Have you heard that TERC, a nonprofit, has launched a STEM Teacher Leadership Network funded by the National Science Foundation? The online community is for aspiring or current teacher leaders, researchers and administration to improve STEM education, effect policy and discuss the changes to the future of STEM education in a collaborative online collegial network.
Reimagining Chemistry Education: Systems Thinking, and Green and Sustainable Chemistry
The December 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. In response to a call for papers, chemistry educators from around the world have contributed articles to the Journal collected in the December edition as special issue on systems thinking, and green and sustainable chemistry.
A couple of days ago on Twitter, the ever-lasting debate between lecture and active learning reignited due to some talks at an Educational Research Conference held in Dublin. These talks stated direct guidance (which includes lecture) was superior in terms of student learning due its reduction of students’ cognitive load. The main citation used for this argument was an article by Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark published in 2006. So, let’s dive into what this article says.
Once one knows about Critical Pedagogy (with respect to Critical Thinking, as was covered in the previous blog), how is that knowledge used? Can strategies be implemented that embrace Critical Pedagogy while not sacrificing content coverage? What are some ways to build criticality in students while maintaining expected requirements for classroom rigor?
Cultivating Chemical Curiosity
The September 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: exploring the chemistry of natural materials; research in chemical education; undergraduate research and project-based laboratories; innovative organic chemistry teaching; organic laboratory instruction; analytical chemistry investigations and instrumentation; nanochemistry; inorganic chemistry; teaching kinetics; exploring kinetic-molecular theory; from the archives: biodiesel.
Chemistry Education: A Bridge to the Future
The August 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: authentic chemistry laboratories; student motivation, sustained interest, and student success; student understanding of fundamental concepts; aids to assessment; computer-based learning; active learning activities; engaging polymer chemistry activities; experimenting with flavor and food; organic chemistry laboratories; spectroscopy laboratories; acid-base chemistry; from the archives: polymer properties.
I am a chemist and member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA. Technical staff members are expected to apply their expertise to a variety of ongoing scientific research projects.
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.
Many researchers have attempted to characterize the knowledge of an expert teacher, and it's complex, to say the least.
Read Dr. Nakita Noel’s career profile describing her background and her current position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Princeton Research Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials.
