analogies

Colligative Properties in Real Life

Dan Meyers | Sat, 02/20/2016 - 10:51

colligative-properties-real-life.jpg

This year in the midwest United States, winter has been a fickle friend. I haven’t seen the same amount of snow or ice as in recent years, but I still made sure I was prepared for it at our home. I went to my local big box hardware store in December and contemplated buying rock salt (NaCl), and NaCl/calcium chloride mixture, or just calcium chloride. Growing up my dad had switched entirely to calcium chloride because it was less damaging to the brick pavers leading to our porch and backyard. In fact, calcium chloride is generally much safer toward plants and soil than NaCl. Even though calcium chloride is much more expensive than rock salt (it was about twice the cost for 10 pounds more), that what’s I chose. Why?

Cool Science...A Reason to go to Plan B...

Chad Husting | Sun, 10/11/2015 - 19:49

cool-sciencea-reason-go-plan-b.png

We all have plans. As teachers we plan every week and worry about time, depth, amount, types of assessment and state mandates. Most importantly, are the kids learning? We give it our best shot. Sometimes, we have to go to plan B.

A Thing for Chairs!

Julia Winter | Thu, 07/09/2015 - 22:47

thing-chairs.png

Over the past two years, I have immersed myself in designing mobile games for organic chemistry: founding a company called Alchemie and building a team to develop these games. The first of our games is called Chairs! (The exclamation point comes from the fact that an app called Chairs already existed in the AppStore.) The game Chairs! is what we call our proof-of-concept. Folks were a bit incredulous when we told them we design games that make learning organic chemistry intuitive and fun.

A Modeling Approach to Energy Storage and Transfer

Erica Posthuma | Sat, 05/03/2014 - 15:57

modeling-approach-energy-storage-and-transfer.png

From the misconceptions fostered by the biology textbooks using the phrase “high-energy phosphate bond” to idea that energy comes in different forms, the Modeling community recognizes the challenges of teaching the energy concept and has developed a way of talking about energy designed to help students construct a consistent and cohesive model.

Periodic Table Project

Deanna Cullen | Mon, 10/08/2012 - 12:42

periodic-table-project-preview.png

Students choose a topic and select items to incorporate into a periodic table. Students explore trends related to their own topic and relate to the trends on the actual Periodic Table of Elements.