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

I recently tried an experiment in class that works well as a chemistry demonstration for Halloween. In fact, I recently performed it at our annual Halloween / National Chemistry Week chemistry demonstration show. The experiment is very easy to carry out. I call it “The Devil’s Milkshake”. Check it out in the video below.

I recently attended the 2019 S-STEM Symposium in Washington, DC. It was sponsored by the NSF and AAAS and brought students and principal investigators as well as other stakeholders associated with the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) grant program.

The flipped-classroom approach to education is undoubtedly popular, with consistent growth in the number of related books, conference sessions, and educator network memberships.¹ Although challenges with the approach are reported, the advantages are far more widely claimed.

The second unit in my sequence for AP Chemistry covers the new AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description Learning Objectives associated with atomic structure. I will identify and describe activities I use to teach students some of the Learning Objectives that I tie into this unit consisting of nine class days.

“A certain level of comfort eliminates the spark that pushes one to seek social change – among both students and teachers. But a critical education must take place among both the oppressed and the oppressor if we hope to achieve a more compassionate and just society.” (Katz, 2014, p. 1)

The first unit in my sequence for AP Chemistry covers stoichiometry and reactions. The new AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description has identified Learning Objectives which need to be taught and practiced to ensure students perform well on the AP Chemistry Exam.

When I talk to teachers about standards-based grading, the issue of homework inevitably comes up. Even if you are not heading down the standards-based grading (SBG) path, you might find yourself asking questions like, 

The new AP Chemistry Course and Exam Description (CED) has been released and in effect for a few months now and I have been asked “Will you be changing your sequence to match the CED?” so many times I lost count. The answer is no, and here is why.

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

Flipped and blended classrooms blend technology-based content delivery with classroom-based activities and assignments.¹ However, classroom activities are only beneficial if students commit to regularly watching lectures outside of school.

I recently shared some simple experiments using magnets and coins that connect to the 2019 National Chemistry Week (NCW) theme, “Marvelous Metals!”¹ Because coins are familiar items, made of metal, and so very easy to obtain, I think doing experiments with coins is a great idea for NCW 2019!

I have been working on a data collection and analysis research project for over a year now and I had to learn to properly collect and analyze a lot of data. In this blog submission, I will introduce a few basic techniques that can be used to compare data using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.