first-year undergraduate

Pedagogical dilemmas

Pedagogical dilemmas will arise as they address decisions about instructional materials and approaches and what to emphasize in learning experiences that a chemical thinking perspective demands.

Conceptual dilemmas

Conceptual dilemmas will occur as teachers confront the philosophical, psychological, and epistemological assumptions that differ between a traditional conceptualization of chemistry learning and chemical thinking. Teachers are asked to organize instruction around the Chemical Thinking Framework instead of a topic based approach.
 

Teaching dilemmas

Implementing constructivist pedagogy in the chemistry classroom (Chemical Thinking) has inherent challenges which hinder teachers. Teaching Dilemmas emerge due to the ambiguities, philosophies, and compromises that arise among stakeholders in the educational arena.  These dilemmas commonly arise from tensions between teaching what we know in the way we were taught (Traditional) vs. teaching students how to think and know about chemistry by creating the knowledge (Chemical Thinking).  Many teachers need to deal with these dilemmas in our everyday practice.

Resources for Teaching Chemistry Online

Near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic ChemEd X began compiling a list of both new and previously published ChemEd X posts and resources that might be useful to teachers while teaching remotely. Topics include Technology & Teaching Resources, Strategies and Tips for Teaching Online, Lesson Ideas Suitable for Online Instruction and more. This list continues to grow. Readers are encouraged to check in often to find new content  and to comment with additional resources that we can add to our list. 

JCE 97.12 December 2020 Issue Highlights

The December 2020 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: teaching during COVID-19; examining models used by students; chemical structure; game-based learning; interdisciplinary courses; teaching chemistry using plants; laboratory instruction with real-world context; fluorescence; exploring spectroscopy; thermodynamics; chemical education research; from the archives: photography.

Chemistry in General Biology: Is it necessary?

Is it necessary for biology faculty colleagues to spend a month or so covering foundational chemistry in general biology courses then for the remainder of the semester require students to only know a small fraction of chemistry covered? This post briefly looks at what chemistry is needed for general biology.