AACT GOVERNING Board Elections 2016

AACT

I wonder how many of the ChemEdX readers are also members of AACT? The American Association of Chemistry Teachers has been a long time coming and is in its second year of operation now. It is currently being supported by the American Chemical Society and is a separate, and much more affordable, membership than ACS. One year of membership is only $50 and includes a subscription to Chem Matters Magazine.

For many years there have been national organizations for physics, biology, and math teachers. While there were many local organizations for chemistry teachers there was not a national organization. I think it is kind of logical that ACS would be a wonderful group to help get AACT off the ground. It truly came to life in the summer of 2014 when the first members joined at the BCCE in Michigan. To me it seemed time for a group focusing on chemistry teaching since NSTA was not truly catering to chemistry teachers and I even quit attending NSTA National Meetings since I did not find the sessions very appealing to me and what I was trying to learn. ACS has provided a staff of about five people to help get AACT going. They have been quite active at all the national meetings and are very responsive to inquiries that I have sent them. I think they are truly doing some good work. Maybe the best way to illustrate this is that one of the original staff was so excited about what they were seeing done that it made them miss teaching so much they actually left ACS and went back to a classroom!

I encourage all of you to check out the resources that are available at their web site (www.teachchemistry.org) for all levels of chemistry teaching. This last week there was a webinar about reviewing for the AP Chemistry exam. By having a national group with many members it is possible to deliver this type of support and do it in a timely manner. The review was very well timed for the upcoming AP exam. There are plans for future national meetings and the possibility of local sections developing.  There are sections of the web page devoted to chemistry teaching at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. College faculty are encouraged to join in also. When it comes down to it we are all on the same mission and should support each other. I think we can make AACT into anything we want it to be. It is time for us to get behind our new teachers, to support each other, and help each other transition into the most excellent teaching force that we can be.

I am a founding member of AACT and proud of it. I am also currently running for President of AACT. Any of you who are current members, I would appreciate your support and vote. If you are not currently a member please consider joining today. Voting officially opens on April 11 at noon EST. You can see all of the candidates for every open position on the AACT website along with a short bio of each.

As always you can follow all my NErDy adventures on Twitter @morganchem

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