Activities

Stoichiometry is one of the most fundamental topics in a high school chemistry course, but it is also one of the most challenging concepts for students to master.¹ Stoichiometry is abstract, making it challenging to learn and teach.² As with any abstract concept, activities that encourage conceptual thinking tend to promote a deepe

Discussing chemical reactions with my students has always been one of my favorite topics because the students got to see the chemistry on a bulk scale. The chemistry on paper comes to life in the lab. The unique teaching situation that we find ourselves in forces chemistry educators to adapt and evolve.

Writing formulas is one of those concepts in chemistry that requires much practice and repetition for students to gain confidence.

During my 12 years of experience as an ice core scientist on projects such as WAIS Divide Ice Core Project or the South Pole Ice Core (SPICE CORE) Project, measuring the appropriate density of an ice core prior to sampling the ice was of significant import

As cases due to COVID-19 continue to rise, many schools remain locked in virtual learning formats. Consequently, meaningful laboratory work remains a challenge for many.

Laboratory work offers students a practical and tangible experience with chemistry concepts.¹ Although safety measures due to COVID-19 have limited or even canceled in-person lab work for many teachers; virtual labs present a reasonable alternative.

This activity is designed to provide students with many types of scales on measuring devices in order to reinforce the idea that the physical graduations on an instrument determine the number of digits which need to be recorded.

In many chemistry courses, spectroscopy-based experiments are performed in lab. I personally find the overall topic of spectroscopic analysis fascinating and its applications can be found in numerous fields of study.

I previously "NGSS-ified" one of my favorite inquiry labs to begin the kinetics unit; Alka Seltzer Rockets. In this lab students are given a film canister, a quantity of Alka Seltzer of their own choosing and any materials available in the room to investigate factors that affect the rate of reaction.