October 2017 Xchange

Investigations of Hematite beads: A Experiment for National Chemistry Week

Check out these experiments that are very easy to perform and also related to the themes for National Chemistry Week in both 2017, Chemistry Rocks and 2018 Chemistry is Out of this World! 

Don't miss the extension of this investigation:  Investigations of Pyrite Nugget Beads: An Experiment for National Chemistry Week, Part 2

My Research: Unpacking Active Learning

Does flipping the classroom actually enhance students’ learning, above and beyond just incorporating collaborative activities into classroom instruction? A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin - Madison conducted a study to find out. This piece augments the recent Journal of Chemical Education article, Unpacking “Active Learning”: A Combination of Flipped Classroom and Collaboration Support Is More Effective but Collaboration Support Alone Is Not. You will also find links to helpful videos designed to explain the research even further.

Using EdPuzzle As A Platform To Deliver Videos

Once the teacher has created the content in EdPuzzle, they can edit the video by cropping each end to make it a bit shorter. EdPuzzle provides the ability to insert questions. As the students watch the video, it will pause and ask them to respond to a question that has been inserted. This can be a multiple choice question or a free response question. Text can also be added as a description of what is occurring in the video.

Literacy Stations in the Chemistry Classroom

If students can’t understand the language of the text in the chemistry classroom, how can they understand the content embedded in it? One way to help make chemistry more comprehensible to students is through literacy stations. Students often complain about reading and writing, but the stations outlined in this article are intended to help increase the amount of reading, writing and comprehension of content in your chemistry classroom. Literacy centers support students by arming them with tools and strategies to utilize when examining text documents, charts, graphs, pictures etc. to take the content and make it comprehensible. 

 An Elemental Understanding of Isotopes

In January of 2017, Chad Hustings wrote a blog post, Isotopes, Nuts, Bolts and Eggs, about an activity shared in a workshop he attended at BCCE in 2016. With encouragement from many ChemEd X readers that wanted to try the activity for themselves, Bernadette Harkness has shared more details along with student and teacher documents.

A Comparison Between Teaching Chemistry in the United States and Internationally

Have you ever thought about teaching outside of the U.S.? A ten year veteran with some prior experience in Texas shares her experience. She provides a view into what teaching looks like for her along with resources and tips if you are considering trying something new.

Especially JCE - October 2017

Erica Jacobsen regularly highlights JCE articles that are of special interest to high school teachers. This month, she highlights a hands-on activity using materials that are easily obtainable from a craft or garden store. If you would like to explore the whole issue in more depth, check out Mary Saecker's JCE 94.10—October Issue Highlights.