Scientific Practices Post #1: Model Building

Through a series of three blog posts, I’d like to share my thoughts about these scientific practices and how we might communicate about these practices to middle and high school students. I’d love to hear your thoughts along the way! Let’s start with model building…

Melting Pennies

I am fascinated by the chemistry of pennies. I have tried several experiments found in the Journal of Chemical Education.

High School Chemistry Day in San Francisco 2014

The American Chemical Society will hold its 248th National Meeting in San Francisco, CA on August 10-14, 2014. More than 15000 scientists are expected to attend and over 7000 presentations are slated, comprising symposia that highlight a broad range of scientific advancement. The theme of the Fall meeting is Chemistry & Global Stewardship.

To Inquiry or not to Inquiry . . .

Here is something to ponder as you think about your lab experiences this year:  I have been using an excellent inquiry lab for the past few years.  I think it does a fabulous job guiding the students through the amazing (yet often dull to students) world of specific heat equations and learning about calorimetry.  However, this semester, I returned to the old, traditional calorimetry lab.  I wan

Floating Squares

I was looking for a new demonstration to initiate a discussion about polarity and related properties to use as part of an exam review. I found a video at ChemEd X (this is part of a ChemEd X subscription). It is entitled “Floating Squares – Hexane and Water” (see note below). I have placed both solutions together before, but I had not added the squares. The demonstration fulfilled my needs. I could have used the original video and muted it if I had not had hexane to demonstrate with.

Chemistry Topics

acids/bases applications of chemistry aqueous solution chemistry Atomic Properties / Structure conductivity consumer chemistry Demonstrations density electrochemistry electrolysis equilibrium Food Science gases General Chemistry Intermolecular Forces kinetics Laboratory Instruction liquids metals noncovalent interactions Outreach oxidation/reduction Oxidation / Reduction Phases / Phase Transitions / Diagrams Physical Chemistry physical properties Polymer Chemistry Public Understanding reactions solids stoichiometry thermodynamics