June 2021 Xchange

The June 2021 Xchange highlights some of the contributions that have been published on ChemEd X over the past month. We hope you will take a moment to check in and see what you may have missed. 

     

The Bannock War of 1878, Camas, and Inulin: How Chemistry Adds Context to a Historical Event 

What does a recent visit to Fort Bridger State Historic Park in southwestern Wyoming, a plant similar to an onion, and an armed conflict between Native Americans and the US government have anything to do with chemistry? Much. Check it out here.

     

The AP Exam is Over, Now What?

Kristen Drury came up with a fun new project for her class, “Create a Game: Shark Tank Presentation.”

     

What informs the grade a student earns in your class? w/ Erica Posthuma

Grades should provide feedback to students, parents, and teachers as to the progress students are making toward learning targets. Meaningful grades require good assessment practices. Erica Posthuma presented a ChemEd X Talk in May providing an overview of effective assessment design. The edited recording of Erica's Talk is now available.

     

Lab Practicals, Final Exams and a Silver Lining to a Tough Year

A lab practical with an escape room story turned out to be a great final exam.

     

A Manipulative Paper Tool for Teaching Organic Nomenclature: Part 3- Common Names of Major Classes of Organic Compounds

This is the third in a series of classroom activities using paper tools to teach organic nomenclature. This post covers the two common naming systems used for carboxylic acids and derivatives, and second for alcohols, thiols, ethers, amines, and ketones.

     

What do we want to know about our students' thinking? Categorizing chemistry formative assessments with ACCT.

Formative assessment questions provide a useful lens into students' minds regarding what they are thinking about chemistry. By ascertaining what students are thinking, teachers can make decisions regarding what to do with what they learn. The members of ACCT (Assessing for Change in Chemical Thinking) presented a ChemEd X Talk on the topic in May. The edited recording of this Talk and links to many of their related resources can be found here.

     

Teaching Chemistry With Case Studies

Case studies have been a staple of undergraduate and graduate education programs like medicine, law, and business, for many years. They let learners engage with simulated real-world situations, making the content more meaningful and connected to their future careers. As a valuable context-based learning tool, case studies are becoming more common in secondary science. Here, we'll explore the role that students and instructors play when learning with case studies.

     

Real vs Ideal - Do Students "Get it"?

Allowing students to confront the failure of a model and then helping them construct a new or slightly modified model to account for new observations is at the heart of the process of science. Ben Meacham shares one approach that can be deployed with a variation of depth, making it attainable for anyone learning about chemistry.

     

Quantum Levitation and Superconductors

Tom Kuntzleman shares some explorations and explanations regarding superconductors and the quantum levitation (also known as quantum locking) experiment.

     

Flipping the Structure of my Flipped Classroom

Kristen Drury explains some major shifts in her teaching philosophies and how her flipped classroom has evolved as a result.

     

The Sweet and Delicious Chemistry of Brownies

Who is not interested in food, right? Why not use what happens in the kitchen everyday to teach some chemistry? This blog post shares some conceptually based questions based on the information found on the backside of a popular dry mix brownie product.

     

Surveying Litter as a Citizen Science Chemistry Activity

During the last few semesters, a small survey has been deployed at Bradley University where students were to describe and classify items of litter that they found. The purposes of the surveys were to get students thinking about some of the chemical implications of solid waste and give the students some experience with a citizen science project. The most recent iteration of the survey, and some of its results, are described.

     

Building a Chemistry Community With Storytelling

Storytelling is ubiquitous throughout all human cultures. Why not use storytelling in the chemistry classroom as a way to develop a classroom community of support and friendship? 

     

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