Articles

Implementing the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Framework in the Chemistry Classroom

For me, the first step toward teaching my students how to critically think about how they structured an argument or explanation was to implement the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) framework. While the premise behind CER isn’t anything new to the way science teachers already think, it provides an entirely different approach toward how students connect their experiences and previously learned content into something that is much more reflective of being scientifically literate.

JCE 94.01 January 2017 Issue Highlights

The January 2017 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: NMR spectroscopy; examining assessment; inquiry-based practices; cost-effective instrumentation; miscibility demonstrations; innovative laboratory experiments; from the archives: lightsticks.

JCE 93.12 December 2016 Issue Highlights

The December 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: synthesis in the laboratory, examining and using a flipped classroom, improving labs through multimedia-based and student-directed learning, using applied math for better understanding, improving student understanding of thermodynamics, inclusive chemistry teaching, using manuscript review for assessment, climate chemistry, spectroscopy experiments, performing safe demonstrations.

Especially JCE: December 2016

Sharing the topics of measurement and the metric system could at first thought be seen as largely a visual endeavor. Students might measure the lengths of various objects and then convert their results from one metric prefix to another. Ditto mass or volume, with their respective measuring tools. What if the sense of touch could be incorporated to provide a different aspect of learning, beyond simply manipulating the objects?