analogies

Bubbly BBs and Vaccinated Mentos: Chemical Illustrations to Promote Public Health Measures

Dean Campbell | Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:35

bubbly-bbs-and-vaccinated-mentos-chemical-illustrations-promote-public-health-measures.png

The authors revisit "flattening the curve" demonstrations published during 2020 to see how they could represent the impact of vaccinations on the COVID 19 battlefront. These demonstrations do not demonstrate the mechanisms of vaccines themselves, but are rather analogies to their potential effect on a population. In these analogies, gas production still represents illness, but this time people are represented by objects added to the solutions which either enable gas production (unvaccinated individuals) or do not enable gas production (vaccinated individuals). These simple experiments are best used as stand-alone demonstrations, and links to videos are included in this writeup.

Especially JCE: March 2018

Erica Jacobsen | Tue, 03/13/2018 - 07:23

especially-jce-march-2018.jpg

Erica Jacobsen shares highlights from the March 2018 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education.

Especially JCE: March 2017

Erica Jacobsen | Wed, 03/15/2017 - 11:05

especially-jce-march-2017.jpg

Throw the phrase “chemistry class” at someone to get their reaction. What do you predict it would be? A chalkboard full of stoichiometry problems? Wading through the atomic masses on the periodic table? Bubbling beakers? Something else? In any case, I’m guessing his or her first answer would not be, “Creative writing.”