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Happy BCCE week to y'all! I am enjoying being back at my alma mater, Grand Valley State University. This morning I attended a symposium focusing on what it means to be a professional and how to continue to grow throughout your career. The strand running through each presentation was time and collaboration.
This back to school activity can be a valuable way to create a classroom culture of teamwork and growth mindset.
Physics teachers have AAPT, biology teachers have NABT, and starting this fall, chemistry teachers will have AACT. We are happy to announce that the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) will be accepting charter members starting on Aug. 4 at BCCE in Grand Rapids, Mich. But if you aren’t attending BCCE, you can join AACT by visiting teachchemistry.org on Aug. 4, and you’ll still have the status of charter member.
I previously wrote about an experiment published in the Journal of Chemical Education called “Hydroglyphics”1.
Chemistry classroom accidents have been in the news too often recently. I hazard to suggest that there are smaller incidents that never make the news because there are luckily no serious injuries. We need to be vigilant in our safety concerns to protect our students and ourselves from any accidents and exposure to hazardous substances. We also need to be aware of theft concerns. Unfortunately, students may be looking for ingredients to experiment with explosives or to manufacture illicit drugs.
Making plans for back to school? Don’t forget the candy! It doesn’t sound like something a nutritionist would recommend, but what about a chemistry educator?
Earlier this week, I saw a tweet showing a compilation of apps entitled the Periodic Table of iPad apps (https://sjunkins.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/iste-posters-001.jpg).
I am enrolled in a Modeling Instruction Workshop in Michigan. We have only four days left of the 15 scheduled days.
One day during class I presented the disappearing rainbow demonstration and explained the chemistry behind it. After doing so, I had a student ask me if a particular bartending trick called “rainbow shots” was done in a manner similar to the way the disappearing rainbow demonstration is performed.
I just finished reading Norb Pienta’s editorial in the June 2014 edition of JCE. He hits on a touchy subject between college chemistry instructors and their students...the grade.