ACS High School Chemistry Day in Indy
The American Chemical Society is hosting a special High School Chemistry Day for teachers at the ACS Fall National Meeting in Indianapolis, IN, on Sunday, September 8-12, 2013. Presentations will explore new methods of teaching, classroom tools, resources, activities on a range of topics. A special High School/College Interface Luncheon will provide an opportunity to exchange ideas and network. See the ACS High School Chemistry Day Web site for details and/or download the flyer.
The Thermodynamic Sinks of this World by Roald Hoffman
Nobelist Roald Hoffman usually chooses an intriguing topic for his regular contributions to the Sigma Xi bimonthly, American Scientist. For the current issue, he has chosen to examine the question, "What would be the result of mixing a collection of the elements we find on earth and its nearby environment and heating them up enough to encourage them to react?" This "Gedankenexperiment"
Summer Inquiry Fun!
Summer is one of my favorite times as a teacher! Like most teachers I like to take a little time away from school, but, once I've rested a bit, its my favorite time to do research as well. I encourage you to take time this summer to explore labs and activities that you think may work for your classroom, but just didn't have time to examine with your busy teaching schedule.
JCE 90.06—June 2013 Issue Highlights
The June 2013 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online [http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/90/6]. Some highlights from this issue are discussed. This latest issue of JCE plus the content of all past issues, volumes 1 through 90, are available at http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc.
BCCE 2014 Call for Symposia and Workshops
Call for Symposia and Workshops for the 23rd BCCE at Grand Valley State University – Greener on the Grand: Empowering Chemical Educators for a Greener Tomorrow, August 3 – 7, 2014
Social Media Used as an Effective Tool in an Organic Chemistry Lab Course
Social media is getting a lot of attention as a way to disseminate information and to get students involved in chemistry classes.
Using MOOCs to Create a Flipped Classroom
Universities, community colleges, and high schools can use MOOCs to create an environment to enhance student learning. Last fall a professor at San Jose State used recorded MOOC lectures in an introductory electrical engineering course to create a flipped classroom. Students passed at a much higher rate than usual—91%, compared with 59% and 55% in two other, more traditional sections of the s
JCE 90.05—May 2013 Issue Highlights
The May 2013 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online. Some highlights from this issue are listed. This latest issue of JCE plus the content of all past issues, volumes 1 through 90, are also available.
My Favorite Small Research Project this Year
I’d like to report on one of the end-of-year research projects that two of my general chemistry students completed during class this year. If you’d like read more about these end-of year research projects in general, click here.
Hydrophobic vs. Hydrophilic, Polar vs. Non-polar
Wow! A very neat experiment, called “Hydroglyphics”, published by Kim, Alvarenga, Aizenberg, and Sleeper in the Journal of Chemical Education allows you to transform a common plastic Petri dish into a unique teaching tool to demonstrate the difference between hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. Check it out in the video.