Latest articles, blogs, and events from the chemical education community

The 1980’s were dotted with key, history changing events. The Berlin Wall, separating east and west, fell; India’s first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her body guards; the first mobile phone was introduced; The Space Shuttle Challenger was launched from Cape Canaveral and exploded right after takeoff, killing seven astron

In 2009, I embarked on my Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) journey to teach experimental design to my International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Chemistry students.¹ Experimental design was new to me because I did not experience designing and executing my

Many have asserted that the water we drink is exactly the same water that has been eliminated from the bodies of humans and animals from the past. The argument goes that water excreted from our bodies by exhalation or urine ultimately ends up back in the water cycle.

It is my humble opinion, based on 36 years of teaching high school chemistry, that 11 Chemistry must start with a look at Chemical Reactions, for the simple reason that this begins the student’s formal study of chemistry with an empirical focus.

National Hispanic Heritage Month ran from September 15 to October 15 recently.¹ To help celebrate the occasion, students in the Bradley University Chem/Biochem Learning Community put up colorful tissue paper banners.

This year I’ve been working extra hard as my state, Indiana, has made a big switch: we adopted NGSS. I’m really excited about the change in how we are teaching chemistry, but adopting a whole new, very different style of standards has come with a lot of work to update and replace older activities.

One of the main tenets of NGSS is the use of phenomena to have students discover the content. I’m new to NGSS, as Indiana just adopted the standards this year, but I’m very excited about the integration of phenomena. I’m all-in on attempting to ground as much of my instruction as possible in phenomena.

A classic chemistry experiment¹ involves using a concentrated solution of KNO₃ to “paint” a design in a continuous line on a piece of paper, allowing it to dry, and then igniting one end of the paper (Video 1).²

I’m not a fan of asking students to memorize rules or laws for the sake of memorizing rules or laws. There has to be a point—a reason, or at least a decent "this hits home” example of the rule or law. Stay with me . . .

The first time I experienced an unfamiliar grading policy was when I first started teaching high school chemistry in Michigan in 2015. At my school, we are required to offer (or have options) for retakes on summative assessments. There have been mixed feelings at my school about the retake policy because it can be perceived as a way for studen

Having recently written a piece for teachers regarding my take on assessment, this blog post provides test-writing advice to students, based on my lengthy experience as a Chemistry teacher.