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

text: Chemistry experiments with the Ruben's Tube
Chemistry Experiments with the Flame Tube
// Tuesday, May 26, 2020 • Tom Kuntzleman
A Flame Tube, also known as a Ruben’s Tube, is a classic physics experiment that provides a spectacular visual demonstration of sound waves.1 To make a Ruben’s Tube, a bunch of tiny holes are drilled in a line about 1 cm apart along one side of a steel pipe (Figure 1).
text: Science & Engineering Practices...at Home
NGSS during e-Learning Part 1
// Tuesday, May 26, 2020 • Stephanie O'Brien
During this time of e-Learning, teachers across the globe have shared ideas through various social medal platforms regarding topics such as student feedback, online lesson creation, instructional pedagogy, synchronous versus asynchronous teaching environments, students engagement support strategies, grading policies, online assessment, and best apps and
bear mom cub walking
Metabolic Marvels of Bear Hibernation- Part 4
// Tuesday, May 19, 2020 • Scott Donnelly
Welcome and thanks for reading! A year in the life of a bear is more or less equally divided into two parts- half the year it is eating (and eating, and eating) and the other half it is not eating because it is hibernating.
mt st helens
Mt. St. Helens 40 Years Later: Getting More from Soda Volcano Demonstrations
// Sunday, May 17, 2020 • Dean Campbell
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. This eruption and associated landslide, one of the more significant in U.S. history, killed 57 people, removed 2.5km3 of the mountain (enough to fill almost a million Olympic swimming pools), and decreased its height by nearly 400m.
green Pringles can
The exploding Pringles design challenge: Formative assessment with a bang!
// Monday, May 4, 2020 • Scott Balicki
In Chemistry, students learn about combustion reactions and their applications, such as gasoline engines in cars. Students may be asked to imagine how to maximize the output of such a combustion reaction, and how this maximization point would be determined.
ACCT logo student inside triangle of text: Chemical Thinking Assessment
Are you wondering what your students are thinking in chemistry?
// Saturday, May 2, 2020 • ACCT Admin
If you are an experienced (3+ years) middle school or high school teacher of chemistry in the US in the Central or Eastern time zone, we invite you to apply to participate in the ACCT professional development program to examine how formative assessment can foster students’ chemical thinking. Due to the changes in schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACCT project is changing its plan for professional development for 2020-2021 school year.
Bubble Busting Water Chemistry
Solution to Chemical Mystery #17: Bubble Buster!
// Wednesday, April 29, 2020 • Tom Kuntzleman
In Chemical Mystery #17, shavings of Dial soap are added to samples of Aquafina and Evian drinking water. Upon blowing into each mixture with a straw, only the Aquafina water produced stable bubbles. Why is this the case?
text: Bubble Bursting Water Chemistry
Chemical Mystery #17: Bubble Buster!
// Friday, April 24, 2020 • Tom Kuntzleman
With most of us stuck at home to combat the recent outbreak of COVID-19, I thought it might be a particularly good time to do some simple chemistry experiments that use only items found around the home (well, more like purchased at my local grocery store).
Johnstone's triangle with images and text at each point
Why Do You Make Us Draw so Many Particle Diagrams?
// Tuesday, April 21, 2020 • Ben Meacham
Recently, I asked my students to draw a particle-based model that accounts for the observed increase in pressure when a syringe full of gas is compressed. As they began, one student said, “why do you always make us draw particle diagrams?”
student in orange shirt looking at laptop screen
POGIL Activites in an Asynchronous Learning Environment
// Sunday, April 19, 2020 • Stephanie O'Brien
While POGILⓇ Activities are designed to be completed synchronously in a collaborative team setting with the teacher present as the facilitator, there are ways to utilize the activities in an asynchronous online setting.
13 cent US stamp, glassware, text: CHEMISTRY
Stamp of the Week #2
// Thursday, April 16, 2020 • mamorgan@me.com
Stamp of the Week (maybe month, year or decade depends on how busy I get)