Chemistry Solutions
March 2020
Featured Article
Resource Feature
Designing a Greener Le Châtelier's Principle Lab
Are you interested in teaching core chemistry content with safer materials? This article discusses the importance of green chemistry and features a safer replacement to traditional Le Châtelier’s Principle labs, which often use hazardous chemicals that pose a risk to students and the environment. The concepts of Le Châtelier’s Principle can be effectively demonstrated using household materials of starch, iodine, butterfly pea tea, vinegar, and baking soda.
Resource Features
Lessons by teachers with their inspiration for the activity or tips for how to implement the lesson.
In this article, the author describes how she was inspired by the rules and spirit of the well-known card game, War, to help her students test their knowledge of the periodic trends. She shares about how she uses her version, which she calls Periodic War, in the classroom, and discusses student learning outcomes, as well as difficulties and successes that she has encountered when using it as a teaching activity in her classroom.
Classroom Commentary
Reflections and perspectives by teachers about topics that affect chemistry education.
This is the third article in a series about teaching earth chemistry. The focus of this piece is discussing and investigating how the partial melting of rocks related to plate tectonics occurs, and its effects on volcano behavior.
In this article, the author discusses rationale for teaching chemistry literacy and offers strategies to be successful in the classroom. Since teaching students how to read and write is the responsibility of all teachers, the author aims to help chemistry teachers focus on these important skills in their content area.
Nuts & Bolts
Functional tips you can implement in your classroom.
In this article, a teacher shares her experience implementing culminating tasks in the chemistry classroom. She shares her insight for best practices, and offers suggestions for hands-on lab experiences that can be completed at the end of a unit or a semester.
In My Element
Stories about teachers finding their way to the chemistry classroom.
Linda Cummings describes her challenges and successes as her identity evolved over the years. Follow her journey as her job description changed from musician, to high school chemistry teacher, and ultimately to university chemistry instructor.
Teacher 2 Teacher
@AACTconnect asked:
Chemistry Teachers: Do you assign student work/homework to be completed over Spring break? If yes, please comment to share/explain your assignment(s) with us! #chemchat
— AACT (@AACTconnect) February 11, 2020
You Answered:
My student complete a practice AP exam (one that I wrote). I make it available several weeks before spring break. This way students can complete it early if they are going away.
It depends where my #APChem students are at by then; sometimes we do practice FRQ’s over break or Gas Laws practice/independent study (since it’s mostly review from 1st year chem). But, as @puttichem mentioned, I assign it ahead of time so S’s have the option of completing it b4.
I don’t assign for break because I tell my students that it’s a break from the hard work I expect them to put in during school days. As @puttichem and @RyTriGuy do, I assign problem sets in advance and make them due a week after week get back.
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Editorial
AACT President-Elect Jesse Bernstein shares about his most engaging chemistry memories from both his childhood and early teaching career. He is a passionate advocate for integrating engaging, hands-on teaching methods in the chemistry classroom, and encourages all teachers of chemistry to provide their students with similar engaging learning opportunities.
Simulation
In this simulation, students will review the three major types of intermolecular forces and answer quiz questions using the relative strengths of these forces to compare different substances given their name, formula, and Lewis structure.
Chemistry Fun
In this activity, students will analyze sixteen chemistry-based clues and use the numbers, zero through fifteen as possible answer choices for each one. The clues cover content related to measurement, scientific notation, significant digits, atomic structure and the periodic table.