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

My school just started second semester on February 3 and I needed to shake things up. My students didn’t like the new vocational classes they had been assigned, everyone was still stressed about grades from the previous term, and some students still needed to make up midyear exams. This malaise was not new.

I achieved National Board certification in December 2017. My certification expires in 2022. The year 2022 seems like a long way off, but it is coming up sooner than I would like! I have done a little digging into the renewal process to see what comes next.

“What are we doing to help students achieve?” I have always struggled as a teacher to find a good limiting reagents lab and activity that can be put into the hands of my students. Thanks to Dr. Bruce Mattson, I think I have found a winner I would like to share.

For the past three years, I have been fortunate enough to work with an intervention specialist teaching inclusion sections of ninth grade physical science (half chemistry, half physics). My co-teacher and I instruct classes with students ranging in ability from intellectual disability to gifted.

Who/What is ACCT?

Berries are red, berries are blue…I’ve got a berry surprise for you! DESCRIPTION: I observe a red to blue color change when I rinse my bowl after eating frozen blueberries. Sounds like an acid-base reaction, doesn’t it? Read on to learn about the blueberry surprise!

There are a variety of types of assessment, including diagnostic, formative, and summative. The results from assessments have the potential to give teachers and students valuable feedback about progress toward learning objectives.

Welcome and thanks for reading. "A bear is wiser than a man because a man does not know how to live all winter without eating anything." Abenaki (People of the Dawn) saying. This is the third post describing the metabolic and nutritional chemistry of bear hibernation.

Up to this point, I imagine we are confident assessing students by means of homework, in-class activities, exams, essays, etc. But what about our own assessment? What is in place to grade the performance of faculty colleagues and ourselves? Is the 'tool' in place accurate, objective, fair?

One of the inherent challenges of teaching chemistry is to make the invisible, visible. Often, we try to overcome this barrier by getting creative with a variety of models, animations, and simulations to help students think about chemistry in a way that is easier to conceptualize.

Reflective practice is an integral part of teacher education programs, and it is becoming a more routine in-service professional development strategy.¹ Although it takes many forms, reflective practice can be defined simply as a process of thinking about one's teaching.