(e)Xperience ChemEd X through the ideas and opinions of its community members.
Xperience is where contributed, but not reviewed, ChemEd X resources such as blogs and opinion pieces are found. Here you can find blogs in which our contributors express their personal empiricism and polls in which you the community can provide your opinions.
A primary goal of modern education is to prepare students for a globally competitive society. Importantly we must ask questions such as, “who is doing the hard intellectual work in the classroom?” and "what does doing hard intellectual work look like?"
The familiar soda fountains that can be produced by adding Mentos candies to plastic bottles of carbonated beverages can also be produced by adding objects to carbonated beverages in aluminum cans. A variety of simple methods for producing soda fountains from cans are described.
Chad Husting explains how he used two hands on activities to get a sense of where his students were at within the realm of labwork and the scientific process as school began.
Yes, sitting down and having "The Talk" with your students- the one focused on their careers and goals. Sometimes it is difficult and each student can be very different. But it is still worth it in the long run to do this.
Check out the solution to Chemical Mystery #18: Peek A Boo Blue!
Michael Jansen reflects on a very common empirical formula lab that asks students to determine the empirical formula of MgxOy. He then explains how he continues to use it as a "successful failure", how he demonstrates an alternate procedure and leads his students to an important lesson.
Can you use your knowledge of chemistry to figure out what is going on in this blue/green/yellow/blue color change?
The two-page instruction sheet that accompanies the Luster Leaf Rapitest© Soil Test Kit could be a useful curriculum resource for chemistry teachers for generating discussion about the key aspects of the content or for helping students practice close reading skills. This article will briefly describe the contents of the instruction sheet and suggest possible uses in the general chemistry curriculum by posing questions for students to answer or consider.
The differing electrostatic and solubility properties of starch and polystyrene foam packing peanuts are used in various demonstrations to describe aspects of microplastics and their interactions with the environment. Their differing responses to exposure to liquid nitrogen and iodine solutions are also described.
AP Reader, Melissa Hemling, reflects and shares ideas to improve multimodal understanding of AP Chemistry concepts with Concept Summary Sheets.