What are we doing to help kids achieve and learn?

     Each year we do an activity that involves Archimedes principle. You might wonder...why do this in chemistry? Leading up to the activity, students do a series of labs and activities that involve measuring, accuracy, precision, significant numbers and density. The culminating guided inquiry activity takes place by which students take an object, find the volume in multiple fluids and find the mass in multiple fluids. An examination of class data starts to show that the volume of a solid does not change in fluids but the mass in air and the mass in different fluids are different. They also use the density of the fluid and the volume of the fluid displaced by the submerged mass to find the mass of the fluid displaced. The hope is to guide student's thinking to help them understand that the apparent loss of mass, or the buoyant force of the fluid against the mass is the same as the mass of the fluid displaced. In theory, this should be a great lab. The reality is that the instruments we have are less then ideal, it is tough to guide students with bad data and there are many connections that need to be made.

     So...to bolster things a bit, I gave them a challenge. I found something called an "Archimedes Balance" from Educational Innovations. Students were provided with a mass, a graduated cylinder and a plastic "boat" that would fit inside the graduated cylinder. They were told to find the density of the mass....without the use of a balance. They were also told that it was extra credit and they could do it any way they wanted...as long as they came up with an answer, provided data and clearly explained why they did what they did. Students went crazy...they came in before school, after school and stopped me in the hallway. The majority of the time I tried to play stupid (I know...I'm opening a door wide open...). Most struggled, talked, experimented and struggled some more but came up with reasonably good ideas...in other words...they were really acting like real scientists. Maybe the word got out about how hard the test was and the extra credit was appealing. Maybe most students like being real scientists instead of answering questions on paper. Anyway..somehow, I would love to bottle that. What do you do that gets students really active and going. I would love to hear from you.

If you are familiar with Modeling Instruction in physics, you know there are awesome assessments at the end of units called practicums. First, let me distinguish between practicals and practicums. The purpose of a lab practical typically is to assess a student’s ability to collect and analyze data. These assessments tend to be more technique-based than problem solving-based. The purpose of a lab practicum is to assess a student’s understanding of the content by completing a hands-on challenge. These assessments focus more on problem-solving skills than technique.

In one of my favorite physics practicums, students are asked to observe 2 battery buggies moving at different speeds in opposite directions and they must determine at what point the buggies will collide. This type of assessment is awesome because it is hands-on, there is a tangible right answer and students get to be creative and choose their problem-solving approach to the challenge.

It is a little more difficult to write practicums for chemistry because we foremost have to worry about safety. Beyond that, many concepts in chemistry do not lend themselves to this type of open-ended, hands-on problem solving (at least not with the equipment we have available in high school classrooms). With a little creativity (and some help from fellow Modelers), I have a practicum for every unit of my chemistry course. You will see a quick synopsis of my practicums by unit below. For some of these, I admit the term “practicum” is used loosely but they are all hands-on assessments. My students work in groups to complete these practicums.

Unit 0: Underpinnings: Students must measure the length of the hallway but they are not allowed to take their meter stick past a certain point. Students must create some unit ratio to measure the hallway. Some use floor tiles, some use feet, some use composition notebooks. The tricky part is rounding to the appropriate number of significant figures!

Unit 1: Physical Properties of Matter: Students are given a film canister and some sand and are told they must get the film canister to float with 95% of the canister submerged in the water.

Unit 2: Particles in Motion I: Students observe various demonstrations and must explain how they work at the particle level (egg in a bottle, can crush, marshmallow in syringe, lung model).

Unit 3: Particles in Motion II: Students are given a calorimetry set-up (with copper shot) and are told what the final temperature the water in their calorimeter (styrofoam cup) must be. The only other information students are given is the specific heat of copper.

Unit 4: Describing Substances: Students complete a mixture separation where they must separate salt, sand and iron filings. Separations are judged on percent recovery and relative purity.

Unit 5: Particle with Internal Structure: Students roll a set of dice to determine what elements they will be combining. Students must predict the type of compound that will be formed, give the name, formula and predict properties. This is one where the term “practicum” is used loosely.

Unit 6: Chemical Reactions: Students complete two chemical reactions (one exothermic, one endothermic) and they must predict the products based on observations, write the balanced equation, write the equation in words and draw an LOLOL chart for the reaction.

Unit 7: Counting Particles Too Small to See: Students must experimentally determine how many moles of water are in a given hydrate. Students are given a general procedure to ensure safety but are given no direction for calculations.

Unit 8: Stoichiometry: In the past, I have used Flinn’s micro-mole rockets as a practicum for this unit. Students must figure out they need a 2:1 ratio of hydrogen gas to oxygen gas for the most efficient reaction. I am currently working on a new practicum where students will have to react sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid to get a soap bubble to float at a certain height in a tub.

Unit 9: The Nucleus: I just got a grant from the American Chemical Society to purchase radiation monitors and shielding materials. This year I will be giving students a household item that is radioactive (a Fiestware plate if I can get my hands on one) and students will be evaluating the relative hazard of the material based on the type of radiation it is emitting. Previously, this unit did not have a practicum, just a set of context-rich problems and a writing assignment.

Unit 10: Beyond the Nucleus: Last year I came up with a murder mystery forensics activity on a whim because students were getting burned out during state testing week. This year I’m making it into a practicum. This practicum covers Unit 10 concepts as well as Unit 9 and Unit 7 concepts. Students must determine what tests they want to run at a crime scene and they either get to do an experiment or they get to analyze data. Topics include chromatography, miscibility, empirical formulas and average atomic mass from mass spectrometry data. At the end, students write an expert witness testimony to help convict the murderer.

Hopefully these assessments give you some creative ideas! What hands-on, problem-solving assessments do you use in your class?

       Undergraduates Need a Safety Education is the title found in the commentary section of the September 2016 Journal ofChemical Education. (The article is freely available online.) It is written by Robert H. Hill Jr and it explains the lack of safety education in chemistry curriculum. As I read this, I thought back to my safety education that prepared me for my role as a high school chemistry teacher and felt I was very fortunate to have had an undergradutae class that was specifically designed to teach chemical safety. The class was a semester long and was held on Saturdays at my undergraduate institution, Longwood University. It was not a required class at the time. When we learned we were going to blow stuff up and set things on fire as an undergradute chemistry major many of my classsmates, including myself, were very excited for this opportunity.

     The class consisted of everything from fire extinguisher training where we got to set anything flammable on fire, to how to properly do demonstrations with both audience and teacher safety being equally monitored. We exploded things behind blast shields, applied different chemicals to pieces of clothing to study their effects and even dropped a few chunks of alkali metals into water to learn what was an appropriate amount to be considered safe. We even got to make some nitrogen triiodide to learn about the effects of a shock sensitive explosive. We learned about safety in the industrial setting and in the high school classroom. To say the least, I felt I was properly trained in safety for my role as a high school chemistry teacher. Now, with the introduction of YouTube videos and Mythbusters, some of the more risky demos can easily be viewed over and over again saving me money, waste, and providing a much safer environment to view many chemical demonstrations.  Examples include large methane columns being set on fire, thermite reactions, and of course those reactions with very large chunks of alkali metals.  

     With that being said, at the beginning of my career, I had a visit from the local fire marshal who asked to see the MSDS book and a record sheet of when I had tested the safety shower and eye wash. I passed on the MSDS book but I had never kept a log of safety shower tests. I didn't think it was my job and just figured it was the role of the custodial staff during the summer months. So ever since then, the MSDS (now SDS) book is still sitting on the counter in easy reach and there is a clipboard hooked to the shower that serves as my log of testing the shower. It holds the names of the lucky students that beg to test the shower and eye wash at the end of every year. 

A few years ago, I made a safety shower challenge video. It started as a simple challenge activity related to the ALS water bucket challenge that was trending during that time. For the challenge, I decided to test the shower myself and then decided to call out several of my fellow teachers to take the challenge and test their own classroom safety showers. After the video was posted, I was asked by several of the teachers I had called out saying “You call that a shower?” or “Did you even turn it on?” You see, I didn’t have a properly working safety shower to compare my own shower to. Once I saw the video, from my fellow teachers and their showers, I was blown away by the amount of water that came out of their classroom showers compared to mine and decided mine was probably not up to code. That challenge ended up being a blessing in disguise. So after sharing the video with my schools maintenance crew they decided to investigate the problem and I am happy to say I now have a fully functioning safety shower just in case there was ever a problem in my classroom that required its use. I hope that will never happen but if it does, I know my shower will properly do what it is intended to do. Have you tested your shower recently? You can find information about how to test the shower with a google search. I found some info at the following website: https://www.grainger.com/content/qt-emergency-shower-eye-wash-stn-req-120.

Note: Kits can be bought that hook up hoses to large trash cans or shower curtains can also be purchased that will also work to contain the water.  For my students, a kiddie pool and some ponchos have worked out nicely for them to stand in for testing purposes.

You can see my video here: Mr. Ragan Safety Shower test

Each year, I try out some experiments that connect to the annual National Chemistry Week (NCW) theme. The theme for NCW this year is “Forensics: Solving Mysteries through Chemistry: Focusing on the chemistry of fibers and forensics”. Based on this description, I decided to spend some time experimenting with dyeing fibers. Through various tests and readings, I learned that the process of dyeing fibers is intimately connected to intermolecular forces. So much so that I hope to create a laboratory exercise for my college students to dye several fabrics under varying conditions and use the concept of intermolecular forces to explain observations.

In particular I used red dye #40 (Figure 1, also known as allura red) found in strawberry Kool-Aid to dye eight different fabrics: acetate, cotton, nylon, polyester, acrylic fiber, silk, rayon, and wool.¹

Allura red

Figure 1: Chemical structure of red dye #40 (allura red)

In one such experiment, it was noted that allura red strongly dyes cotton, which is comprised of cellulose (Figure 2).

cellulose

Figure 2: Structure of cellulose, showing two glucose monomers.

The strong dyeing of cotton by red dye #40 can be explained by comparing the molecular structures of red dye #40 and cellulose. Inspection of the structure of red dye #40 shows that this dye has two negatively charged sulfonate (-SO₃^-) groups, and a single hydroxyl group. Cellulose, which is a polymer of glucose monomers, contains a large number of hydroxyl groups. Thus, one would expect strong hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl groups on both the dye and cellulose molecules. In addition, strong ion-dipole forces potentially exist between the sulfonate groups on the red #40 and the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose chain. These intermolecular interactions do a good job of explaining why cotton is strongly dyed by red #40.

If you would like to see how I carried out my experiments, check out the video below. Within the video, I explain how I explain the extent of dyeing observed when all eight fibers are treated with the red dye #40. I’m not certain my explanations are entirely correct, so I’d appreciate hearing any comments you might have about my analysis. I would also appreciate if people would attempt to dye these various fibers under other conditions. I’ve tried a few variations on my own, like using McCormick food dyes or other flavors of Kool-Aid as sources of dyes. If you learn something particularly interesting, please share it with me! I’m hoping to include this new laboratory idea of mine next semester, and I would appreciate having several variations for my students to explore.

Reference:
1. A great laboratory resource for these investigations is sold by Testfabrics, Inc: a strip that contains eight different fibers: acetate, cotton, nylon, polyester, acrylic, silk, rayon, and wool on a single fabric. See: http://testfabrics.com/product-detail.php?id=TXpNM05BPT0=&pid=3374 

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

“Failure is just a way to gain information so when you try the next time you will be more successful.”  Henry Ford

   The first few experiments and labs that I use to start the year off are more like “probes”.  I am trying to figure out the strong and weak points for my students. I have found a couple of things we can work on. The two major areas are observations and communication. We need to work on writing sentences that use data and background information to support the theories students develop.

    We have done two great activities. These are “Changes you can believe in” and “Nothing is constant but change” by Chad Bridle from the Target Inquiry program and Grand Valley State. (I have mentioned these labs in a previous post.) We worked through the activities. I made up a writing task that really tried to break down the big ideas in a simple way.  Students provided answers with information about the macroscale, particulate and symbolic that came from the activities. Overall, the students did well. Buoyed by this experience, I decided to do a microscale lab practical.

    The lab practical followed a similar writing format. Students did an experiment, wrote down data during several parts and then had to develop ideas with the help of a word bank. The results were frustrating. Observations were haphazard and the supporting statements were difficult to understand. I been convinced it would be a great idea but it just did not work.

     What can and should I do differently? If I could do it over again, and I hope to, I would develop an example to model for the students with their help. I would probably add one or two teacher “checkpoints”. I would stress the good examples in a small group setting. Most importantly, if something does not go well, I hope to not repeat it, learn from my mistakes and try again with the new information. We are getting toward the end of the first quarter. The goal...fine tune, learn from mistakes and never give up.

The American Modeling Teachers Association has announced a new webinar series to be hosted by experts in the field.  The webinars will include a variety of topics and are free to members.  Space is limited to the first twenty-three teachers to sign up, but each session will be recorded and made available to wait-listed teachers.  The webinars will be hosted on GoToMeeting.

Teachers can sign up here: AMTA Events

Questions can be directed to Wendy Hehemann at wendy@modelinginstruction.org

I have a confession: thermodynamics is not my strong suit. The data set I got from the College Board confirmed my lack of confidence in the summer of 2015. With the hope of improvements, I spent some time revamping my thermo unit and I implemented it near the end of last school year. I will share an activity that I feel was quite formative for students and for me in making connections among thermodynamic principles and equilibrium.

As I restructured the thermo unit, I really wanted to help students make connections among the many abstract ideas they had learned and were still struggling with. I was browsing through chemistry teaching materials from the Royal Society of Chemistry and found this gem: http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resource/res00000651/thermodynamics

The prompt is short and elegant:

I gave my student giant whiteboards and sent them off to work and think. There were 20 students in the class and they were in groups of 2-3. After about 15-20 minutes, I stopped them off and we shared out our thoughts in a “board meeting” (a socratic seminar with whiteboards). To begin, I had them go around and share their observations of the work presented around the room. What are similarities? Differences? That alone got the conversation flowing.

There, quite a few misconceptions came out and we could tackle them. Many first tried to calculate the change in Gibb’s free energy and realized that they weren’t sure which formula to use (Big student question: Was this at standard state?). Some groups had found the change in entropy but had different signs (positive or negative). Students and I had to grapple with why the change in entropy was positive and talked about solvation effects. In hindsight, the calculations themselves were really easy, but the process of starting so small and getting quite deep was so amazing. Everyone had something to contribute to the board meeting, and I tried to make a point that even the groups that had inconsistencies in logic helped us deepen the collective understanding even more. Students had to grapple and convince each other of the logic, and authentically consider different perspectives. My students and I found much more success with thermodynamics content last year.

Thanks for reading. Do you have any gems in your thermodynamics unit you’d like to throw out there and share?

Note #1: If such an open ended activity is intimidating to you as it was to me, the link has a variety of sample possible methods to tackle this problem.
Note #2: Facilitating socratic seminars is difficult (or at least for me). It gets better with practice and norm setting!

After receiving positive feedback from Peter Mahaffy, the IUPAC project co-chair of Isotopes Matter, I decided to add an additional component to the original isotope assignment I posted. The second component of the assignment focuses on the applications of both radioactive and stable isotopes using the interactive IUPAC periodic table.

In this component of the assignment, students chose three elements to review both their isotopes and uses. Of the three elements the students chose, one had to have a connection to medicine, one had to have a connection to nuclear energy, and they chose one final element. As students chose their elements I asked them to not only identify the uses of the isotope but to record whether or not the isotope is stable or radioactive. If students did not understand some of the vocabulary I asked them to utilize the glossary that is hyperlinked in each element description.  

Once the students collected their information we then divided the isotopes into those that were stable and those that were radioactive and had a student-led discussion based on the division of the two categories. The discussion revealed a lot of misconceptions about isotopes and initiated an introduction to half-life and nuclear equations as well.

The extension activity not only displayed real world applications of chemistry for the students but it provided an instruction transition between types of isotopes and the necessity to understand nuclear equations.

With this being my first year working with the Isotopes Matter applications, I plan on adding more formative assessments and assignments using this resource in the future. If you have any suggestions, please add them to the comments.

Addressing Current Challenges and Optimizing Opportunities

The October 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: exploring the candy–cola soda geyser; peer-led team teaching; investigating students’ reasoning; fostering a student-centered learning environment; chemical education in India; activities to increase interest in chemistry; using a smartphone in the laboratory; food chemistry analysis; organic synthesis; green chemistry in the organic laboratory; materials science experiments; cost-effective laboratory equipment; teaching resources; JCE resources to celebrate National Chemistry Week 2016.

Cover: Exploring the Candy–Cola Soda Geyser

When Mentos candies are dropped into a bottle of a carbonated beverage, nucleation sites on the surface of the candies induce rapid dissolution of CO₂ gas from the drink. This produces an impressive, messy, and foamy fountain that spouts several meters high and cascades down. In Kinetic Explorations of the Candy–Cola Soda Geyser, Trevor P. T. Sims and Thomas S. Kuntzleman discuss simple protocols that allow students to monitor the dynamics of CO₂ escape during this fascinating experiment.  Quantitative analysis of data collected is possible, allowing students to quantitatively explore topics in chemical dynamics. Given the popularity of this candy–cola soda geyser, these investigations can provide a motivating backdrop through which students can examine concepts in kinetics or conduct small research projects. To enable visualization of events inside the bottle, the cover shows events occurring inside and nearby a bottle of a clear and colorless carbonated beverage to which Mentos candies have been added. The entire sequence shown lasts less than four seconds.

Editorial: Forensic Chemistry

While forensic science deals mainly with the aftermath of crime, the flip side is the science of eliminating or ameliorating violent acts before they happen, as discussed by Robert Q. Thompson in Forensic Chemistry and Its Flip Side.

Review Article: Peer-Led Team Learning

Small Groups, Significant Impact: A Review of Peer-Led Team Learning Research with Implications for STEM Education Researchers and Faculty ~ Sarah Beth Wilson and Pratibha Varma-Nelson

Investigating Students’ Reasoning

Investigating Students’ Reasoning about Acid–Base Reactions ~ Melanie M. Cooper, Hovig Kouyoumdjian, and Sonia M. Underwood (This article is available for free through the ACS Editors’ Choice program.)

Characterizing Students’ Mechanistic Reasoning about London Dispersion Forces ~ Nicole Becker, Keenan Noyes, and Melanie Cooper

Fostering a Student-Centered Learning Environment

Using Self-Explanations in the Laboratory To Connect Theory and Practice: The Decision/Explanation/Observation/Inference Writing Method ~ Andrea Gay Van Duzor

Chemical Education in India

Chemical Education in India: Addressing Current Challenges and Optimizing Opportunities ~ Mangala Sunder Krishnan, R. Brakaspathy, and E. Arunan

Activities To Increase Interest in Chemistry

Using a Table Tennis Game, “Elemental Knock-Out”, To Increase Students’ Familiarity with Chemical Elements, Symbols, and Atomic Numbers ~ Chang-Hung Lee, Jian Fan Zhu, Tien-Li Lin, Cheng-Wei Ni, Chia Ping Hong, Pin-Hsuan Huang, Hsiang-Ling Chuang, Shih-Yao Lin, and Mei-Lin Ho

Demonstrating Rapid Qualitative Elemental Analyses of Participant-Supplied Objects at a Public Outreach Event ~ Gunnar Schwarz, Marcel Burger, Kevin Guex, Alexander Gundlach-Graham, Debora Käser, Joachim Koch, Peter Velicsanyi, Chung-Che Wu, Detlef Günther, and Bodo Hattendorf

Using a Smartphone in the Laboratory

Investigating Dissolution and Precipitation Phenomena with a Smartphone Microscope ~ Gregg J. Lumetta and Edgar Arcia

Integrating a Smartphone and Molecular Modeling for Determining the Binding Constant and Stoichiometry Ratio of the Iron(II)–Phenanthroline Complex: An Activity for Analytical and Physical Chemistry Laboratories ~ Camilo de L. M. de Morais, Sérgio R. B. Silva, Davi S. Vieira, and Kássio M. G. Lima

Food Chemistry Analysis

A Laboratory Experiment for Rapid Determination of the Stability of Vitamin C ~ Seid M. Adem, Sam H. Leung, Lisa M. Sharpe Elles, and Lee Alan Shaver

Titration and HPLC Characterization of Kombucha Fermentation: A Laboratory Experiment in Food Analysis ~ Breanna Miranda, Nicole M. Lawton, Sean R. Tachibana, Natasja A. Swartz, and W. Paige Hall

Analysis of Caffeine in Beverages Using Aspirin as a Fluorescent Chemosensor~Jordan Smith, Kristen Loxley, Patrick Sheridan, and Todd M. Hamilton

Organic Synthesis

Saccharin Derivative Synthesis via [1,3] Thermal Sigmatropic Rearrangement: A Multistep Organic Chemistry Experiment for Undergraduate Students ~ Custódia S. C. Fonseca

Facilitating Students’ Review of the Chemistry of Nitrogen-Containing Heterocyclic Compounds and Their Characterization through Multistep Synthesis of Thieno[2,3-b]Pyridine Derivatives ~ Hanlin Liu, Vladimir Zaplishnyy, and Lana Mikhaylichenko

Green Chemistry in the Organic Laboratory

Biobased Organic Chemistry Laboratories as Sustainable Experiment Alternatives ~ Julian R. Silverman

Comparing Amide-Forming Reactions Using Green Chemistry Metrics in an Undergraduate Organic Laboratory ~ Michael W. Fennie and Jessica M. Roth

Materials Science Experiments

Minding the Gap: Synthetic Strategies for Tuning the Energy Gap in Conjugated Molecules ~ Dana Christensen and Pamela G. Cohn

Synthesizing and Characterizing Graphene via Raman Spectroscopy: An Upper-Level Undergraduate Experiment That Exposes Students to Raman Spectroscopy and a 2D Nanomaterial ~ David Parobek, Ganesh Shenoy, Feng Zhou, Zhenbo Peng, Michelle Ward, and Haitao Liu

Achieving Very Low Levels of Detection: An Improved Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Experiment for the Physical Chemistry Teaching Laboratory ~ Brian G. McMillan

Cost-Effective Laboratory Equipment

Simple and Inexpensive UV-Photometer Using LEDs as Both Light Source and Detector ~ Eivind V. Kvittingen, Lise Kvittingen, Birte Johanne Sjursnes, and Richard Verley

Assembling and Using a Simple, Low-Cost, Vacuum Filtration Apparatus That Operates without Electricity or Running Water ~ Fengxiu Zhang, Yiwei Hu, Yaling Jia, Yonghua Lu, and Guangxian Zhang

Teaching Resources

Interactive Visual Least Absolutes Method: Comparison with the Least Squares and the Median Methods ~ Myung-Hoon Kim and Michelle S. Kim

Review of Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide ~ Sarah B. Boesdorfer

Review of Colour Chemistry, 2nd Edition ~ Robert E. Buntrock

From the Archives: Solving Mysteries through Chemistry

Celebrate National Chemistry Week 2016: Solving Mysteries through Chemistry with forensic chemistry resources in JCE, such as:

The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock Holmes Goes Virtual ~ Erica K. Jacobsen

Crime Scene Investigation in the Art World: The Case of the Missing Masterpiece ~ Katharine J. Harmon, Lisa M. Miller, and Julie T. Millard

Activities for Middle School Students To Sleuth a Chemistry “Whodunit” and Investigate the Scientific Method ~ Audrey F. Meyer, Cassandra M. Knutson, Solaire A. Finkenstaedt-Quinn, Sarah M. Gruba, Ben M. Meyer, John W. Thompson, Melissa A. Maurer-Jones, Sharon Halderman, Ayesha S. Tillman, Lizanne DeStefano, and Christy L. Haynes

Using Paper-Based Diagnostics with High School Students To Model Forensic Investigation and Colorimetric Analysis ~ Rebekah R. Ravgiala, Stefi Weisburd, Raymond Sleeper, Andres Martinez, Dorota Rozkiewicz, George M. Whitesides, and Kathryn A. Hollar


A Multi-Technique Forensic Experiment for a Nonscience-Major Chemistry Course ~ Paul S. Szalay, Lois Anne Zook-Gerdau, and Eric J. Schurter

Forensic Chemistry: The Revelation of Latent Fingerprints ~  J. Brent Friesen


Activities Designed for Fingerprint Dusting and the Chemical Revelation of Latent Fingerprints ~ J. Brent Friesen

Making the Most of JCE Is No Mystery

With 93 volumes of the Journal of Chemical Education to explore, you will always find something intriguing—including the articles mentioned above, and many more, in the Journal of Chemical Education. Articles that are edited and published online ahead of print (ASAP—As Soon As Publishable) are also available.

Do you have something to share? Write it up for the Journal! For some advice on becoming an author, read Erica Jacobsen’s Commentary. In addition, numerous author resources are available on JCE’s ACS Web site, including: Author Guidelines, Document Templates, and Reference Guidelines. The deadline is fast approaching for our next special issue, Polymer Concepts across the Curriculum, so consider submitting a contribution soon.

National Chemistry Week begins on October 16 this year. It’s a time for celebration, a time to highlight chemistry’s contributions to our lives, a time to spark interest in this particular science. How will you mark the occasion? Participation in community outreach activities, perhaps? Highlighting NCW in your classes? I suggest adding an exercise in contemplation to your week, compliments of the October 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education.

To begin, read Robert Q. Thompson’s editorial Forensic Chemistry and Its Flip Side (available to non-subscribers through sponsored access). It focuses on the American Chemical Society’s chosen NCW theme for 2016, forensic chemistry. His message begins with a recognition of chemistry’s contribution to forensic science, the work of chemists to bring those who commit crimes to justice, and its use in education to spur those who may not have a deep interest in chemistry to connect with it as a subject. These all relate to the typical aims of NCW listed above, and we can utilize this particular theme to share chemistry. Thompson states, “So I am upbeat about forensic science research and education.”

He then moves into the “Flip Side” of his title. “But I am also concerned and conflicted by the fact that forensic science in the main deals only with the aftermath of horrible and heinous acts. Forensic science is only a response, only a reaction to crime and violence. … What about preventing or mitigating the effects of illegal activity? What can chemists do?” Thompson cites real life examples, such as Kevlar used in bullet-proof vests. He then raises the idea of potential futuristic scientific developments: bullets that stop but don’t kill, imagers to detect guns, vapors less harsh than pepper spray to calm a crowd. Consider the chemistry of the past and today, but picture the chemistry of tomorrow. What other contributions do you and your students envision for this flip side?

This flip side leads into the most thought-provoking portion of his editorial. He brings up the violence that permeates our world, our students’ world. “Our students come to us in this tense environment. How are we to respond? Can we as educators mitigate the effects?” He feels we can and we must. “Content and caring are both required in the classroom.” Have you already dealt with this in your classroom? How could a larger discussion benefit other current and future chemistry classrooms?

I strongly encourage you to reflect on Thompson’s thoughts, as well as two pieces he quotes—a blog post by Steven Volk (a colleague at Oberlin college) and an editorial by past JCE editor-in-chief John W. Moore, penned after the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers.

NCW puts the spotlight on chemistry, but in the classroom, it’s not always just about the chemistry.

More from the October 2016 Issue

Mary Saecker’s JCE 93.10 October 2016 Issue Highlights shares more articles from the issue, plus articles from JCE’s archives related to the NCW forensics theme. The XChange would also appreciate readers offering their take on any article from this or a past issue of the Journal. Start by submitting a request to contribute, explaining you’d like to contribute to the Especially JCE column. Questions? Contact us using the XChange’s contact form.

What are we doing to help kids achieve?  What is the evidence?

    I have to be honest. I am not big on showing videos that take up a whole class period. Most videos I try to make or get off of You Tube and usually I can asign them for homework. I never want them to be more than ten minutes long.  

     Every now and then there is a great video which explains things far better than I can. One of these for me is "The Fabric of the Cosmos: A Quantum Leap". It is a great NOVA special. Brian Green does a masterful job of explaining quantum mechanics to the non scientist. Still...I do not want to burn an entire class period on this. I got an idea of a way to "flip" this assignment from one of our tech people, Chris Gutermuth. Essentially, I put the link in a google form with a series of questions. The students have a long weekend to work on it. Once they hit "submit" I get their answers with a time stamp. Next comes the grading. This can be done with a few clicks of the mouse with an "add on" called"Flubaroo". If you have multiple choice questions Flubaroo grades and analyzes the assignment in seconds. Dan Meyers wrote a great blog on using google forms and correctly mentioned that Flubaroo is limited in what it grades. Again, it is nice for simple multiple choice quizzes but for more complex questions and answers there are drawbacks.

     In a slightly unrelated activity, students finished their "Bunsen Burner" lab faster than anticipated. On a whim, I had them develop safety posters as part of the lab. The posters could be about anything in high school safety and there was a contest. Other classes voted on the best posters and students won prizes. Pretty fun and we had a nice chance to discuss safety. Do you have a nice way to "flip" the classroom or any cool safety ideas? Let me know....

Target Inquiry“is an exciting, 2½-year, rigorous, and transformational professional development program designed to improve the frequency and quality of inquiry instruction in middle and high school science” (GVSU Target Inquiry).

This program originated at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) while I attended undergrad there (2004-08) and continues today at both GVSU and Miami University in Ohio. While I did not participate in this program, several of our ChemEdX colleagues and guest authors have participated in the program including Sarah Kong, Doug Ragan, Ryan Schoenborn, Chad Husting and Deanna Cullen.

I am writing about it today because my Chemistry 1 and Honors Chemistry 1 classes started a new unit this week: Periodic Table and Periodicity. Over the first 2 days of the unit students work through a Vocabulary Self-Awareness Sheet and watch a series of EdPuzzle videos about the Periodic Table, Electronegativity, Ionization Energy, Atomic Radius, and Ion Size (Honors only). Two days of vocabulary/notes are sufficient. On Wednesday we will transition to one of Target Inquiry’s myriad of activities: Trend Setter. In this activity, students are given the following objectives:

 

• The student will be able to classify unknown elements into a periodic table based on their properties.

• The student will be able to explain the periodicity of the trends of electronegativity, ionization energy, and atomic radii on the periodic table.

• The student will be able to predict properties of elements based on where that element is found on the periodic table.

 

Students receive a deck of element cards with some properties of the main group elements. The cards are coded so students do not know the identity of each element. Students need to look for patterns in the properties of the elements to arrange them. Once arranged, students look for trends in the groups and periods of their periodic table. This is a tremendously great application of the vocabulary students learned in the first 2 days of the unit.

 

trend_setter_1.jpg

 

trend_setter_2.jpg

 

This activity was written by ChemEdX’s Deanna Cullen.

 

I have had the pleasure of incorporating other Target Inquiry activities in the past including A Latin Pile, Change You Can Believe In, All Things Being Equal, and What’s In a Scientist’s Toolbox. I would encourage you to check out the Target Inquiry activities here. You’ll need to create a log-in but the access is otherwise free and is a fantastic resource. If you’d like to learn more about Target Inquiry check out their website.

 

I have always been intrigued by the story of the Hindenburg, the iconic airship that caught fire on May 6, 1937. The accident killed 35 of the 100 passengers and crewmembers on board. As a chemistry teacher, I discuss this from a chemical standpoint and the fact that the airship was filled with hydrogen, a flammable gas, rather than helium, a non-flammable gas, as today’s modern airships are. 

It is interesting that it took so long for scientists to truly uncover what caused the airship to catch fire. Or did they? I found an article published March 3, 2013. After 76 years, Jem Stansfield, and his team of researchers concluded that “The iconic airship had reportedly become charged with static as a result of the electrical storm and broken wire or a sticking gas valve leaked the hydrogen into the ventilation shafts. When ground crew members ran to take the landing ropes they effectively "earthed" the airship causing a spark. The fire is believed to have started on the tail of the airship, igniting the leaking hydrogen.”

This was tested with scale models by Stansfield and was also tested by the guys from Mythbusters. In the Mythbusters episode #70,  Addison Baine, a retired NASA scientist, claimed that the airship's metal paint was responsible for the flaming carnage, not the hydrogen. The guys busted this myth with a scale model showing the skin did show thermite-like reactions, but the hydrogen clearly played a role as the burn time was twice as fast. 

In the book What was the Hindenburg? published Dec 2014, the author claims “The exact cause of the disaster is still unknown and remains a fascinating historical mystery perfect for this series.” However, after careful investigation by a US government commission, they decided that a hydrogen leak had started. Maybe it was the sharp turns that caused a wire to break and rip a hole in the hydrogen gas cell, or it was a result of a spark from the electricity in the air from the thunderstorm, or possibly the coat of fabric on the outside of the airship. The electricity may have traveled up from the earth when the crew threw down the mooring ropes. The book mentions “We will probably never know exactly what made the Hindenburg burst into flames.”

So what did Hollywood decide? In a recently new TV series called “Timeless”, the characters mention that due to high winds the Hindenburg would make a series of turns causing air friction and building up static electricity. Next mooring ropes would be thrown down and then pulled through the wet grass, which electrically grounds the ship causing a spark in the metal hull, which in turn ignites the leaking hydrogen gas burning 2000 cubic liters of gas. On a side note it was 200,000 cubic Liters of hydrogen inside the airship not 2000 cubic liters as mentioned in the TV show. 

        So the path to finding out the true cause is one that I share with my students. We discuss the chemical properties of hydrogen and helium and consider the resources I mentioned above along with watching a YouTube video. I am happy to add the latest episode of Timeless to my compilation of related resources to engage students in a discussion. My students can hear the many different claims for the historic catastrophe, as well as the evidence behind each, and the reasoning. So, what is your theory? Did Hollywood get it correct? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Most chemistry teachers I know do flame tests with their students. It ties in well with many topics, is colorful and the kids enjoy seeing the colors and burning stuff. There are many applications. For years I always mentioned that astronomers use the idea of the flame test. They simply look at stars and examine the spectra from the light of these stars. They then match the spectra with the elements and then they can see and infer what elements are millions of light years away. I always mentioned this but never was able to demonstrate it. I would have needed a Ph.D. in Astronomy, a grant and travel to an exotic remote location to use a telescope.

worlds-biggest-flame-test.png

#1 - M-27 as viewed with the “Hubble” colors assigned.  No filters

screen_shot_2016-10-26_at_1.41.01_pm.png

#2 - M-27 as viewed by only looking at the Hydrogen alpha.

screen_shot_2016-10-26_at_1.44.31_pm.png

#3 - M-27 as viewed by only looking at it with the Oxygen III filter.

screen_shot_2016-10-26_at_1.46.19_pm.png

#4 - M-27 as viewed by only looking at it with the Sulfur  filter.

     Not any more. There is a cool site called "LightBuckets". LightBuckets have several really nice telescopes in different locations around the world. For a small fee you can "rent" a telescope, take some nice pictures and then get your pictures sent to you via email. Years ago I got a small PTA grant. I was able to rent some time on the site. One of the people in charge is married to a teacher. He helped me  choose a nice astronomical object, M-27 the "Dumbell Nebula". I had about 2 hours of exposure time with multiple "filters" that would only view light that came from Sulfur, Oxygen and Hydrogen spectra. In other words, the spectra from these gases travel over 1000 light years to earth. By comparing pictures, one can start to infer structure in a huge gas cloud billions of miles away. Since I was a "newbie" the people at "LightBuckets" helped me with the photos. The kids can now use real chemistry to do what professional astronomers do...and the only thing it takes is a few bucks and a little patience. Check out my photos here...M-27  World's Biggest Flame Test.(link is external) Do you have a cool way to tie in chemistry with a neat application that gets students attention?  Share your ideas in the comments....would love to check it out...

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

     For as long as I can remember, my students have done some type of hydrate experiment. It is usually sandwiched in between the concepts of empirical formulas, molecular formulas, percent composition and reactions. It tends to fit well there. The lab is basically a glorified empirical formula lab and it bridges a nice gap that leads into reactions. For years my students would heat the hydrates in glassware, burn themselves, break the glassware and splatter salts and thus their data, all over the lab bench. A few years ago Bob Worley came up with a great microscale technique. Essentially, it takes a used bottle cap without the plastic and this is used as the dish. Next, there is about a three inch machine screw that goes through a drilled hole in the cap. A nut is placed on the screw to hold everything in place and cheap pliers are used to hold the entire assembly over the flame. About two grams of hydrate fits in the cap.

screen_shot_2016-11-01_at_11.24.23_pm.png

    So here is how it played out when I tried this method with my own classes. Students were given some copper(II)sulfate pentahydrate. They recorded the mass of the empty assembly and then the assembly with the hydrate before heating. They heated the material to drive off the water. Before they measured the mass after heating they had to hand me their calculations and written prediction and then I let them measure the mass of the dish and the anhydrous salt to see how close their predictions were to the actual results. The good news is that most of the student predictions were within 1% to 5% of the actual value.  It was also fun as a teacher to watch them find the mass and see how close they got to their predictions.

     I wanted to do something different for the unknowns. Students took the mass before and after heating. I told them that they had to find the ratio of the salt to the water for the unknown. They were only allowed to ask me one question and it could not be "What is the formula of the unknown salt?". Some students asked for the molar mass of the unknown salt. They calculated moles of salt to moles of water based on their data. Others wanted the molar mass of the entire hydrate. They found the percent of water and percent of anhydrous salt based on the data. They then used that to find the percent of water in the molar mass of the hydrate and found the moles of water. They reasoned that for every one mole of hydrate they should get one mole of the anhydrous salt so they found the molar mass of the anhydrous salt from the percent composition data from the experiment. They could calculate the ratio in a round about way. This format worked pretty well.

     The fun part was watching this as a teacher. Each of the groups thought that there was only one way to solve the problem and their way must be the correct way. This is where the yelling and screaming came in (O.K.....I exagerated about the cage fighting....but things got intense...). They were convinced that if their procedure was correct, any other way must be wrong. I did not tell them there was more than one way to solve the problem. Typically, we want students to defend their ideas and usually the teacher is the one asking the questions. This time it was the students challenging each other. I wish I could say that I planned this. It was just a happy accident. Afterward we talked about doing science that makes sense and having the courage to stick with your plan.

     By the way, if you want to try this you can order the bottle caps online for a few bucks and get some screws and nuts at the hardware store. The whole set up cost me about $10 and should last a few years....my kind of lab. Maybe students are not using the same equipment as chemists, but I am more concerned that they think like chemists first.

     Do you have a lab that challenges students in a different way? If so....don't be afraid to share...

hydrate-labs-microscale-chemistry-and-cage-fighting.jpg

"Hey Mr. T, why is the I^3- ion a linear shape?"

[I grab my MolyMod kit and build a model to show the student how the lone pairs orient around the center atom, creating a linear shape.]

"Hey Mr. T, why are H2O, NH3 and CH4 all sp3 hybridization even though their molecular geometries are different?"

[I grab my MolyMod kit again and build models of each, along with a model of sp3 hybrid orbitals.]

MolyMod Kit

These two previous conversations have been pretty common within my IB Chemistry course every time we study chemical bonding and molecular geometry - or review before IB exams each spring. But last year's equipment order in June included two new items to use in my classroom that have gotten quite a bit of use lately.

One new item is a model of the crystal lattice of a salt crystal from 3-D Molecular Designs, using magnets to hold the ions together. I often use this for comparing the structure of the ionic compound to my big beaker of water molecules. I frequently joke with my kids about being thirsty and grabbing my water molecules, but it serves a few distinct purposes. The obvious aim of this beaker is to show students the idea of particles in a molecular compound versus how the particles (ions) arrange in an ionic compound. But even more than that, I often emphasize that my beaker is full of a chemical! It's a bit of an attempt to reduce chemophobia in some small manner.

Salt Crystal

Beaker of Water Molecules

Another new item is my collection of magnetic water molecules from 3-D Molecular Designs. These models allow me to discuss several concepts with students. First, I can show them hydrogen bonding within a collection of water molecules and the attraction between the partial positive charge of the hydrogen and the partial negative charge of the oxygen. But this kit comes with ethane and ethanol models as well. The water molecules will hydrogen bond with the oxygen and hydrogen of ethanol, but have no attraction with the ethane molecule. It's a bit of a simplification, as it ignores London dispersion forces between any two molecules, but I use it to highlight the influence of intermolecular forces on solubility.

Water Kit

Magnetic Water Models

Water Molecules With Ethanol

The water molecules also can be used to show the hydration of ions by using them jointly with the ions from the salt crystal. The hydrogens of water surround the chloride ions, while the oxygens of water surround the sodium ions.

Hydrating Ions

Just this week I have used some combination of these models with seniors in IB Chemistry reviewing hybridization and bonding in organic molecules, juniors in IB Chemistry looking at IMFs of organic molecules (comparing ethane and ethanol in water), and introductory chemistry students as they develop their understanding of polarity. As with any model, these can simplify a concept to make it easier for students to understand. But I also emphasize with my students that these are just models and have limitations as well. I keep my collection of models right near my desk so that any time a question comes up that can be aided by the models, I've got them right there and don't need to go searching. And rarely a week goes by when I don't use them for some discussion.

Do you have any fallback models you use with your students? I'd love to hear about them as I look to expand my collection of manipulatives.

In the case of scientific exploration in the classroom, the word “misconception” tends to relate to ideas that are inconsistent with scientific evidence. Generally, misconceptions are recognized as a negative aspect of the classroom environment. Instead of recognizing misconceptions negatively, instructors of science can transform the concept into one that can be a positive attribute that can contribute to long-term sense making in students. “What we Call Misconceptions May be Necessary Stepping Stones Toward Making Sense of the World” is an article identifying how misconceptions can be turned into sense-making exercises and classroom conversations to help students come to meaningful, and eventually “correct” views of scientific concepts.   

Telling students they are Wrong

Say a student has an incorrect idea about a topic. What would be the best course of action? A teacher’s first reaction might be to correct the student immediately. Unfortunately, telling students they are wrong and replacing their personal ideas with the correct educational views isn’t actually helping them learn, it’s just teaching the student to replace their own ideas with the information that a teacher may be giving them. This can make a student wonder why their ideas aren’t accurate and can make them feel as though their contributions are invalid at best. To the student, their ideas are completely valid when considering their personal experience with scientific prospects in the real world. With these ideas in mind, the goal in this situation would not be to correct a student, but to engage the student deeper into realizing their own reasoning. Asking them to reflect on their own ideas stemming from their experiences is a way in which we can take their misconception and turn it into a sense-making exercise. From here, the student can argue their evidence, and construct explanations to present to their peers in a way that is constructive to the classroom as a whole. 

Teacher opportunities to extend student reasoning

Being a facilitator and a guide in classroom discussion is the best way to bring a positive light to possible student misconceptions. It can be an impactful and powerful sentiment for a teacher to only guide students in the right direction, so that students may come to the correct conclusions themselves within their community. As a future teacher, I want to create that positive space and be that powerful presence to my students, and being a facilitator to student conversations can really help students process their own sense-making. In the end, this makes students more accountable for their own learning, and they can more easily think about concepts in a way that they can make sense of. Through this practice, a teacher can help students take control of their own ideas and be comfortable bringing them into the classroom community. The goal is really to get students to come together as their own scientific community where they can feel free to share ideas, which can ultimately lead to deeper understandings about scientific concepts. In the end, a teacher can really aid students in having meaningful conversations with their peers just by taking a step back and helping guide those conversations, which in turn will help students come to conclusions about why they may be making sense of something in a certain way. In this way, we can help form a new definition of “misconception” and turn it into a talking piece that the whole classroom can work together to make sense of.

A Few Notes about this PICK

• The full length article is freely available at the NSTA Science Store. 
• The original article is tagged at the NSTA Science Store as targeted for elementary school (Pre/K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but the strategies given in the article could be used with any grade level.
• Suggested strategies for facilitating leading students from misconception to conceptual understanding can be seen in figures 1, 2, and 3 in the original article. 

In the state of Michigan where I live, the University of Michigan (UM) and Michigan State University (MSU) are rivals. Green is the definitive color of MSU, whereas blue and gold are the school colors of UM. I went to school at UM, so naturally I am partial to blue and gold. Watch the video below to see if you can figure out how I change green into blue and gold in this simple chemistry experiment:

            In July of 2016 we learned the names of the four new elements that were confirmed in January; Nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og). Although the newest superheavy elements complete the seventh period of the Periodic Table, curiosity has been reignited in our classrooms as students ask, what’s next?

            Recently Chemistry World has released articles that explain how the four elements were developed and the future of confirming new elements. “Confirmation of four new elements completes seventh row of periodic table”, published in January introduces the new elements as well as the researchers involved in the discoveries. Published weeks later “Beyond element 118: the next row of the periodic table” reflects on the possibilities of confirming elements that would occupy the eighth period and the technology requirements needed in order to occur. The final two articles “The element makers” and “Explainer: superheavy elements” are focused on the discussion with the scientists of the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who study the superheavy metals. In addition the latter two articles include video clips in which the scientists explain the process of developing superheavy elements.

            Although the reading level may be advanced for some high school students, these articles can be introduced in the classroom as supplemental resources for a periodicity unit. I plan on using these articles for the previously mentioned unit as well as a connection component back to our unit about nuclear reactions. If you use these articles in your classroom please provide feedback on how they were used and the feedback from the students.