Sharing Resources for those Moving to Online Classes - COVID 19

As schools are closing their doors and moving to an online platform in hopes minimizing the spread of COVID-19, many instructors in our chemistry education community are scrambling to pull together resources and lessons that they can use over the coming weeks. Social media is buzzing as educators share their ideas and suggestions. ChemEd X will compile a running list of tips and ideas during this time. Many of those listed have been shared on social media. We hope you will comment below if you have something additional to share that you don't already see here. In order to comment, you must register an account (free) and log in. Of course, for those that are able to invest some time pulling ideas together in a blog post or article, we will gladly review submissions for possible publication. See our Contribution page. 

Patience will be incredibly important. We will keep this post pinned on the homepage. Check back as this is a work in progress and we hope this will continue to grow. Best wishes to all.

Resources Published Here on ChemEd X

ChemEd X has opened access for videos and software. Read the announcement.

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Computer Based Labs - eBook

This book is filled with computer based labs that can be used in a range of classes from high school chemistry to an undergraduate course in physical chemistry. Bentham Science has generously provided free online access to the eBook through June 30, 2020.

Switching to Online Chemistry Instruction Amidst COVID-19

As COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the globe, life is drastically different. Schools, in particular, have been forced to adapt to the new norm of social distancing, closed facilities, and virtual learning. Author, Josh Kenney, shares how he has structured his new Virtual Chemistry Course.

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Chemical Illustrations of Flattening the Curve

With the current global COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much discussion of “flattening the curve” by social distancing.^1,2 This paper describes two chemistry demonstrations that can be used to illustrate this concept.

Teaching in the Time of COVID-19

No one really knows how to immediately transform an in person class to a distance learning environment. We struggle to provide an equitable education, whatever that looks like, for all our students and make accommodations for differences in learning abilities, home lives, internet access, in addition to mental and physical health.

Even though Flipped Instruction is not the same as online instruction, you may still find value in the tips shared by Josh Kenney. 

Features of Effective Flipped Classroom Videos

The author has been creating video tutorials for use in a flipped classroom setting for some time. Over the years, the format of his videos has evolved as he has uncovered the best practices in technique.

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Tips for Creating Your Own Video Tutorials

More students use YouTube than any other demographic. Considering this reality, I began creating my own video content on my YouTube channel, The Science Classroom. As a seasoned YouTube content creator, I offer tips for getting started with your own science tutorials.

Origami Rabbits and Flipped Chemistry Classroom

It is important to consider that if you are creating videos for students to use, they need to understand how to use those videos. If students have not used videos for instruction previously, they do need some advice.

Resources That Support Online Education

Alchemie 

Alchemie makes chemistry learning resources. They are offering Mechanisms (software for modeling organic chemistry reaction mechanisms) and ModelAR (a virtual molecular modeling program) for free.

ChemMatters - American Chemistry Society

ChemMatters magazines is written for high schoolers and available online.  

AACT - American Association of Chemistry Teachers

Even if you are not already an AACT member you can still benefit from their resources. AACT has unlocked some of their resources and they are now freely available to the chemistry community through March 31. These resources include activities, animations, projects, simulations, videos and more for elementary school, middle school, high school, and Advanced Placement/general chemistry.

PhET Interactive Simulations - University of Colorado Boulder 

Many PhET simulations can serve as at home labs. Every simulation page has a collection of lessons under “Teacher Resources”. You can enhance an online lecture or video with a PhET Demonstration. A PhET simulation can be your dynamic demo equipment or your whiteboard drawing. PhET has 158 STEM simulations! 83 of them in HTML5! Even though some of their Java and Flash simulations can be hard for students to access, they do run on regular computers and can still serve learning through demos and screen capture. 

• Use the "screenshot" capability under the PhET menu button to have students capture their work and describe their learning.
• Embed PhET sims in website/LMS - PhET provides HTML code on all sim pages that you can copy and paste to embed a live copy of a simulation!
• Share a sim to Google Classroom - To add a sim to your Google Classroom, click Google Icon on a sim page. Sims can be added as assignments, supplementary materials, or homework.
• Embed PhET sims in OneNote - Paste any PhET sim link on to a OneNote page and it will render it as a live interactive embed.
• Launch just the screen you want - Use our "screens" query parameter to launch just the screens you want your student to use. Try adding "?screens=1" or "?screens=2,3" to the end of a multi-screen sim URL.
• Need to support offline use? No problem! Each sim can be downloaded individually and will run even without a connection, or you can install our offline installer. See their offline access page.

Titration Screen Experiment - Royal Society of Chemistry

The titration screen experiment has been designed to be a free flexible tool for teachers and students. You can choose to carry out a strong acid - strong base titration (or any combination of strong and weak acid-base titrations). There is also a redox titration experiment to complete in order for students to practise their understanding and skills.

Bretz Research Group - Miami University of Ohio, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Bretz Group has compiled a list of resources to support chemical ed and biochemical ed instructors that are moving to remote / online instruction due to the Corona Virus. Most of these are college level resources.

Flynn Research Group - University of Ottawa

Moving to Face-to-Face classes online...FAST: Resources and helpful Infographic

Tips from Faculty for Quickly Preparing to Teach Online - Delta News - NC State University

The title spells out the content of this article. If you have not taught online previously, this is a good place to start.

TechSmith

Tech Smith will be providing free access to their screen recording tool, Snagit, and collaboration platform, TechSmith Video Review, for those transitioning to remote learning and working environments.

Open access virtual reality experiences for organic chemistry laboratories

Open access virtual reality experiences for organic chemistry laboratories created in partnership between the Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University and Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA).

VIPEr: The Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource

VIPEr is community for teachers and students of inorganic chemistry. Of special interest per a comment below: Asynchronous online teaching in the COVID-19 era, Adam R. Johnson, Harvey Mudd College (accessed 3/13/20)

Teaching in the Times of COV19 

Article, Paulette Vincent-Ruz, March 16, 2020

OLI Chemistry free for COVID-19 impacted institutions - ChemCollective

These materials are free for use by Covid-19 impacted institutions. The courseware covers General Chemistry I and General Chemistry II. Each module includes short amounts of texts, worked examples (including interactive worked examples), a multitude of thoughtfully scaffolded practice problems (with adaptive and targeted feedback), and assessments. The integration of these components provides a seamless and interactive learning experience for your students. The courseware also provides instructors with data on student performance, which they can use to adapt their instruction to student needs.

FLINN AT-HOME SCIENCE

Check out the resources Flinn Science has organized to help teachers and parents find the right content solutions to continue their student's progression at home during this time.

Open Science 

The content on this University of Waterloo site is freely available and targets a variety of topics relevant to high school science. New lessons and problems will be added as they are completed, so check the site regularly.

Lincoln High School Chemistry 

Erin Otte-Meyer shared on the AP Chemistry Teacher Facebook Page - The Lincoln High School Chemistry Department just completed a website aligned to their curriculum to support in-class instruction. It contains readings, videos, practice sheets w/ keys, practice tests w/ keys.

Resources for Teaching Your Chemistry Class Online: A Free to Read Collection from the American Chemical Society & the ACS Division of Chemical Education

ACS Publications and the ACS Division of Chemical Education are sharing this collection of resources. Click through to access free to read articles from the Journal of Chemical Education.