To squash any misconceptions, I would like to say first and foremost I am not a great cook. My husband graciously does most of the cooking in our house. However, as a chemist, I am fascinated by the complex reactions involved in everyday life. Pair this curiosity with the requirement to teach an elective, and the Chemistry of Cooking elective was born.

Here is a summary of the one-trimester elective:

I even had the wonderful opportunity to write about this in a blog through the Huffington Post. However, that version of the story doesn’t really get into the blood, sweat, and tears of planning. Read on for the gory details.

The Back Story:

I am not only interested in food chemistry, but also project-based learning (PBL). I used this course development not only as a content learning opportunity, but as a sandbox to try out a long-term project in a safe, low-stakes fashion (no end of year standardized test in this class).

It is one thing to have inspiration, and a completely other thing to make that idea come to life. Here is how it worked for me. First, I listen to a lot of podcasts (I have a commute)- NPR’s “Radiolab” and How Stuff Work’s “Stuff you Missed in History Class” are favorites of mine. I would learn interesting tidbits here and there, and kept a list.

Next, I stumbled upon an article in NSTA’s “The Science Teacher” about a “Chemistry Cook-Off” Project. That project supplied the “umbrella” of the course- all things students learned were to theoretically be applied to achieve project outcomes.

I soon realized I still knew next to nothing about food chemistry, and reached out on a teacher message board and received suggestions for books and labs to check out. Lunchtime talks with colleagues provided great ideas too. Here is a summary of my planning process:

A more comprehensive list of books and sites:

• Culinary Reactions, Simon Quellen Field 

• The Modernist Cuisine (I bought the one-volume version, but I aspire to purchasing the entire set one day)

• What Einstein told his cook- misconceptions in food!  Robert L. Wolke

• Cooking for Geeks Jeff Potter

• And then, Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. This is evidently THE book everyone references.

• NBC Learn’s Chemistry Now series

• MIT Open Courseware- Kitchen Chemistry 

Here is my initial concept map of big ideas and potential labs, heavily influenced by the resources above 

My guess is you are wondering a few things right now related to money. First, I will be honest: the start up costs were not small. I budgeted each lab and came up with an approximate number and asked people for money. I applied for grant money from KSTF, my district gave me money, individuals at my school/family members gave me money or donated items. IKEA is where I bought cheap pots, pans, and utensils. I bought hot plates from Amazon. Our school’s engineering teacher made us cheese presses as a project in his course (see below). I went to local vendors asking for money (Home Depot, grocery stores, etc) armed with a tax-exempt form and letter from my dean certifying my request. It was a lot of work, but starting months in advance paid off. I still had to charge my students $20 each for consumables, in addition to a donation of cleaning materials. Most kids were able to pay the fee, and we were fine overall.

I learned so much from this experience. First, opportunities exist, no matter what your context looks like. With creativity, persistence, and some luck, I taught this in a school with about half of students on free and reduced lunch. I begged, borrowed, and stole ideas from others (with proper citations, of course). I spent a Christmas break planning this course, but the obsessive pre-planning and budgeting paid off. To be fair, I am so “Type A” I have been called “Type A+”, but there is no way I could have pulled this off at the last minute. I learned so much about my students in this course- students readily offered their own experience and assimilated them into what they were learning in class (“Why do we wash our hands after handling eggs?” “What’s a torta?”). I also tried activities that failed miserably - I still shudder at the jigsaw activity I tried using Harold McGee’s text as readings (let’s just say the reading level was a bit of a stretch).

I only taught this elective once. I changed schools, and was a bit maxed out time-wise. I would love to teach this again! I loved the project, and students learned. However, I think if I had framed the individual learning activities around themes of food molecules (water, proteins, lipids, sugars) students would have learned more. It turns out there are many J. Chem. Ed. articles that you might want to explore as well:JCE Resources in Food Chemistry, Design of a Food Chemistry-Themed Course for Nonscience Majors, Experimenting with the Sweet Side of Chemistry: Connecting Students and Science through Food Chemistry​, Science of Food and Cooking: A Non-Science Majors Course​ are a few to get you started. Don't forget to look at the supporting information linked to those articles for more details to help you develop a curriculum.

Food safety: It is vital to work with your school and administration team to make sure that you are handling food in a safe, appropriate fashion. 

Good luck pursuing your passions! Have you taught any fun electives you’d like to share?

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

I really like "Atomsmith.co".  It has several nice features. I have blogged about this resource before. First, I like that it is an affordable modeling program that can be placed into the hands of students. Phet simulations are nice but I found that they do not work on all formats. We went to 1 to 1 Chromebooks. There are some HTML 5 Phet simulations but not as many as I would like. Atomsmith works really well on Chromebooks and other platforms. Students can manipulate molecules, add water, do experiments, heat solutions and examine intermolecular forces all on the particulate level. Another nice feature is the "Experiment" section. There are a number of guided activities, usually never more than a page or two. I have found them to be great supplements for activities, experiments and demonstrations.

 A group of students started to investigate types of reactions. We did the "Types of Reactions" experiment from Atomsmith. Students were able to examine a number of reactions in different groups and "watch" the reactants form the products. They could see bonds breaking and forming and the energy changing.  There was one unexpected part of the experiment that I thought was amazing. Here it is....

interesting-way-look-reactions.png

Used with permission of Bitwixt Software Systems, the developers of Atomsmith® Classroom.

 I have never seen types and patterns presented this way but it makes sense. First, for most students I tend discuss the typical five "patterns". The "types" that are presented (oxidation reduction, precipitation...) are typically an AP topic in our school. Students still ask questions and throw around the term "redox". The great part about this chart is that as a teacher I can still show the five patterns and then mention the "types" as a topic that we might get to later or as an advanced topic. This is a nice chart also for differentiating instruction. As a teacher, I am able to use this to go a little further if I feel the class is ready for it. When asked about the chart, here is what Dave Dougherty from Atomsmith said....

"Regarding the chart: I'm glad that you see its value. I spend a lot of time looking at how various concepts in chemistry are taught and I put a lot of thought into how things can be improved. 
I noticed that presentations of what I (and others) call types and patterns of chemical reactions are all over the map -- even in textbooks. I realized that "types" and "patterns" are actually orthogonal descriptions of reactions -- they can't be mapped onto each other in a linear fashion. So I developed the chart to clarify the relationships between types and patterns. (...then I developed a bunch of 3D models that embody them.)" - Dave Dougherty

I have to agree with Dave on this one. There seem to be many ways to show reactions. You might want to check this one out. The chart is versatile and a nice reference tool that can be used throughout the year.

Analytical Thinking, Analytical Action

The November 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: electrochemistry; researching how assessment aids learning; using technology to teach; environmental chemistry; hands-on, minds-on activities and demonstrations; geology-inspired chemistry.

Cover: Electrochemistry

Learning electrochemical analysis and techniques is critical for students to develop conceptual understanding and gain practical skills. Researchers use electrochemistry to analyze a variety of systems extending from molecules to materials that encompass research themes ranging from clean energy to substrate activation in biological systems. In Introduction to Electrochemistry and the Use of Electrochemistry to Synthesize and Evaluate Catalysts for Water Oxidation and Reduction, Samuel J. Hendel and Elizabeth R. Young describe a lab to familiarize students with electrochemistry as well as quantitative electrochemical characterization and analysis. Students are introduced to the fundamentals of experimental electrochemistry using the ferricyanide/ferrocyanide redox couple as a model system. Students then conduct electrochemical analyses of the water electrolysis reaction and identify catalysts for both hydrogen and oxygen generation in the reductive and oxidative half-reactions, respectively. These experiments are discussed in the context of clean energy storage to promote the connection of the teaching laboratory to real-world applications.

Editorial

Editor-in-Chief Norbert J. Pienta has been traveling around the world to discuss matters of common interest concerning teaching and learning within introductory chemistry courses. Read about his latest travels in Innocents Abroad, Redux: Latin America.

Commentary

Using the Universal Design for Learning Approach in Science Laboratories To Minimize Student Stress ~ Daniel K. Miller and Patricia L. Lang

Comment on “Beyond Clickers, Next Generation Student Response Systems for Organic Chemistry” ~ Gail Horowitz

Researching How Assessment Aids Learning

Surprises in the Muddy Waters of High-Enrollment Courses ~ Jessie M. Keeler and Milo D. Koretsky

Score Increase and Partial-Credit Validity When Administering Multiple-Choice Tests Using an Answer-Until-Correct Format ~ Aaron D. Slepkov, Andrew J. Vreugdenhil, and Ralph C. Shiell

Using Technology To Teach

Improving and Assessing Student Hands-On Laboratory Skills through Digital Badging ~ Sarah Hensiek, Brittland K. DeKorver, Cynthia J. Harwood, Jason Fish, Kevin O’Shea, and Marcy Towns

Analytical Thinking, Analytical Action: Using Prelab Video Demonstrations and e-Quizzes To Improve Undergraduate Preparedness for Analytical Chemistry Practical Classes ~ Dianne F. Jolley, Stephen R. Wilson, Celine Kelso, Glennys O’Brien, and Claire E. Mason

Reflections on “YouTestTube.com”: An Online Video-Sharing Platform To Engage Students with Chemistry Laboratory Classes ~ Stephen McClean, Kenneth G. McCartan, Sheryl Meskin, Beronia Gorges, and W. Paul Hagan

Using Student-Generated Instructional Materials in an e-Homework Platform ~ Danielle M. Zurcher, Sameer Phadke, Brian P. Coppola, and Anne J. McNeil

A Cloud-Based Scavenger Hunt: Orienting Undergraduates to ACS National Meetings ~ Matthew A. Kubasik, Aaron R. Van Dyke, Amanda S. Harper-Leatherman, John R. Miecznikowski, L. Kraig Steffen, and Jillian Smith-Carpenter

Environmental and Water Chemistry

Using a Deliberation of Energy Policy as an Educational Tool in a Nonmajors Chemistry Course ~ Sara A. Mehltretter Drury, Kyle Stucker, Anthony Douglas, Ryan A. Rush, Walter R. P. Novak, and Laura M. Wysocki

An Inconvenient Truth—Is It Still Effective at Familiarizing Students with Global Warming? ~ Mark A. Griep and Kaitlin Reimer

Fabrication of Chromatographic Devices for Screening Cosmetics for Hydroquinone and Retinoic Acid as a Chemistry Project To Connect with the Community ~ Theerasak Rojanarata, Kwanrutai Waewsa-nga, Thanawit Muangchang, Pudinan Ratanakreethakul, Samarwadee Plianwong, Weerapath Winotapun, Praneet Opanasopit, and Tanasait Ngawhirunpat

A Simple, Student-Built Spectrometer To Explore Infrared Radiation and Greenhouse Gases ~ Mitchell R. M. Bruce, Tiffany A. Wilson, Alice E. Bruce, S. Max Bessey, and Virginia J. Flood

Stepwise Inquiry into Hard Water in a High School Chemistry Laboratory ~ Mami Kakisako, Kazuyuki Nishikawa, Masayoshi Nakano, Kana S. Harada, Tomoyuki Tatsuoka, and Nobuyoshi Koga

Introducing Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry Topics Using a Nanotechnology Approach: Removing Hazardous Metal Ions by Means of Humic-Acid-Modified Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles ~ Delmárcio Gomes da Silva, Fernando Menegatti de Melo, Alceu Totti Silveira Jr., Bruno Constancio da Cruz, Caio Cesar Pestana Prado, Luana Cristina Pereira de Vasconcelos, Vitor Amaral Sanches Lucas, and Henrique Eisi Toma

Salicylic Acid and 4-Nitroaniline Removal from Water Using Magnetic Biochar: An Environmental and Analytical Experiment for the Undergraduate Laboratory ~ Akila G Karunanayake, Narada Bombuwala Dewage, Olivia Adele Todd, Matthew Essandoh, Renel Anderson, Todd Mlsna, and Deb Mlsna

Determination of Total Arsenic and Speciation in Apple Juice by Liquid Chromatography–Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: An Experiment for the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory ~ Ping He, Luis A. Colón, and Diana S. Aga

Investigating Arsenic Contents in Surface and Drinking Water by Voltammetry and the Method of Standard Additions ~ Anran Cheng, Rebecca Tyne, Yu Ting Kwok, Louis Rees, Lorraine Craig, Chaipat Lapinee, Mitch D’Arcy, Dominik J. Weiss, and Pascal Salaün

Hands-On, Minds-On Activities and Demonstrations

Atomic Tiles: Manipulative Resources for Exploring Bonding and Molecular Structure ~ Alan L. Kiste, Rebecca G. Hooper, Gregory E. Scott, and Seth D. Bush

A Colorful Demonstration to Visualize and Inquire into Essential Elements of Chemical Equilibrium ~ Ingo Eilks and Ozcan Gulacar

Speed of Sound in Gases Measured by in Situ Generated White Noise ~ Michael J. DeLomba, Michael D. Hernandez, and John J. Stankus

From the Archives: Geology-Inspired Chemistry

In Quantitative Determination of Iron in Limonite Using Spectroscopic Methods with Senior and General Chemistry Students: Geology-Inspired Chemistry Lab Explorations, A. M. R. P. Bopegedera, Christopher L. Coughenour, and Andrew J. Oswalt discuss a laboratory that involves analyzing a geologically important material. Other examples of geology-inspired chemistry in the classroom include:

The Rocky Road to Chemistry ~ Larry Walker and Priscilla J. Lee

Geochemistry for Chemists ~ John D. Hostettler

Copper Metal from Malachite circa 4000 B.C.E. ~ Cris E. Johnson, Gordon T. Yee, and Jeannine E. Eddleton

Exploring Solid-State Structure and Physical Properties: A Molecular and Crystal Model Exercise ~ Thomas H. Bindel

How Does Your Garden Grow? Investigating the "Magic Salt Crystal Garden" ~ JCE staff

Chemistry Education Thinking, JCE Action

With 93 volumes of the Journal of Chemical Education to explore, you will always find something to make you think—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.

AMTA will be hosting a distance learning Chemistry 2 course that will run from January 19th -April 27 (15 weeks), with an open house to prepare with technology on January 12th. It will be led by expert chemistry modeling leaders Larry Dukerich and Brenda Royce. The course develops on an evidence-based approach to the internal structure of the atom, periodicity and covalent bonding, intermolecular forces, equilibrium and acids and bases. It will also build teaches' skill and confidence implementing Modeling InstructionTM in their classes. Participants will frequently perform all the laboratory investigations and problem solving as their students would as well as considering common preconceptions and misconceptions students hold. Additionally, they will they will practice student discourse management strategies, and employ Socratic dialogue, and inquiry-based classroom techniques as teacher leaders within the classroom.

Time: Thursdays from 7:00 pm EST till 10:00 pm EST

Duration: 15 weeks, January 19- April 27

Costs: $810 (includes renewal)

Graduate credits: 3 credits from Aurora University for $100 each (total $300) available

Limited seats are available so follow this link for information and to register for Chemistry 2.

Preface: I am proposing a challenge based on this mystery. If you wish to know more about this challenge, please be sure to read the Challenge section found at the end of this blog post.

Congratulations to Grazyna Zreda and Alfredo Tifi who both solved Chemical Mystery #8. While neither Grazyna nor Alfredo figured out exactly how I pulled off this trick, they both determined that I was making use of the “salting out” phenomenon. In the “salting out” experiment, a water-soluble ionic salt is added to a mixture of water and a water-soluble organic liquid. If enough salt is added, the mixture separates into two layers: one rich in water, and the other rich in the organic liquid.¹  You can see how this works (and also the solution to Mystery #8) in the video below:

In Mystery #8 I used acetone as the water soluble organic liquid and table salt as the ionic substance. I first mixed acetone, water, and two different dyes without adding any salt. The yellow dye was obtained from yellow food dye, while the blue dye was obtained from blue glitter. The dye on blue glitter dissolves very well in acetone, but not so well in water. The other yellow dye dissolves very well in water, but not so well in acetone.

Acetone and water dissolve well in one another due to hydrogen bonding interactions between the oxygen atom on acetone molecules and the O-H bond on water molecules (Figure 1).

acetone and water

Figure 1: Representation of a hydrogen bond (yellow dashed line) formed between a molecule of acetone (lower molecule) and a molecule of water (upper molecule). Image made using Odyssey modeling software.

All four of these components mixed very well together (acetone, water, blue dye, yellow dye) to form a green colored solution results. When a lot of table salt was added, the green solution separated into two layers: a blue colored, acetone rich layer on top and a yellow-colored, salt-water rich layer on bottom. How did this occur?

When the salt dissolved into the mixture, the resulting Na⁺ and Cl^- ions interacted very strongly with water molecules through ion-dipole forces (Figure 2). These ion-dipole interactions attracted water molecules much more strongly than the acetone-water hydrogen bonds. As a result, the ion-dipole forces pulled water molecules away from acetone molecules and the liquids separated into the two separate phases. The yellow dye, which dissolves better in water than in acetone, ended up in the salt water layer. The blue dye, which dissolves better in acetone, ended up in the acetone layer.

hydrated chloride ion

Figure 2: Representation of a chloride ion (green) interacting with six water molecules through ion-dipole forces (yellow dashed line). Image made with Odyssey modeling software.

What is interesting about this project is that one can use many different combinations of dyes, organic liquids, and salts to achieve different effects. For example, Graznya Zreda “solved” this mystery by reporting that she mixed yellow food dye, water, blue food dye (in place of the blue dye found on glitter), isopropyl alcohol (in place of acetone), and potassium carbonate (in place of salt). Upon mixing these items a beautiful green solution was observed; adding potassium carbonate separated the mixture into the blue and green layers (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Figure 3: Experiment carried out by one of Grazyna Zreda's students. Left to right: Test tubes containing yellow food dye in water and blue food dye in 70% isopropyl alcohol; Mixing the yellow and blue fluids to form a green solution; Addition of potassium carbonate to form a green solution; separation into blue and yellow layers upon dissolution of potassium carbonate.  

Grazyna and I began communicating on Twitter about these experiments, and one afternoon we even spent an hour or two “together”, electronically messaging back and forth about various experiments we were trying. This was really a lot of fun! Throughout our combined efforts, we discovered some really cool things. First, green food dye alone (in place of both blue and yellow) can be used in Grazyna’s version of this experiment! That’s because green food dye contains a combination of blue and yellow food dye. Second, using different blends of organic liquid and ionic salts with blue food dye and purple “fall color” food dye resulted in completely different results (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Figure 4: Color combinations achieved using blue food dye, purple “fall color” food dye in conjunction with (Left) acetone, salt, and water; (right) isopropyl alcohol, potassium carbonate, and water.

Challenge: Finally, here is a challenge I am proposing for you and your students based on this experiment: See if you can create layers that display your school colors by modifying this experiment using different combinations of ionic salts, dyes, miscible organic liquids and water. If you achieve this, see what other color arrangements you can create. I'm particularly interested in seeing a purple/green combination! I would love to hear from you regarding different combinations you are able to create. Of course I would also be interested in hearing about your various successful recipes if you are willing to share them! Be creative…dyes can come from a surprising number of different sources…like glitter, of all things! 

Reference: Shakhashiri, Chemical Demonstrations Volume 3, p. 266 – 268.

Welcome to Chemical Education Xchange (ChemEd X)! Our purpose is to deliver accessible, quality content to teachers of chemistry. ChemEd X offers you the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues, share resources and experiences, and, of course, access content for learning, including activities that can be implemented in the classroom, videos that illustrate concepts and inspire critical thinking, and assessment resources especially for teachers. We even have more light-hearted forums—including a “Picks” section and a place to blog—that allow readers to let us know what they’re reading and what’s on their minds.

ChemEd X also provides an opportunity for chemistry teachers to publish. While the Journal of Chemical Education, is highly research based, ChemEd X provides an interactive platform for works in progress and collaborations while teachers work to transfer those researched practices into their own curriculum plans. We have worked with authors to develop Journal articles from their ChemEd X posts and also that have extended their Journal articles by publishing videos and other related information on ChemEd X. Visit the contribute page to find information so YOU can submit content for publication. We welcome ideas from new and experienced chemistry educators and offer support as you develop your ideas. 

Although ChemEd X derives from the Journal of Chemical Education, we are a separate entity. The ACS Division of Chemical Education Board of Publications has recognized ChemEd X as a separate platform for publication under their guidance. Many of the resources you will discover here—including some software collections and videos—come from the online presence of the Journal before it partnered with American Chemical Society Publications in 2010. More recent ChemEd X content focuses on topical issues, trends in the field, and current approaches to chemistry education. 

We look forward to having you as part of our professional learning community! We hope you will send us your comments, questions and suggestions using our contact form.

Science is cool. It allows us to step back and reason why things are the way they are.  Most importantly it fuels us to keep questioning why. Asking why is an important aspect of learning, and is a huge part of the way classrooms run, on average a teacher will ask 300-400 questions just in a day (Vogler 2008)! However, what happens when a student does not have the correct answer to a question? Are they deemed wrong? Is it a misconception that we must fix?

In the article, “ What We Call Misconceptions May be Necessary Stepping Stones Towards Making Sense of The World” the authors, Campbell, Schwarz and Windschitl, take what we think is right about teaching science and spin it on it’s head. Today, pedagogy is circled around providing students with the ‘right’ information and correcting the child when they have the ‘wrong’ idea. This idea of focusing on what is right and what is wrong is arguably what makes some kids frustrated about learning science. However, this article takes on the perspective of overcoming right and wrong and working with a student instead of against them. “We simply mean working on and with ideas—both students’ ideas (including experiences, language, and ways of knowing) and authoritative ideas in texts and other materials—in ways that help generate meaningful connections”(Campbell, Schwarz, and Windschitl 2016). This article articulates a teacher’s incredibly valid  role as an educator and how, as a teacher, it is so important to open up and initiate questions that interactively get a student to consider why. It is in asking why that we develop meaning and purpose in this world.

Having grown up with my own ideas being corrected, I believe that taking the initiative to adapt to students and their learning behaviors will only improve our knowledge as a whole. Education is a valuable  opportunity and it should not be a one way street. In other words students should not feel like the teacher holds all the answers and the teacher should not feel obligated to impose everything she/he knows to be true. Instead it should be a hand and hand approach. Think about it. How well do you truly learn when someone is telling you exactly what to do and how to do it? It’s intimidating and overwhelming to think about. I don’t like it and I’m sure you don’t either. Some things we just have to learn by doing ourselves, and in the case of science that is exactly what is needed.

See a recent ChemEd X PICK highlighting "What We Call Misconceptions May be Necessary Stepping Stones Towards Making Sense of the World".

Todd Campbell, Christina Schwarz, and Mark Windschitl(2016). What We Call Misconceptions May Be Important Stepping Stones Toward Making Sense of the World. National Science Teacher Association.

Vogler, E. Kenneth(2008). Asking Good Questions. Educational Leadership, 65. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/summer08/vol65/num09/Asking-Good-Questions.aspx. 

What surprised you most about class last week? What do you think was the muddiest point in class last week? These two questions are part of an article that caught my eye in the November 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education—Surprises in the Muddy Waters of High-Enrollment Courses.

The term “high-enrollment courses” in the title might cause you to pass on by, since it doesn’t suggest a potential use at the high school level. High enrollment in the article refers to a single class of roughly 200 students, while a single high school chemistry class would have just a fraction of that, although the numbers do seem to keep climbing! The lack of “high school chemistry” as an article keyword could also be a signal to skip the article. But, as I’ve experienced with other JCE articles in the past, it has something to offer high school educators.

The use of brief exit slips and also the term “muddiest point” are nothing new. Authors Keeler and Koretsky expand their previous research on the use and benefits of these questions. In this study, they presented both questions to students in a hybrid prompt, rather than giving only one question as in a prior study.

Why use the questions in class? They discuss the purposes of the prompts:

First, they communicate information to the instructor with regard to the attitudes, understanding, and learning approaches of the students. The specific difficulties and concerns that emerge can then be immediately addressed. …the instructor also gains insight into aligning upcoming content with prior knowledge for better levels of comprehension. Second, these activities foster metacognitive and reflective awareness in students. They must contemplate and gauge their own learning relative to the course objectives, processes, and structures.

Beyond these potential benefits, in coding student comments, they also found that the prompts gave students a chance to make suggestions related to how the course itself is carried out. These included items such as a positive reaction to how group participation is structured and a suggestion for making whiteboard notes more visible. Instructors felt encouraged by some of these positive comments and other more humorous personal notes, such as a student who was “most surprised by how much you like coffee.”

Such reflections don’t need to be limited to just students either. For example, teachers could exit slip themselves as they reflect on recent classes, as another use of the idea. What “surprises in the muddy waters” have you experienced this school year so far?

More from the November 2016 Issue

Mary Saecker’s JCE 93.11 November 2016 Issue Highlights shares more articles from the issue, plus “geology-inspired chemistry” from JCE’s archives. You’ll see geology crop up again in 2017 with the American Chemical Society’s theme “Chemistry Rocks!” for the next National Chemistry Week. As always, the XChange would love for you to offer your take on any article from this or a past issue of the Journal. All it takes is a short post! Start by submitting a contribution form, explaining you would like to contribute to the Especially JCE column. Questions? Contact us using the XChange’s contact form.

This week I had the opportunity to attend part 2 of a 3 day PD for Gizmos, courtesy of a district grant working with ExploreLearning. In a room full of middle school science colleagues (half of whom I knew), I was able to glean a ton of great information.

According to the Gizmos website, there are over 400 math and science Gizmos (simulations) available for grades K-12 that “gives everyone something to graph, measure, and compare. Even predict and prove." They promote inquiry and understanding.

“Gizmos support the latest educational standards and assessments. (The simulations) run on PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, iPads, and Android devices.” This alone makes me more excited than I am with PhET activities, especially with a Chromebook cart in my room. Some PhET activities are still Java based apps which do not run on Chrome OS. I discovered this last spring when a PhET lesson plan failed. Gizmos also work great for blended learning, whole group, and 1:1 instruction.

A free 30-day trial is available. You can also pay for a subscription. The price is negogiated based upon the number of students and teachers using the service. Check with your district/building technology department to see if there are funds available for you to join.

Below you will find some screenshots for locating specific Gizmos based on NGSS standards. You can also find Gizmos based on state standards, grade level content, or textbook.

Find Gizmos

Gizmos by Academic Standard.

Gizmos by Academic Standard

Gizmos based on NGSS.

NGSS

Gizmos by individuals standards.

Content Expectations

Content Expectations

You can build your own homepage.

My Homepage

This is my homepage for my second hour class.

Classroom View

Lastly, here's a screenshot of what the Balancing Chemical Equations Gizmos looks like.

Balancing Chemical Equations Gizmos

I wanted to show the Balancing Chemical Equations Gizmos because after Thanksgiving I will be launching the Chemical Reactions unit within my regular and Honors Chemistry 1 classes. Gizmos provides a student exploration sheet, exploration answer key, teacher guide, and vocabulary sheet. There are also a set of multiple choice formative assessment questions that you can assign students at any point during a lesson.
 
Thanks to the quality of the Gizmos, I will be completely revamping my reactions unit. Depending on how it goes, I might be blogging about it in December and providing resources that I used.
 

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

     Years ago, I took some wonderful material science workshops sponsored by ASM International. They did an amazing job of helping me add some more tools to my teaching tool kit. Materials are all around us and the workshop was a week long adventure into either creating a material science course or tying material science into existing curriculum. The chemistry of materials can easily be introduced into any curriculum.  

     One experiment I remember was creating a "vein" of copper. The person put some dirt (sand) in a tube, added some copper(II)chloride, placed in more sand and then put a nail through all three layer and capped it. I attempted to recreate the experiment and found it worked well with a little added water.

copper.jpg

     It made the idea of a copper mine more "visible". The next question is, how do we know if we should dig it up?  A "Chemistry in the Commuity" book years ago had a great percent composition problem. Here is a version of it.

"There are two copper bearing minerals...Azurite which is
2CuCO₃·Cu(OH)₂ and Tennantite which is Cu₁₂As₄S₁₃.   

Which has more copper by mass percent?"

     This is a fun problem. The big misconception is that the tennantite has more copper because of the subscript.  However, when students find the percent by mass, the azurite is the winner. So if you were digging up copper, which mineral would you want and why?

     After percent composition problems, we then start talking about types of reactions. A classic single displacement reaction is copper (II) chloride with aluminum. Years ago, I am not sure where or when, I saw someone sand the paint off of a soda can, empty the soda, fill it with water and placed it carfully in a solution of copper (II) chloride.  The results are dramatic. After a day, the blue solution fades, solid copper forms on the can and if you carefully hold the can up students can see the thin interior plastic liner that is coats the aluminum in the can (something few people have seen or bother to look at...). This is a great time to talk about material science. Do you think it matters how we store chemicals? What happens if we are not carefull or do not pay attention to chemical properties? What would happen if all pop cans did not have plastic liners? Students start to get the point and really like this demonstration. Do you have a neat experiment that has multiple applications? Please share....I would love to hear from you...

popcan.jpg

Teachers are accustomed to implementing new learning standards developed by state or national leaders. My state, Georgia, chose not to adopt the newest national standards. State leaders wrote the “Georgia Standards of Excellence” instead. Full implementation of the GSE begins in the 2017-2018 school year. My school district contains 16 high schools, and I have been asked to write chemistry unit plans for the county’s new teaching and learning website. 

Our students deserve the best; I see unbelievable ideas from the ChemEdX community. I have not intentionally developed units based on the application of engineering principles in the past. I am hoping that some of you from our ChemEd X community can  offer inquiry-based lab activities, online tutorials or simulations, problem-based learning scenarios related to engineering and of the following concepts appropriate for first year, high school chemistry. My own web research and ideas are listed below the list.

• Collision theory and transition state theory: students should construct an argument using collision theory and transition state theory to explain the role of activation energy.
• LeChatelier’s Principle:
  
  • Students are supposed to plan and carry out an investigation of the effects of changing concentration and temperature on a chemical reaction.
  • Students should also be able to refine the design of a chemical system by altering conditions to alter the forward and reverse reaction rates to change the amount of products formed at equilibrium.

My initial plans for collision theory and transition state theory:

• Teacher Posed Question: Why do some reactions occur and others don’t?
• Inquiry Learning Tasks:
  
  • Station 1: Reactions and Rates PhET
  • Station 2: Bozeman Science Activation Energy
  • Station 2: ChemFlick1-11 Collision Theory
• Teacher-facilitated Discussion: teacher will ask a few questions asking student pairs to illustrate or write their answers on whiteboards. According to the answers, teacher will guide students through a discussion of collision theory and reaction coordinate diagrams.

My current ideas for teaching Le Chatelier’s Principle:

• Bozeman Science Le Chatelier's Principle: To prepare for a teacher-facilitated discussion, students will preview Le Chatelier’s principle by watching Paul Andersen’s Bozeman Science Video 66. 
• NO₂ Tubes – Teacher demonstration of the effects of temperature on an equilibrium mix and facilitated discussion: If the teacher does not have access to NO₂ tubes, then this video might suffice: NO₂ N₂O₄ Gas Equilibrium. Teacher will use this reaction and select another to teach students to analyze a reaction at equilibrium and apply the concepts of collision theory to predict how applied stresses will affect the reaction.
• A Study of Le Chatelier’s Principle – Introductory Lab: The lab activity is attached. Students will make predictions about how changing concentrations or adjusting temperature will affect a given reaction at equilibrium. Next, students will test their predictions by carrying out those concentration and temperature changes in the lab. 
• Investigating Effects of Changing Concentrations – Inquiry Lab: Given the following reaction, students will make predictions of how adding HCl and adding H₂O will affect the color of the reaction mixture and the amount of cobalt complexes. Students will then plan and carry out an investigation to test their predictions. In an effort to assist with planning, struggling students will be encouraged to watch Mr. Grodski Chemistry’s video:  Le Chatelier's Principle Lab with Cobalt Complex Ions

[Co(H₂O)₆]²⁺ + 4 Cl^- <----> [CoCl₄]^2- + 6 H₂O  

Again, I welcome your ideas and suggestions. I look forward to reading your posts.

The ACS Committee on Chemical Safety has published new Guidelines for Chemical Laboratory Safety in Secondary Schools. This document is organized with the R.A.M.P. concept – Recognize the hazard, Assess the risk of the hazard, Minimize the risk of the hazard, and Prepare for emergencies. The online document includes two pages for each letter that could be printed and posted in the classroom to reinforce these principles of safety. The documents are provided to strengthen the safety practices of teachers and help them to promote a culture of safety that their students will take with them throughout their academic and professional careers.

Suggested learning outcomes are provided that teachers can use to integrate safety practice and assessment into their curriculum. Science teachers should be familiar with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) by now. The words and symbols used within GHS and the information found in Safety Data Sheets (SDS) are reviewed. All of these will help teachers and students to assess the hazards and risks associated with any lab activity.

Lists of incompatible chemicals, common hazards, important terms, as well as glassware and equipment are provided. Suggestions for disposal of chemicals and protocol for emergencies round out the advice. A sample safety contract is included and parent and student signatures are recommended. The authors even provide suggested responses to violations of the student code of conduct. This document should be shared with your science education network.

Check the Committee’s website for more safety information and  resources.

Oftentimes, assessment garners many negative associations by researchers in the education field, however, in my opinion this is often the result of ineffective assessment by teachers and teacher educators. In Moving Beyond the “Get it or Don’t” Conception of Formative Assessment, Valerie Otero explores the idea of effective formative assessment and how pre-service teachers’ conception of students’ prior knowledge influences their teaching. She categorized the influence of the student preconception with two emphases, a “get it or don’t” or a “knowledge in formation” approach by the teacher. The first approach is categorized as a practice where teachers interpret the students’ prior knowledge as correct or incorrect academic concepts to determine whether or not they have to teach that academic concept. This is often a result of the evaluation that the teachers have participated in throughout their lives. This approach often limits student learning by preventing them from bridging the gap between experience and knowledge. Professor Otero argues the conception of prior knowledge explained by Vygotsky is a more effective teaching model. In this model the teacher “uses her or his understanding of students’ prior knowledge to make instructional decisions that lead to the development of intermediate objectives, feedback, and relevant instruction.” (Otero, 2006, 255). Essentially, the teacher evaluates the students’ knowledge of the academic and experienced based concepts and use these as a starting point of instruction and look to improve upon that knowledge (treating the knowledge as knowledge in formation). Educators of pre-service teachers who apply this model to their education classrooms can more effectively demonstrate to their students how they in turn can bridge this experience and academic concept gap in their classrooms (Otero, 2006, 255).

                  In teacher preparation, the Vygotsky based theory of formative assessment is integral because teachers and teacher educators who recognize their knowledge as knowledge in formation are better prepared to recognize the value of students’ knowledge. After all, most learners find it easier to build upon prior knowledge when learning material as opposed to having the material dissociated from prior experience and viewed as a completely new and isolated material. If a student feels as if they have some knowledge of the material, they will feel more comfortable asking and investigating questions about the subject. This makes the application of Vygotsky’s theory enhanced model of formative assessment a cornerstone of inquiry-based teaching. Therefore, applying this model to pre-service teachers in programs emphasizing inquiry-based teaching is the ideal approach as it subjects teachers to the practice they are about to apply. I myself am a pre-service teacher. While taking classes, I spend four hours per week in a classroom where I either teach or observe the class. In my education study, myself and other students are often frustrated because we have not been exposed to this teaching method before the university setting, and thus have a limited basis for applying this when we step in front of a classroom. Essentially, we have to attempt to come up with methods for analyzing our students’ knowledge and creating inquiry based lessons when a majority of our lives have been in lecture-based format. This can make these tasks daunting, and intimidating because oftentimes the schools we teach in have similarly not been exposed to inquiry-based lesson plans. However, through numerous discussions with students I have seen a far greater understanding of biological material when I treat their initial knowledge as knowledge in formation and not a misconception. Instead of directly contradicting their ideas, I attempt to mold their ideas to meet those of scientists. For example, many of my students have believed that the only cell types are viruses, bacteria, animal, and plant cells when entering my biology classroom. In such cases I present students with protists and have them debate what type of cell this is before talking about other classifications of cells. Through these discussions the students learn more about the characteristics of the cells they thought they knew and begin to define new cell types through examining how cells such as protists don’t fit into their old schemas. However, when other students have simply corrected the students’ arguments, the students often become confused and don’t analyze what the difference between a protist and a plant cell or a protist and a bacterial cell. Thus, in my own life I have found the application of formative assessment in conjunction with the belief that knowledge is knowledge in formation extremely helpful in furthering my own students understanding.

What are we doing to help kids achieve?

     I am always searching for engaging dependable good labs and I may have stumbled onto a nice stoichiometry lab.

     First, students are told that they have to determine the amount of active ingredient in an antacid tablet. Then I ask them if they have any questions. First it starts with blank stares...then slowly the questions start coming. What exactly is the active ingredient? What does it react with? They are provided information that the active ingredient is baking soda. Now they want to know the chemical formula and someone says, "How about the balanced equation?" I explain to them that the baking soda reacts with the acid in the tablet but we will use dilute hydrochloric acid to make sure it all reacts. Slowly students ask more and they start to look at the carbon dioxide. The plan then becomes to record the mass of the dilute acid solution and tablet before and after the reaction. The "after" mass should be less because carbon dioxide left the system. If they can find the mass of the carbon dioxide then they can find the moles of carbon dioxide. The balanced equation helps them connect this to moles of sodium bicarbonate and then grams of sodium bicarbonate. Usually it is a fast, easy and relatively reliable reaction. Each student group is given a portion of a whole tablet and they are able to do the reaction twice in an attempt to obtain more data. Having a portion of a tablet prevents groups from all having the same data based on one whole tablet. Once they find the grams of sodium bicarbonate in the portion of the tablets then they can find the amount in a whole tablet if provided the mass of a whole tablet. Finally, they can do a percent error because the amount of sodium bicarbonate is on the label.  

     However...there is more on the label. The label also provides the milligrams of sodium. So here is a fun twist. Students have to find the percent error and compare their amount of sodium bicarb in each tablet to the amount the manufacturer suggests...but they are only provided the amount of sodium in each tablet and told that all of this sodium is from the sodium bicarbonate in the tablet. How should they figure this out??? Hopefully, they will remember back a few weeks when we did percent composition in my class.  

Do you have a quick and easy inquiry lab that tends to work well and is a favorite "go to"?  Don't be afraid to share....

Have you ever wondered where the cloud comes from when dry ice is placed in water? Consider the answer returned in my browser when I Googled the phrase “How does the dry ice cloud form”:

“Pellets of dry ice, solid carbon dioxide, are dumped into a basin of nearly boiling water. A dense white cloud of fog first rises above the basin. ... Fog forms when water vapor in the air condenses into tiny suspended droplets.”

Many scientists and science educators also think the dry-ice-in-water cloud originates from atmospheric water vapor. I recently tried to get a handle on how pervasive this misconception is via a poll on Twitter:

poll on dry ice cloud

It is easy to set up several simple experiments to provide evidence that atmospheric water vapor is not the source of the cloud produced when dry ice is placed in water. Some of these experiments are presented in the video below:

As you can see from the experiments in the video, there is good evidence that the cloud is formed from water that is in the very container into which the dry ice is placed. In fact, it appears that the cloud is formed within bubbles even before these bubbles reach the surface! How does this happen?

One possible mechanism for how the dry-ice-in-water cloud is produced has been described.¹ When dry ice is placed in water it sublimes, which is a phase change directly from the solid state to the gaseous state:

CO₂(s) --> CO₂(g)        Equation 1

The CO₂ gas thusly formed creates a continuous bubble of CO₂ around the dry ice. This bubble is devoid of any water. Therefore, water evaporates from the bulk into the CO₂ bubble:

H₂O(l, in the bulk water) <-- --> H₂O(g, in the CO₂ bubble)   Equation 2

 However, this gaseous bubble is extremely cold because it is very close to dry ice. This causes the water which evaporates into the bubble to condense into tiny liquid droplets of water:

H₂O(g, in the CO₂ bubble) --> H₂O (l droplets in CO₂ bubble)          Equation 3

The condensation of water in the bubble removes H₂O(g) within, causing Equation 2 to shift to the right by Le Chatelier’s principle. Through these processes enough water to form a thick cloud inside the bubble occurs. These processes must happen very fast, as evidenced by looking at slow motion video of the process: It is observed that each bubble is already filled with cloudy contents as the bubbles separate and rise from the dry ice. If you would like to learn more about this experiment and the proposed mechanism, be sure to check out the reference provided below.

I have developed a laboratory experiment that guides students through the process of thinking about the dry-ice-in-water experiment. In the exercise, students explore properties of liquids that aid in the production of clouds upon addition of dry ice. Students are also guided to use evidence collected to propose a mechanism for how the cloud forms in this experiment. When conducting this exercise, it is helpful if students are somewhat familiar with the ideas of vapor pressure and surface tension. The write up for this experiment is still a work in progress, but I’d like to share it here (see below) in case anyone would like to try it out. If you do try this laboratory exercise, please be sure to let me know ways the write up can be improved. How might the directions guide students more clearly? Do you have any suggestions for additional experiments that would guide students in the right direction? I would be especially interested to hear how things go if you use the write up with your students.

Reference:

1. Kuntzleman, Ford, No, and Ott J. Chem. Educ., 2015, 92, 643–648.

If your not familiar with the video series  "The Mystery of Matter, Search for the Elements" then I highly recommend their use as part of your curriculum.  The Mystery of Matter: Search for the Elements is a PBS series about the amazing human story behind the Periodic Table.  The videos, most of them 4-12 minutes long, draw on the interviews, re-enactments, animations and photographs that were shot and collected for the PBS series, with supplementary animations and images as needed.  In all, the videos make up about three hours of programming.  I shared several of the video clips with my high school students and they really seemed to enjoy them mentioning the reason was because the videos were done using actors to tell the stories and it was similar to watching a movie.

From the website: 

The Mystery of Matter shows not only what these scientific explorers discovered but also how, using actors to reveal the creative process through the scientists’ own words, and conveying their landmark discoveries through re-enactments shot with replicas of their original lab equipment. And knitting these strands together into a coherent, compelling whole is host Michael Emerson, a two-time Emmy Award-winning actor best known for his roles on Lost and Person of Interest. 

Beyond the broadcasting series a Mystery of Matter Video Library is also included on the homepage and it includes 36 videos comprising about six hours of additional chemistry programming beyond the broadcast series.  To access the Video Library and the teachers guide, go to the website at www.mysteryofmatter.net and click on For Teachers.

The website description of the teacher guide:

The Mystery of Matter Teacher’s Guide consists of nine separate pdf documents: an introduction that explains the features of the guide, annotated scripts for each of the six major sections of the PBS series, an index showing where key science concepts are treated in the series, and a glossary of scientific terms used in the program.

Another key feature of the site is that every video provides alignment with the NRC’s National Science Education Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. Here is the link to the first video in the series:  http://www.pbs.org/program/mystery-matter/.

Note: Erica Jacobsen wrote about watching the pilot episode in 2015 in her blog and Erica Posthuma-Adams followed up with a Pick on the series. You might want to go back and read those posts.

It is the holiday season, and here in Colorado, it is finally starting to feel like winter with a storm predicted for this afternoon! With holiday baking coming up, what better way to prepare than writing about more food chemistry? In my last post, I described how I developed my cooking chemistry elective. I also provided a ton of resources that I used. Today, I would like to highlight a few additional resources. Even if you don’t have space for an elective, I found many of these resources fit into what I was already teaching (e.g., gas laws and leaveners in food). I hope that you find similar inspiration!

MIT’s Kitchen Chemistry Course:

Dr. Patricia Christie of MIT developed this seminar for the spring of 2009 (with a 2006 version available as well). I love how she has organized the course: each week is centered around a food product. She provides readings from McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” in addition to literature articles that are related to ingredients or chemical processes related to the food. Other topics include “Cookie- Death by chocolate”, “Pancakes”, “Bread”, “Cheese”, and “Ice Cream.”

When I taught my own elective, I modified her week 1 work on guacamole, salsa, and quesadillas. My students used some of the readings from McGee’s in a jigsaw puzzle activity to describe why onions make you cry, etc. I quickly learned that the reading level of the McGee text was not awesome for my students (oops), but the heart of Dr. Christie’s work can be easily tailored with resources that I have learned about since then that I will highlight below. If you are reading this Dr. Christie, thank you for your willingness to share your creative work!

NBC Chemistry Now:

These videos can be accessed in many different ways, but I shared the link that provides the themes. These videos are very well done and some get deep. Themes include “Chemistry of Chocolate”, “Chemistry of Soaps and Detergents”, and “Cheeseburger Chemistry”, which is split up into subthemes such as the “bun”, “tomato”, “condiments”, etc. These videos are 4-7 minutes long. As you can see, many of these topics overlap with the topics in the MIT course listed above. Also, the level of depth is likely more accessible for your students.

Compound Chem:

I wish that I had known of this site before I taught my cooking chemistry course. The ACS has tapped into Andy Brunning’s stunning work on a variety of platforms, so I would be surprised if you did not already know about it. However, it is worth a mention. Here’s a link to the infographic index.

ACS Reactions Youtube Channel:

Once again, you maybe know about this, but it’s worth a mention. With topics like “Why are avocados so awesome?” and “Why do hot peppers cause pain?”, these resources were also very accessible to my students. I wish I had these videos for the guacamole lesson I did in cooking chemistry!

As I investigated these videos, I started incorporating them into my general chemistry classes on a consistent basis. After teaching cooking chemistry, I instituted a “We Wonder Wednesday” warm up in my general chemistry courses. It is exactly what it sounds like. The warm up for the day was a video (sometimes I chose, sometimes students would email me a video). The video had to be chemistry related. Sometimes it was related to what we were learning in class, sometimes not. If you are a time stickler like me and think “5 min week * 25 weeks= 125 minutes aka way too much time”, I would like to impress upon you that my students would remember some of these videos the next school year. Students looked forward to this and would extend the conversation with their parents!

Whether you knew of any or all of these resources before of not, I hope my review brings fresh inspiration as to how you may use them in your own courses.

Thanks for reading, and have a safe and restful holiday season!

High school chemistry teachers in U.S. and U.S. territories can apply for a Hach Professional Development grant to fund up to $1500 of expenses. Applications will be accepted through January 4th. Qualified expenses include registration, travel, tuition, books/resources and substitute teacher pay. Activities must be completed by August 31, 2017. Decision/notification date is February 28, 2017. 

Improving Student Understanding

The December 2016 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: synthesis in the laboratory, examining and using a flipped classroom, improving labs through multimedia-based and student-directed learning, using applied math for better understanding, improving student understanding of thermodynamics, inclusive chemistry teaching, using manuscript review for assessment, climate chemistry, spectroscopy experiments, performing safe demonstrations.

Cover: Synthesis in the Laboratory

In Synthesizing Substituted 2-Amino-2-chromenes Catalyzed by Tertiaryamine-Functionalized Polyacrylonitrile Fiber for Students To Investigate Multicomponent Reactions and Heterogeneous Catalysis, Yujia Xie, Xiaoxing Liu, and Minli Tao discuss a multistep experiment for a synthesis laboratory course that incorporates organic synthesis, chemical analysis, and instrumental analysis. In the experiment, students characterize a tertiaryamine-functionalized polyacrylonitrile fiber (PAN_TF) synthesized from polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANF) and N,N-dimethyl-1,3-propanediamine (shown on the cover). Students then use PAN_TF as an immobilized catalyst in a three-component condensation reaction. At the end of the reaction, the fiber catalyst can be easily separated from the reaction system by simple filtration and used directly in the next cycle. SEM images of PANF (left half of cover, shown at two different levels of magnification) and PAN_TF (right half of the cover, shown at two different levels of magnification) reveal that the smooth surface of PANF becomes slightly rougher after reaction to form PAN_TF.

Other synthesis labs in this issue include:

Biocatalyzed Regioselective Synthesis in Undergraduate Organic Laboratories: Multistep Synthesis of 2-Arachidonoylglycerol ~ Meghan R. Johnston, Alexandros Makriyannis, Kyle M. Whitten, Olivia C. Drew, and Fiona A. Best

Drug Synthesis and Analysis on a Dime: A Capstone Medicinal Chemistry Experience for the Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory ~ Craig N. Streu, Randall D. Reif, Kelly Y. Neiles, Amanda J. Schech, and Pamela S. Mertz

Editorial

Norbert J. Pienta highlights Journal of Chemical Education content in 2016 and acknowledges contributors to the Journal in Volume 93 in Review.

Commentary

Harry E. Pence discusses the opportunities for chemical educators available through cloud computing.  By Moving Chemical Education into the Cloud(s) every student in a class can have access to all of the resources necessary for the class, which encourages collaboration and the development of new educational models.

Examining and Using a Flipped Classroom

Evaluation of a Flipped, Large-Enrollment Organic Chemistry Course on Student Attitude and Achievement ~ Suazette R. Mooring, Chloe E. Mitchell, and Nikita L. Burrows

A Parallel Controlled Study of the Effectiveness of a Partially Flipped Organic Chemistry Course on Student Performance, Perceptions, and Course Completion ~ James C. Shattuck

Coordinated Implementation and Evaluation of Flipped Classes and Peer-Led Team Learning in General Chemistry ~ Jenay Robert, Scott E. Lewis, Razanne Oueini, and Andrea Mapugay

Scaffolded Semi-Flipped General Chemistry Designed To Support Rural Students’ Learning  ~ Mary S. Lenczewski

Improving Labs through Multimedia-Based and Student-Directed Learning

Comparable Educational Benefits in Half the Time: An Alternating Organic Chemistry Laboratory Sequence Targeting Prehealth Students ~ Sherri C. Young, Keri L. Colabroy, and Marsha R. Baar

LabLessons: Effects of Electronic Prelabs on Student Engagement and Performance ~ Patrick Gryczka, Edward Klementowicz, Chappel Sharrock, MacRae Maxfield, and Jin Kim Montclare

The Effect of Procedural Guidance on Students’ Skill Enhancement in a Virtual Chemistry Laboratory ~ Sehat Ullah, Numan Ali, and Sami Ur Rahman

Exploring Technology-Enhanced Learning Using Google Glass To Offer Students a Unique Instructor’s Point of View Live Laboratory Demonstration ~ Fung Fun Man

Using Applied Math for Better Understanding

Box-and-Whisker Plots Applied to Food Chemistry ~ João E. V. Ferreira, Ricardo M. Miranda, Antonio F. Figueiredo, Jardel P. Barbosa, and Edykarlos M. Brasil

Let Students Derive, by Themselves, Two-Dimensional Atomic and Molecular Quantum Chemistry from Scratch ~ Yingbin Ge

Teaching Reciprocal Space to Undergraduates via Theory and Code Components of an IPython Notebook ~ Matthew N. Srnec, Shiv Upadhyay, and Jeffry D. Madura

Improving Student Understanding of Thermodynamics

Improving Students’ Understanding of the Connections between the Concepts of Real-Gas Mixtures, Gas Ideal-Solutions, and Perfect-Gas Mixtures ~ Romain Privat, Jean-Noël Jaubert, and Edouard Moine

From Discrete to Continuous Process Simulation in Classical Thermodynamics: Irreversible Expansions of Ideal Monatomic Gases ~ Carmen Álvarez-Rúa and Javier Borge

Inclusive Chemistry Teaching

Promoting Inclusive Chemistry Teaching by Developing an Accessible Thermometer for Students with Visual Disabilities ~ Felipe A. Vitoriano, Vânia L. G. Teles, Ivanise M. Rizzatti, and Régia C. Pesssoa de Lima

Communicating Science Concepts to Individuals with Visual Impairments Using Short Learning Modules ~ Anthony S. Stender, Ryan Newell, Eduardo Villarreal, Dayne F. Swearer, Elisabeth Bianco, and Emilie Ringe

Using Manuscript Review for Assessment

The “pHunger Games”: Manuscript Review to Assess Graduating Chemistry Majors ~ David J. Gorin, Elizabeth R. Jamieson, K. T. Queeney, Kevin M. Shea, and Carrie G. Read Spray

Climate Chemistry

Using Demonstrations Involving Combustion and Acid–Base Chemistry To Show Hydration of Carbon Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, and Magnesium Oxide and Their Relevance for Environmental Climate Science ~ C. Frank Shaw III, James W. Webb, and Otis Rothenberger

Using Modern Solid-State Analytical Tools for Investigations of an Advanced Carbon Capture Material: Experiments for the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory ~ Mario Wriedt, Julian P. Sculley, Darpandeep Aulakh, and Hong-Cai Zhou

Spectroscopy Experiments

Analyzing Exonuclease-Induced Hyperchromicity by UV Spectroscopy: An Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory Experiment ~ Megan M. Ackerman, Christopher Ricciardi, David Weiss, Alan Chant, and Christina M. Kraemer-Chant

Flash Photolysis Experiment of o-Methyl Red as a Function of pH: A Low-Cost Experiment for the Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Lab ~ Molly C. Larsen and Russell J. Perkins

Kinetics and Photochemistry of Ruthenium Bisbipyridine Diacetonitrile Complexes: An Interdisciplinary Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Laboratory Exercise ~ Teresa L. Rapp, Susan R. Phillips, and Ivan J. Dmochowski

From the Archives: Performing Safe Demonstrations

Demonstrations can be an engaging and effective way to show chemistry in action, but they need to be conducted in the safest manner possible. In this issue, John J. Dolhun discusses Peak Sound Pressure Levels and Associated Auditory Risk from an H₂–Air “Egg-Splosion”. Some additional articles that address the noise level from exploding chemical demonstrations are:

Auditory Risk of Exploding Hydrogen−Oxygen Balloons ~ Kent L. Gee, Julia A. Vernon, and Jeffrey H. Macedone

Managing Auditory Risk from Acoustically Impulsive Chemical Demonstrations ~ Jeffrey H. Macedone, Kent L. Gee, and Julia A. Vernon

Additional articles that improve on the safety of popular demonstrations include:

Observations on Manganese Dioxide As a Catalyst in the Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide: A Safer Demonstration ~ John J. Dolhun

Variations on the "Whoosh" Bottle Alcohol Explosion Demonstration Including Safety Notes ~ John J. Fortman, Andrea C. Rush, Jennifer E. Stamper

Whoosh Bottle Safety, Again: What About What Is Inside? ~ Robert B. Gregory and Matthew Lauber

A very safe way to experience a demonstration is with a video, such as the Chemistry Comes Alive! collection available to subscribers of ChemEdX.

Improving Understanding with JCE

With 93 volumes of the Journal of Chemical Education to explore, you will always find something to improve understanding—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.