My ChemClub students came to my room for a holiday celebration today. We made a batch of sea foam candy, experimented with Elephant Toothpaste, and marbled gift tags.
The US Chemical Safety Board is an independent federal agency in Washington DC. They investigate industrial accidents. They just released a video of a young woman speaking about a high school chemistry class accident she was a victim of.
Chemistry teachers are always looking for new ideas to reach students. Social media is a new frontier to reach students AND collaborate with other chemistry teachers around the world 24/7. I hesitated to join Twitter because it seemed like "just one more thing to add to my plate". I did finally log on and created an account.
Stephen Radice is a multi-award winning chemistry teacher from Brooklyn, New York. For the past 26 of his 29 years of teaching, he has made chemistry accessible and brought it to life for every level of student at Edward R. Murrow High School. His wife, Kathy, also teaches chemistry at Murrow High School and collaborates with Stephen when planning lessons. It is clear that his fellow staff, chemistry colleagues around the country and most importantly, his students, admire him. Stephen was presented the Conant Award for 2013. Read the interview below and you will be inspired by his love for his career and his students. You can also read the article announcing his award in Chemical & Engineering News.
The national ACS James Bryant Conant award was established in 1965 to encourage and recognize outstanding high school chemistry teachers. Candidates are chosen based upon evidence of high quality teaching, ability to challenge and inspire, extracurricular activities that support their work and pursuit of continued improvement of their role as an educator.
It has happened again. We just published a “Lab Accidents” blog with a link to the US Chemical Safety Board’s video entitled “After the Rainbow” published December 10, 2013. Less than a month later, a young boy has experienced the same nightmare scenario as the one described in the video.
As I follow the conversations about the most recent chemistry classroom accident in Manhattan (see my previous blog post), I see that many agree that we need to advocate for adequate required safety training of our present and pre-service teachers. A good starting point is to pursue training on our own.
The Journal of Chemical Education is providing open access to the January 2014 issue. If you don't already have a subscriptiion, this is an excellent opportunity to check out what they have to offer. The new American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) is highlighted in several articles within the January issue.
ACS is offering an upcoming webinar highlighting safety called "Tales, Investigations, and Lessons Learned". The role of the US Chemical Safety Board will be defined. Root cause investigations of chemical accidents will be reviewed. Tips on how to prevent chemical accidents will be reviewed.
