Clik here to view.
Especially JCE: December 2016
Sharing the topics of measurement and the metric system could at first thought be seen as largely a visual endeavor. Students might measure the lengths of various objects and then convert their results...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Silver Plated Ornaments
I have used many silver mirror/Tollen's test labs. I have struggled with some and over the years I have found that this version is very reliable if the directions are followed carefully. Timing is very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gizmos Part II: Chemical Reactions
Last month, I shared about a new PD opportunity I had the privilege of participating in called Gizmos. You can read about it here. After Thanksgiving break, my Chemistry 1 and Honors Chemistry 1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Using The ChemDraw iPad App For Making Structures: A Quick Review And Tutorial
"Mr. T, what's that thing attached to the fourth carbon on this structure?""Are there hydrogens there or some other element?"I routinely get questions like this when I draw structures for my students...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Benefits of AMTA Membership
The American Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) is an international, professional community comprised of over 2800 passionate, innovative, and connected educators. Members include high school and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dry ice in five different liquids
I recently posted a video on Twitter of an experiment my students were conducting in class. I thought I’d blog about the experiment, since it seemed to generate a lot of interest. In the experiment,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Isotopes, Nuts, Bolts and Eggs
What are we doing to help kids achieve? I am always searching for a good isotope activity that I can use with students. I want something that is quick, easy, effective and demonstrates the idea of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflections from Kinetics - Solidifying Why I Teach Method of Initial Rates...
Obvious answer to my title: Because the College Board (CB) tells me to. Moving on to a more philosophical response...The first year I taught AP chemistry, I focused on the nuts and bolts of unit design...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Modeling and Street Tacos
What are we doing to help kids achieve? I have a love-hate relationship with people who officially call themselves "Modelers" and who have been trained by the American Modeling Teachers Association...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rewriting the Code of Life, by Michael Specter
The Gates Foundation has spent over two billion dollars cumulatively and many other organizations and governments also spend millions of dollars each year to fight malaria, the disease that takes more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Curriculum Maps and Standards
What are we doing to help kids achieve? This is about some topics that can sometimes be viewed as nasty four letter words...but maybe they do not have to be. Let’s start with the first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
While we were driving through Tennessee recently, we visited the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, the de facto museum of the ambitious WWII project that separated the uranium and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
JCE 94.01 January 2017 Issue Highlights
Ringing in Volume 94The January 2017 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: NMR spectroscopy; examining assessment;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Especially JCE: January 2017
I am not a January resolution maker, but I do appreciate the transition to a new year as a regular marker for reflection on the past, present, and future. Pienta’s editorial in the January 2017 issue...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chemical Mystery #9: Liquid Nitrogen vs. Dry Ice
A favorite experiment of mine is the bucket launch. My students and I recently tried two variations on this experiment. Watch the video below and see if you can explain the differences we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Excellent Resource for Teaching Chemical Kinetics
College Board runs AP Insight, a website full of teaching and assessment tools for teachers and students of AP courses. The site focuses on specific "challenge areas" that tend to give students trouble...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Misconceptions and Struggles with Double Displacement reactions and...
What are we doing to help kids achieve? Some of the biggest misconceptions students hold on to in my course relate to how ionic substances dissolve in water. Thanks to a great experiment developed by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Solution to Chemical Mystery #9: Liquid Nitrogen vs. Dry Ice
In Chemical Mystery #9, a 5-gallon bucket is launched into the air using the energy released during gas explosions. These explosions result from gas pressure buildup inside a sealed 2 L soda pop...
View ArticleAACT Webinar Series: Connecting Molecular to Macroscopic
Register now to attend the AACT webinar on January 25 at 7:00 EST. This webinar will introduce demonstrations you can use when they first learn the material, or as they prepare for the AP test. You'll...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AMTA Webinar Series: Engineering in the Modeling Classroom
Free Webinar for all AMTA members!The NGSS calls for the use of the engineering design process in science classrooms K12. Let’s discuss what this means for the modeling classroom. Bring your ideas...
View Article