Communicating the Value of Chemistry
The October 2014 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is available online to subscribers. The October issue features sustainability; celebrating National Chemistry Week 2014 with articles on food and candy; increasing chemistry understanding for the nonscientist; nanochemistry; investigating materials: plastic & paper; exploring sound; chemical education research on chemical equilibrium instruction and student understanding of scale.
Cover: Sustainability
Biorefineries—as industrial manifestations of a sustainable, biobased economy—incorporate essential principles of green chemistry and aim to eliminate dependence on petroleum and its derivatives to produce fuels, energy, and value-added products. It is critical for students to understand that large-scale conversions of biomass into products would have a positive significant effect on a sustainable future, as discussed in Sweet and Sustainable: Teaching the Biorefinery Concept through Biobased Gelator Synthesis by Hyeondo Luke Hwang, Swapnil Rohidas Jadhav, Julian Robert Silverman, and George John. Other articles on sustainability in the issue include SolEn for a Sustainable Future: Developing and Teaching a Multidisciplinary Course on Solar Energy To Further Sustainable Education in Chemistry ~ Sonja Pullen and Katharina Brinkert ; Paper to Plastics: An Interdisciplinary Summer Outreach Project in Sustainability ~ Fiona Tamburini, Thomas Kelly, Eranthie Weerapana, and Jeffery A. Byers
National Chemistry Week Celebrating National Chemistry Week 2014—The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy
National Chemistry Week is a community-based annual event celebrated in October that unites ACS local sections, businesses, schools, and individuals in communicating the value of chemistry in our everyday life. This year the theme is The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy. Articles in this issue with candy- or food-related content to help teach chemistry in the classroom and lab include:
Experimenting with the Sweet Side of Chemistry: Connecting Students and Science through Food Chemistry ~Sally B. Mitchell
Making Sense of Olive Oil: Simple Experiments To Connect Sensory Observations with the Underlying Chemistry ~ Richard A. Blatchly, Zeynep Delen, and Patricia B. O’Hara
Design of a Food Chemistry-Themed Course for Nonscience Majors ~ Patrice Bell
Laboratory Development and Lecture Renovation for a Science of Food and Cooking Course ~ Deon T. Miles and Adrienne C. Borchardt
The Journal of Kitchen Chemistry:A Tool for Instructing the Preparation of a Chemistry Journal Article ~ Jonathan K. Meyers, Tyler W. LeBaron, and David C. Collins
Soybean Oil: Powering a High School Investigation of Biodiesel ~ Paul De La Rosa, Katherine A. Azurin, and Michael F. Z. Page
Biodiesel from Seeds: An Experiment for Organic Chemistry ~ Steven W. Goldstein
A Teaching Laboratory for Comprehensive Lipid Characterization from Food Samples ~ Kestutis Bendinskas, Benjamin Weber, Tamara Nsouli, Hoangvy V. Nguyen, Carolyn Joyce, Vadoud Niri, and Thorsten W. Jaskolla
Extraction and 1H NMR Analysis of Fats from Convenience Foods: A Laboratory Experiment for Organic Chemistry ~ Aaron M. Hartel and Amy C. Moore
Increasing Chemistry Understanding for the Nonscientist
iTube, YouTube, WeTube: Social Media Videos in Chemistry Education and Outreach ~David K. Smith
Enhancing Graduate Student Communication to General Audiences through Blogging about Nanotechnology and Sustainability ~Lee M. Bishop, Ayesha S. Tillman, Franz M. Geiger, Christy L. Haynes, Rebecca D. Klaper, Catherine J. Murphy, Galya Orr, Joel A. Pedersen, Lizanne DeStefano, and Robert J. Hamers
Graduate Student Outreach: Model of a One-Day “Chemistry Camp” for Elementary School Students ~Joseph D. Houck, Natalie K. Machamer, and Karla A. Erickson
The Chocolate Shop and Atomic Orbitals: A New Atomic Model Created by High School Students To Teach Elementary Students ~ Lucia Liguori
Offering Community Engagement Activities To Increase Chemistry Knowledge and Confidence for Teachers and Students ~Joyce D. Sewry, Sarah R. Glover, Timothy G. Harrison, Dudley E. Shallcross, and Kenneth M. Ngcoza
Cooperative and Inquiry-Based Learning Utilizing Art-Related Topics: Teaching Chemistry to Community College Nonscience Majors ~Tirandai Hemraj-Benny and Ian Beckford
Using the Socioscientific Context of Climate Change To Teach Chemical Content and the Nature of Science ~Charity Flener-Lovitt
Nanochemistry
Investigating Quantum Mechanical Tunneling at the Nanoscale via Analogy: Development and Assessment of a Teaching Tool for Upper-Division Chemistry ~Marc N. Muniz and Maria T. Oliver-Hoyo
Spectroscopic and Physical Characterization of Functionalized Au Nanoparticles: A Multiweek Experimental Project ~Jean-Francois Masson and Hélène Yockell-Lelièvre
Microwave Synthesis of Zinc Hydroxy Sulfate Nanoplates and Zinc Oxide Nanorods in the Classroom ~Rafal M. Dziedzic, Anne Lynn Gillian-Daniel, Greta M. Petersen, and Kermin J. Martínez-Hernández
Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Red-Light Emitting Au Nanoclusters with the Use of Egg White ~Jinghan Tian, Lei Yan, Aohua Sang, Hongyan Yuan, Baozhan Zheng, and Dan Xiao
Investigating Materials: Paper & Plastics
Identification of Paper by Stationary Phase Performance ~ Michael J. Smith, Ilda C. Vale, and Fiona M. Gray
Paper to Plastics: An Interdisciplinary Summer Outreach Project in Sustainability ~ Fiona Tamburini, Thomas Kelly, Eranthie Weerapana, and Jeffery A. Byers
Conflicts in Chemistry: The Case of Plastics, A Role-Playing Game for High School Chemistry Students ~ Deborah H. Cook
Polymer Basics: Classroom Activities Manipulating Paper Clips To Introduce the Structures and Properties of Polymers ~ Yunusa Umar
Exploring pH-Sensitive Hydrogels Using an Ionic Soft Contact Lens: An Activity Using Common Household Materials ~ Yueh-Huey Chen, Yu-Chi He, and Jing-Fun Yaung
Identification of Synthetic Polymers and Copolymers by Analytical Pyrolysis–Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry ~ Peter Kusch
Exploring Sound
Managing Auditory Risk from Acoustically Impulsive Chemical Demonstrations ~ Jeffrey H. Macedone, Kent L. Gee, and and Julia A. Vernon
Music Generated by a Zn/Cu Electrochemical Cell, a Lemon Cell, and a Solar Cell: A Demonstration for General Chemistry ~ Susan G. Cady
Spectroscopy of Sound Transmission in Solid Samples ~ Dean J. Campbell, Joshua P. Peterson, and Tamara J. Fitzjarrald
Chemical Education Research: Chemical Equilibrium Instruction & Understanding Scale
Evidence-Based Approaches to Improving Chemical Equilibrium Instruction ~Jodi L. Davenport, Gaea Leinhardt, James Greeno, Kenneth Koedinger, David Klahr, Michael Karabinos, and David J. Yaron; this article is available to non-subscribers as part of ACS’s Editors’ Choice program.
Investigation of Absolute and Relative Scaling Conceptions of Students in Introductory College Chemistry Courses ~Karrie Gerlach, Jaclyn Trate, Anja Blecking, Peter Geissinger, and Kristen Murphy
Valid and Reliable Assessments To Measure Scale Literacy of Students in Introductory College Chemistry Courses ~Karrie Gerlach, Jaclyn Trate, Anja Blecking, Peter Geissinger, and Kristen Murphy
From the Archives: The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy
To further celebrate National Chemistry Week 2014— The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy—you can enjoy free access to a collection of previously published articles, hands-on experiments, and demonstrations from the Journal of Chemical Education on candy, chocolate, chewing gum, ingredients (dyes, flavorings, sugar), and food chemistry available at http://pubs.acs.org/page/jceda8/ncw2014.html.
Every Week Is a Celebration of Chemistry with JCE
National Chemistry Week is just once a year, but for 52 weeks a year, you will find all of 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.
The January 2014 issue is available as a sample issue for the entire year. If you like what you read, why not subscribe? If you have something to share, submit it!