Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year! I was excited by the theme of this kick-off issue. I loved chemistry as a high school student (Thank you, Sister Maureen!), majored in the subject in college, and taught it as part of a physical science course. Even today the smell of a chemistry lab gets me psyched up.
Some students do not take chemistry in high school; those in a traditional course may never realize how what they are learning applies to the real world. And some of my students would have the misconception that chemistry is about blowing things up and is the domain of nerds in stereotypical white coats and plastic pocket protectors! The outside world is not the only thing that is changing. The authors of these articles describe how the teaching and learning of chemistry is changing in their own classrooms.
The activities in Shrinking Our Footprints are built around a real-world problem and use an interesting online calculator, the Ecological Footprint Quiz. The online nature of the quiz enables students to test their ideas about reducing carbon consumption.
Project-based learning was the focus of in What Happens to Cemetery Headstones? Students applied their learning of acids and bases to a study of a local environment. Wouldn’t it be interesting to incorporate this into an interdisciplinary project involving social studies? Check out How to Read a Graveyard or History Comes Alive in the Graveyard from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Not all learning in the classroom is done by students! The authors of Teacher Research: Challenging Our Assumptions describe their own inquiry into what student do or do not understand about the gas laws. (Their findings are interesting. Would they apply to your students?) If you’re logged into SciLinks, you can search for websites that may help your students understand the laws conceptually, in addition to doing the algebra to solve problems!
On a smaller scale, check out articles on Investigating Membranes, The Science Behind Nanosunscreens, and Teaching with Crystal Structures. And use SciLinks to search for resources on membranes, nanotechnology, and crystalline solids.