My ChemClub students came to my room for a holiday celebration today. We made a batch of sea foam candy, experimented with Elephant Toothpaste, and marbled gift tags.
Do you know where the term “isotope” comes from? The term was coined about 100 years ago.
I am a safety conscience science teacher. I am embarrassed about some of the things that I did in my classes early in my career that I did not realize were unsafe. I saw the demonstrations and activities done at professional development venues and assumed that if my mentors were using the activity, it was safe.
This past summer, I took part in an online professional development offered by Beyond Benign. According to the Web site, “Beyond Benign was created by Dr. John Warner, a founder of the field of Green Chemistry, to provide an approach and means for scientists, particularly those involved in green chemistry and sustainable science, to reach out to the public.” I learned a great deal from the training. I was exposed to many resources that I did not know existed. I found lessons that I can easily incorporate into my curriculum that make a connection between the student and the chemistry content. Nothing is more powerful in a chemistry classroom than when a student can identify how the course content affects their everyday life and their future.
We are encouraged to use modelling these days and I have some activities to share along with some videos that might help you in the process.
I used JCE Classroom Activity #111 in my chemistry classes today. (Subscription to JCE required.) What a great way to help students make the connection between number of ions present, the charges of the ions and the neutral compound formula.
Do you or anyone you know advise an ACS Chem Club? I have heard of it over the past few years, but I have been busy and didn’t want to add another thing to my plate. When I found out that there are no requirements of what or how much we have to do as a group, I decided that I could give it a try. I appreciate that ACS provides some great resources. You can find many ideas on the ACS web site.
The Grand Valley State University organizers of BCCE 2014 are working to make the August 3-7, 2014 conference a valuable experience for the high school chemistry teacher.
