ChemEd X contributors and staff members are continually coming across items of interest that they feel others may wish to know about. Picks include, but need not be limited to, books, magazines, journals, articles, apps—most anything that has a link to it can qualify.
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Christian conservatives are capitalizing on a Supreme Court decision that allows them to use public schools to evangelize children and even to establish churches in school buildings.
xkcd is a nerdy Internet daily cartoon that is written and drawn by a former NASA "roboticist". The subject matter is all over the map [yesterday's (11/4/14) is about TypographicChemistry], but tends to favor physics and computing. He encourages readers of the cartoon strip to send him outrageous questions, and he supplies outrageous but scientifically accurate responses. Some of the best of these have be come a surprising NYT Best Seller.
The Journal of Chemical Education AP Special Issue is in print. Greg Rushton and I were happy to highlight the special issue for high school chemistry teachers and other stake holders at BCCE in August. If you haven't already taken a look at the articles, I hope you will find some time to check them out. I encourage you to read the first article of the following list.
An activist's controversial crusade against genetically modified crops neglects the truth
If you want to liven up your chemistry course with some music, check out the Griep Research Group Website. They are at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Many suggestions for music can be found. You may also be interested in suggestions for movie clips that you might want to include.
The Higgs boson is one of our era’s most fascinating scientific frontiers and the key to understanding why mass exists. The most recent book on the subject, The God Particle, was a bestseller.
Students in your classes between 7 and 16 years of age can participate in a global experiment of the UNESCO/IUCr International Year of Crystallography.
http://www.iycr2014.org/participate/global-experiment-2014
Parents are rebelling against the Common Core, even though its approach - fostering intuition through real-world examples - is the best way to teach math to kids. The real problem: No one has shown the teachers how to teach it.
In an era of high-stakes testing, a struggling school made a shocking choice.
Journalist Will Storr provides sixteen vignettes about people who hold decidedly minority views about scientific and historical topics. Rather than just saying, "This is what these people believe, and here is why they are wrong", Storr allows each of them to tell their own story, and lets their words speak largely for themselves.