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It's interesting to me how a word can define a class. The longer I teach, the more excited and quickly I can cover a concept. However, this pace does not necessarily fit well with my students, so we have a code word: Traxoline (thanks to Judy Lanier).
“How Much Turmoil Does the Science Project Cause Families?” reads the tongue-in-cheek science-fair-style poster illustrating parent Susan Messina’s views on science fairs. Her materials list includes: at least 1 grudging parent, half-baked idea of very dubious merit, and procrastination.
The nail bottle demonstration is one that many of us have conducted in our classes. To perform this demonstration, 2 – 3 mL of ethanol is placed into a plastic bottle that has two nails punctured into opposite sides of the bottle. After stoppering the bottle, a Tesla coil is touched to one of the nails. A spark jumps from one nail to the other, which initiates the combustion of vaporized ethanol inside the bottle. We recently filmed this reaction with our high speed video camera.
A fan letter for a chemistry experiment? Well, yes. I read Tom Kuntzleman’s blog post “Soap Boat 2.0” over four months ago and immediately bookmarked it.
My students and I intend to use a high-speed camera to film a variety of chemistry experiments in slow motion. The first reaction we have decided to film is the “Whoosh Bottle”. You can read more about this particular experiment in an article in Journal of Chemical Education here(link is external). NOTE: O
I am excited with my student's response to offering an ACS ChemClub at our high school! ACS does a great job of providing materials and ideas for meetings.
Is PhET still free to use? Yes, but you can always make donations or encourage others. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1437859(link is external)
This week I talked with Alice Putti who teaches Chemistry and AP Chem in West Michigan. Below are her answers to our inquiry questions:
Q1: How do you define inquiry? or What does inquiry look like to you?
This year one my goals is to use this space to talk specifically with various teachers about how they use inquiry in their chemistry classrooms. My four questions are:
I recently spoke with a chemist from industry that said that if she admits to being a chemist, it is a serious conversation ender. I can relate! I know many of you can to. My colleague, Greg Rushton, shared a similar sentiment in an article introducing himself to the JCE community(link is external).