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Chemistry

Are you part of an AP Chemistry professional learning community?

Allison Tarvin | Wed, 09/13/2017 - 20:00

The research says the best way to make your school better is to encourage teachers to participate in professional learning teams that unpack the standards to determine what each student should learn and how the learning will be measured, build a useful warehouse of evidence that learning is occurring, and critically review data collected to determine useful instructional strategies versus ineffective strategies.

Searching for the Next Editor-in-Chief of JCE

Ellen Yezierski | Wed, 09/13/2017 - 14:16

The Board of Publication of the ACS Division of Chemical Education announces the opening of a search for the ninth Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE). A video and other documents are provided to outline the job posting, responsibilities of the position, the routine workings of JChemEd and characteristics of a well-suited candidate. 

Get Your Learn On

Michael Morgan | Mon, 09/11/2017 - 14:55

When I first started teaching I was very fortunate that a local teacher invited me to a high school chemistry teachers meeting. I was really young and really motivated to be a better teacher. I registered immediately and went to an all day event. I think I learned more that day than I did in all of my teacher training. 

Density and Measuring

Chad Husting | Tue, 09/05/2017 - 07:54

If you are looking for a measuring and density activity that will be challenging, allow students to experience success early on and can be boxed up to use again, you might consider trying the activity that I am sharing in this post.  

Measuring Activity

Chad Husting | Sun, 09/03/2017 - 11:01

I want to share a measuring activity for you to consider. First, start with two baseballs. The first baseball is a regular baseball. The other baseball is called a "small ball". Next, get six to eight students to volunteer. Without talking at all the students must hold the normal baseball and the small ball. They then must decide if the normal ball has more, less or the same mass as the small ball.

The Teacher Page - An Organizational Tool

Dana Hsi | Fri, 09/01/2017 - 10:05

The Teacher Page includes all of the notes needed to set up, run, and clean up the particular experiment. It includes a record of where the lab was obtained, a list of chemicals including amounts and their location in the stockroom, notes of any issues experienced (good & bad) and notes of things that might be tried in the future. This will save you much time and repeated effort!

Creating a Culture of Nerdy

Michael Morgan | Wed, 08/30/2017 - 15:51

It all started with a couple of summers spent on fellowships at the Institute for Chemical Education at the University of Wisconsin: Madison. In 1990 after two years of teaching high school chemistry I transferred to help open a school to specialize in Health and Medical education. I was 23 years old and ready to take on the world. The school’s student body was high poverty, 96% of the students qualified for the federal lunch program, and almost the entire student body was classified as minority. It was a good first year.

This post was submitted for the 2017 ChemEd X Call for Contributions: Creating a Classroom Culture.

The Two Words Every Chemistry Student Needs to Learn

Gary Abud | Tue, 08/29/2017 - 16:57

Teaching students the proportional reasoning skills needed for stoich doesn’t have to be that daunting. By adjusting how your students talk about stoich, you will adjust how they think about it; eventually, they’ll proportionally reason in a more effective manner.

This post was submitted for the 2017 ChemEd X Call for Contributions: Creating a Classroom Culture.

Dance Your Final Project

Dana Hsi | Tue, 08/29/2017 - 13:32

As part of advocating science literacy in my classroom, I have my 10th grade Honors Chemistry students dance their first semester final. This Dance Your Final semester final is to force students to actually read real, published scientific research; have a group final; eliminate test anxiety; and help students have fun with the content. Truly, of all assignments I give during the school year, this is the one that students say they sweat the hardest on, enjoy the most, and are the most proud of their work.

Stop trying to get your students interested in chemistry!

Tom Kuntzleman | Fri, 08/25/2017 - 12:19

Because my teaching philosophy assumes that both quality and quantity of learning increases with interest in subject matter, I have spent years exploring ways to engage my students in chemistry (of course fire, explosions, and color changing reactions are certainly helpful). I have recently begun using an approach that I have found to be quite fruitful, albeit counterintuitive: I don’t try to get my students interested in chemistry. You read that right. I don’t try to interest my students in chemistry. Rather, I get to know the hobbies and interests of my students. Then I work to demonstrate how chemistry relates to those activities. This post was submitted for the 2017 ChemEd X Call for Contributions: Creating a Classroom Culture.