Blogs

ChemEd X contributors offer their ideas and opinions on a broad spectrum of topics pertaining to chemical education.

Blogs at ChemEd X reflect the opinions of the contributors and are open to comments. Only selected contributors blog at ChemEd X. If you would like to blog regularly at ChemEd X, please use our Contribution form to request an invitation to do so from one of our editors.

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Teaching Hess’s Law of Heat Summation preview image with triangles and delta symbol
A Logical Way to Teach Hess’s Law of Heat Summation
// Thursday, April 25, 2024 • Michael Jansen
The purpose of this article is to show you how to present Hess’s Law in a logical manner, with essentially no reliance on memorizing.1 Students will understand that the different ways of calculating ΔHr using Hess’s Law are ALL THE SAME.
Gas Laws Stations Lab preview image with hand & pin poking balloon
Gas Laws Stations Lab
// Tuesday, April 23, 2024 • Ashley Green
I am always looking for fun, engaging and hand-on activities that I can use in my inclusion chemistry classroom.
Arrows Point the Way Titrating Inside a Flowchart - preview image including flowchart
Arrows Point the Way: Titrating inside of a Flowchart
// Friday, April 5, 2024 • Joseph Lomax
Gentle Reader, our story today follows a number of storied histories, most conspicuously in the representation of transformation—making and breaking bonds—in a chemical reaction. Flowcharts, which use arrows to dynamically illustrate a process, also have a storied history, particularly in programming in Computer Science. Titrations have a stor
From Beakers to Blackboards preview image. Title on blackboard.
From Beakers to Blackboards
// Tuesday, April 2, 2024 • Yvonne Clifford
Helping the Next “Gen” of Chemistry Rockstar Teachers! 
Exploring Tik Tok's Impact on My Chemistry Classroom - preview image with the "play" arrow and "like-thumbs up" symbols
Exploring TikTok’s Impact on My Chemistry Classroom
// Tuesday, April 2, 2024 • Christopher Kurowski
In January 2020, as my 9th-period honors chemistry class kicked off, my students playfully challenged me to join TikTok, an app that I was only vaguely familiar with. Never one to back down from a challenge posed by my students, I decided to call their bluff and over the weekend I downloaded the app and began exploring it.
connecting acid-bases
Connecting Acid-Base and Redox Connections
// Monday, April 1, 2024 • Joseph Lomax
Gentle Reader, forgive me if the title - Connecting Acid-Base and Redox Connections (CABARC) - is redundant, but the connections between acid-base and redox reactions already exist, and it is my hope that we as instructors can parlay these connections into easier, better, and deeper understanding of both topics.
March Madness Element Bracket preview image with outline of periodic table
March Madness Element Bracket
// Sunday, March 31, 2024 • Melissa Hemling
March Madness isn't just for basketball fans! With a little twist, Chemistry teachers can bring the excitement of this tournament into their classrooms. In this blog post, I'll outline our annual engaging March Madness-inspired project where students create persuasive presentations on the deadliest chemical elements.
"Quick Lab on Mass vs Moles" preview image includes 3 test tubes in rack with title
Quick Lab on Mass vs Moles
// Tuesday, March 5, 2024 • Nora Walsh
This year, I tried something different with my course progression - instead of doing chemical quantities first and teaching students to convert from grams to mole and then move into stoichiometry, I began with mole to mole stoichiometry and BCA tables.