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.
Many Picks can be purchased from Amazon. Using the Amazon links on those pages help to support ChemEd X.
Earlier in the summer, I was shopping around for a standards-based gradebook. As the lone teacher at my school venturing into this unchartered territory, I did what any responsible techie teacher would do. I turned to the twitterverse for suggestions. I quickly identified the two most recommended platforms.
A great book for summer reading is "Rust: the longest war".
Cars rusting! Bridges collapsing! Rust, and corrosion in general, is probably the most important topic that is not on most people's radar. This is definitely something people should be paying more attention to.
This book is not about chemistry, and it probably is the most "literary" book that I have written about in these pages. It is a beautiful story about the lives of a blind French girl, Marie-Laure, who escapes during the Nazi occupation of France with her father, the master locksmith of the Paris Museum of Natural History, to St.
The American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) website is the official source for information on Modeling InstructionTM (MI). Whether you are an experienced Modeler or simply interested in learning more about MI, I encourage you to visit the newly redesigned site and check out the available resources.
KWIPPED is a highly efficient, no-cost resource for chemistry teachers looking to rent equipment for projects. If you need to source equipment that is too expensive to buy, KWIPPED.com is a great way to find short or long-term rentals that will fit your budget.
Critical reviews of "Beyond" by Chris Impey, "How We'll Live on Mars" by Stephen L. Petranek, "Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars" by Erik M. Conway, by Elizabeth Kolbert.
This book has helped me to uncover student misconceptions and look into their thought processes regularly. A supervisor gave me the book in August, and it sat on my nightstand for several weeks. In my mind, it was going to be another book about visual learners and strategies for using images to increase engagement. I WAS WRONG. This book is different. It is not about visual learning; it focuses on making student thinking visible to the teacher. While still learning to use the visible thinking routines, I really feel more conscious of students’ understandings than ever.
Even if they can overcome the physical and medical challenges of a year-long (one-way) space trip to Mars, will humans be able to bear the psychological stress?
The HaberFilm.com website is a helpful resource for teachers that have interest in using the Haber video in their curriculum. Reading materials and lesson ideas are available. I recently used a lesson that my colleague created directly from the provided materials. You can check out that lesson here. The lesson included some background reading, viewing the video, participating in an excellent discussion and a follow up writing assignment.
Graphene may be the most remarkable substance ever discovered. But what's it for?