Bill Hammack, Michael Faraday, and the timeless beauty of the science behind the combustion of a candle. "There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of science than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle," Michael Faraday.
Chemistry is difficult to learn. Walk into any chemistry classroom, and you’ll be soon confronted with many abstract concepts. Abstract ideas have no physical form, and as a result, they are difficult to understand.
Did you know there is a simple test you can do to see if an alkaline battery is fresh or dead? All you need to do is bounce the bottom of a battery onto a hard, flat surface. Guess what causes this difference in bouncing ability between fresh and dead batteries? Chemistry, of course!
This assignment helps students realize that chemistry class is not just a place where we talk about and imagine stuff we can’t see, but the things we learn in chemistry are actually used in real life in lots of different ways.
In honor of the International Year of the Periodic Table, Tom Kuntzleman decided to write a song, sing it, and shoot an accompanying video to honor 150 years of the Periodic Table of Elements. Enjoy his song and video: Chemistry is Everywhere!
Developing PCK requires a certain level of subject matter knowledge, and teachers have a different understanding of subject matter than a person who specializes in that same field. A chemistry teacher and a ‘practicing’ chemist both have subject matter knowledge in chemistry; however, the knowledge is applied differently.
Did you figure out how the experiment in Chemical Mystery #14 was performed? The solution is presented here!
You can figure out how this Valentine's Day experiment was done...if you know your chemistry, that is!
National Periodic Table Day is February 7th. Check out some of my favorite periodic table resources.
The American Chemical Society Western Michigan Section is planning a special International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) celebration to be held at Grand Valley State University in Michigan on October 19th. The highlight of the celebration will be the unveiling of the largest periodic table in hopes of setting a Guinness World Record. Schools and groups are invited to help with the IYPT project by making one of the 118 elements.
