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A Comparison Between Teaching Chemistry in the United States and Internationally
Whenever I’m asked where I live and what I do, I answer with “I’m a teacher overseas.” The immediate response from people is “English? Peace Corps?” Teaching subjects other than English in remote...
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An Elemental Understanding of Isotopes
In January of 2017, Chad Hustings wrote a blog post, Isotopes, Nuts, Bolts and Eggs, about an activity some colleagues and I had shared in a workshop at BCCE in 2016. With encouragement from many...
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Investigations of Hematite beads: A Experiment for National Chemistry Week
The theme for National Chemistry Week (NCW) this year is Chemistry Rocks!1 During NCW, which this year will be held October 22 – 28, many chemical educators will be focusing on the chemistry of rocks...
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ACS Publications Editors' Choice articles
Every day, one new peer-reviewed research article from any ACS journal will be selected to be freely available and remain open access for all to read. These articles are selected based upon...
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Polymer Day: Outreach Experiments for High School Students: An ACS Authors'...
The authors of the recent Journal of Chemical Education article, PolymerDay: Outreach Experiments for High School Students, offer a collection of interactive polymer activities designed to be part of...
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A Concise Summary of Chemical Misconceptions
Last year I came across a report entitled Beyond Appearances: Students’ Misconceptions about Basic Chemical Ideas on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website, and it has proven a wonderfully handy...
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Separation and Choices
What are we doing to help kids achieve? I have to admit that I was inspired by Tom Kuntzleman's blog entry about how we should stop trying to get kids interested in chemistry. I believe the spirit of...
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Concept Inventories: Predicting the Wrong Answer May Boost Performance
Chemical education researchers often use concept inventories to assess the depth of conceptual understanding their students have about a variety of topics. These inventories are normally...
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Molar Volume of Gas - Lab Tip
If you read my last blog post you heard discussion of putting together a practical and useful professional development opportunity for chemistry teachers. It is a conference for teachers, by teachers....
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JCE 94.10 October 2017 Issue Highlights
Celebrating the Value of ChemistryThe October 2017 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: geochemistry in action;...
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Investigations of Pyrite Nugget Beads: An Experiment for National Chemistry...
In preparation for the National Chemistry Week (NCW) theme of “Chemistry Rocks!”, I have been testing various decorative beads for the presence of certain minerals. Several beads of this type are...
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The Ultimate Chemistry Swag....
I will cut to the quick. My daughter, Claire, attends Marian University in Indianapolis. One of her friends is Catherine Bell. Catherine is an amazing art student who is trying to make a few bucks...
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Especially JCE: October 2017
“’Yes, as Ma would say, enough is as good as a feast,’ Laura agreed.”Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House book series jumps back onto my “to read” list roughly once a year. These Happy Golden Years is...
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Chemistry Tutorial Resources
Video tutorials are paramount to learning for many students and adults. Personally, I relish in being able to solve a problem after watching the solution on YouTube. Whether it's rebuilding and...
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Making Lab Diagrams Easier to Visualize
When it comes to student laboratory/apparatus setup, one thing is sure to help—visuals. However, many of us suffer from a disorder that makes all our test tubes resemble things we wish they didn’t. In...
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ChemTube3D iPad App for organic mechanisms (and so much more!)
I recently stumbled upon a free App for the iPad that I plan to introduce to my students during our upcoming organic unit. This is just the first topic that I am using the app for. There are many more...
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Using the Journal of Chemical Education
A quick look through the reference sections of several of the chemistry education resources that I have in my home office confirms that the Journal of Chemical Education (JCE) is well respected and...
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Classroom Culture - Positive Reinforcement
What are we doing to help kids achieve? Recently there were many entries written about "Classroom Culture". Here is one more idea that I accidently stumbled on... My students and I were...
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Percent Composition: A quick and dirty experiment
What are we doing to help kids achieve? Some of my classes are working on a unit that involves percent composition, empirical and molecular formulas and hydrates. Those topics have similarities and...
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Atomsmith Take 2
"What are we doing to help kids achieve?"First, I do not work for Atomsmith. I do not ask for or get any free stuff from them. It might sound like I do. But, I just really like ther resource. There has...
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