Blogs

ChemEd X contributors offer their ideas and opinions on a broad spectrum of topics pertaining to chemical education.

Blogs at ChemEd X reflect the opinions of the contributors and are open to comments. Only selected contributors blog at ChemEd X. If you would like to blog regularly at ChemEd X, please use our Contribution form to request an invitation to do so from one of our editors.

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light blue cards in the midst of being organized on a table top
Card Sort Hacks
// Wednesday, March 18, 2020 • Melissa Hemling
Along my teaching journey, I started to incorporate more inquiry and modeling activities into my classroom at the expense of practice problems “drilling” concepts. Based on student survey feedback, I learned my students missed these drilling activities. They were craving practice they needed to master and get comfortable with the content.
Text: "Making school a better Game" over a school house
10 Principles of Effective Games to Make School a Better Learning Environment
// Monday, March 16, 2020 • Josh Kenney
Math Blaster! is an educational video game designed to test students’ ability to solve simple math problems. In the 1983 game, players fly an arcade-style spaceship as math problems appear at the bottom of the screen. Their task is to shoot an asteroid that displays the correct answer to the math problems. Math Blasters!
household products on kitchen counter plus iPad with RSC Global Experiment website on the screen
Global Experiments
// Saturday, March 14, 2020 • Melissa Hemling
Like many others, my students and I are facing weeks of remote learning due to COVID-19. I am brainstorming ways to engage my on-level chemistry students online. Weeks of watching online lectures, taking notes, and completing practice problems will get old. I am nervous my students will quickly disengage.
Sharing Resources for those Moving to Online Classes - COVID 19
// Wednesday, March 11, 2020 • Deanna Cullen
As schools are closing their doors and moving to an online platform in hopes minimizing the spread of COVID-19, many instructors in our chemistry education community are scrambling to pull together resources and lessons that they can use over the coming weeks. Social media is buzzing as educators share their ideas and suggestions.
text: Reimagining the Chemical Volcano, sketch of volcano & pic of test tube with chemical reaction bubbling
Making a (big) eruption with chemistry!
// Wednesday, March 11, 2020 • Scott Balicki
When you think back to your first experience with a chemistry experiment, what do you imagine? More likely than not, a papier-mâché volcano spewing forth the products of a mixture of baking soda and vinegar (possibly dyed with red food coloring for effect ?) comes to mind.
particle image of a solution in a flask
DIY Particulate Models
// Monday, March 9, 2020 • Melissa Hemling
Particulate diagrams are all the rage in chemical education.
3 wells with solutions (red, olive green, light green) text: Colorful Copper Equilibrium
A Multi-Colored Equilibrium Experiment
// Thursday, March 5, 2020 • Tom Kuntzleman
I’d like to describe a very colorful system you can use to explore many facets of chemical equilibrium.