some suggestions about videos. I've been using videos as a teaching tool in my class for the last six years and wanted to share some thoughts.
Through a series of three blog posts, I’d like to share my thoughts about these scientific practices and how we might communicate about these practices to middle and high school students. I’d love to hear your thoughts along the way! Let’s start with model building…
