Lab Practicals, Final Exams and a Silver Lining to a Tough Year
Chad Husting | Wed, 06/16/2021 - 08:09
A lab practical with an escape room story turned out to be a great final exam.
problem solving
Context-based Chemistry: Benefits and Challenges
Josh Kenney | Tue, 04/20/2021 - 08:31
Context-based chemistry aims to make chemistry learning more meaningful for students. With an emphasis on inquiry-based activities, context-based chemistry improves student interest and motivation in chemistry by linking content to real-world situations. Though the idea has been around for over 20 years, researchers are still learning the best strategies for teaching context-based chemistry. Here, we will explore some of the benefits and challenges unearthed up until this point.
An Experimental Demonstration of Hess's Law
Philip Penketh | Sun, 08/02/2020 - 10:03
The application of Hess's Law frequently presents students with conceptual problems. This series of experiments confirms Hess's Law and offers a robust understanding of this principle. This can be done as a demo completed by the teacher or as a lab with groups of students.
Activities to Promote Higher-Order Thinking in Virtual Asynchronous Chemistry Learning
Josh Kenney | Wed, 07/15/2020 - 15:53
The 2020 global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 forced millions of teachers to switch from in-person to online instruction. With minimal training in online teaching, many substandard learning environments were quickly rolled out. In this post, the author describes two metacognitive learning activities that are easy to incorporate into an online learning environment.
What’s going on inside their head? - Student-made videos for metacognitive problem solving
Josh Kenney | Wed, 06/17/2020 - 14:56
Metacognition is a learner-focused evaluation of knowledge growth and an essential process for complete and lasting knowledge. Although virtual learning environments pose challenges for facilitating metacognitive activities, student-made videos are effective for increasing metacognition in online chemistry instruction.
Solution to Chemical Mystery #17: Bubble Buster!
Tom Kuntzleman | Wed, 04/29/2020 - 16:45
The solution to Chemical Mystery #17 is presented. Were you able to use your chemical knowledge to explain the results?
Chemical Mystery #17: Bubble Buster!
Tom Kuntzleman | Fri, 04/24/2020 - 17:20
If you know your chemistry, you can figure out how the bubbles get busted!
Free Collisions Game Access
Stephanie O'Brien | Tue, 01/28/2020 - 18:38
Are you looking for a way to incorporate gaming in your chemistry classroom? CollisionsTM has recently announced that their online gaming system is now free for educators!
Metabolic Marvels of Bear Hibernation- Part 2
Scott Donnelly | Mon, 12/02/2019 - 15:52
The post-Thanksgiving excessive calorie-consumption 'blues' have arrived. How is it possible to eat so much? For a bear, it's easy. Easy as pie. Bears are champion eaters, spending about half the year eating non-stop in preparation for winter's foodless landscape. How can this calorie consumption observation about the bear world be used to teach certain chemistry concepts routinely covered? This post includes discussion and two classroom activities about the following common general chemistry topics/concepts- thermochemistry, unit conversions, and interpretation of numerical data. Enjoy...
Teaching and Evaluating Science Practices—Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Ben Meacham | Thu, 11/14/2019 - 21:27
Several resources are available to support teachers as they incorporate science practices into their curriuculum. The author shares how he and his colleagues focused on improving their coverage of the practice of planning and carrying out investigations.