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

This past fall I taught a general biology 1 course (for science majors) as an adjunct for my community college campus partner (my transfer university shares the same campus as the local community college). After the introduction to biology chapter comes the chemistry one.

Despite its miniscule molecular weight, the volatile plant hormone ethylene, C₂H₄, a monounsaturated hydrocarbon, plays an exceedingly important role as a ripening agent in horticulture (1).

Stoichiometry is one of the most fundamental topics in a high school chemistry course, but it is also one of the most challenging concepts for students to master.¹ Stoichiometry is abstract, making it challenging to learn and teach.² As with any abstract concept, activities that encourage conceptual thinking tend to promote a deepe

Bottles of soda are sealed under high pressures of CO₂, or P_CO2. This causes a substantial amount of CO₂ to dissolve into the beverage, giving the drink its fizziness. But what exactly is the pressure inside a bottle of soda?

The ACS Exams Institute is pleased to announce that new tutorial practice exams are now available for  General Chemistry, First Term Organic Chemistry, Full Year

Discussing chemical reactions with my students has always been one of my favorite topics because the students got to see the chemistry on a bulk scale. The chemistry on paper comes to life in the lab. The unique teaching situation that we find ourselves in forces chemistry educators to adapt and evolve.

Distance learning has certainly made it more difficult to provide our students with valuable lab experiences and opportunities to gather, analyze, and interpret data.

Writing formulas is one of those concepts in chemistry that requires much practice and repetition for students to gain confidence.

You are making a difference in the lives of your students. Take some time to think about your students who are working hard, putting in the time, working and balancing study schedules and doing it successfully. Would they be successful without you?

I have long felt that teaching directly to the test is not the best way to approach education. Therefore I often include topics in my AP Chemistry classes that are not directly tested on the exam. More complex topics often help my students with building their grasp of fundamental ideas and leads to a better ability to understand simple and complex theories.

During my 12 years of experience as an ice core scientist on projects such as WAIS Divide Ice Core Project or the South Pole Ice Core (SPICE CORE) Project, measuring the appropriate density of an ice core prior to sampling the ice was of significant import