Articles

Filter by:

26 – 50 of 102 Articles

Resource Feature | September 2021 An Inquiry Activity: Mixture Separation Challenge
In this article, the author shares about her use of a hands-on inquiry activity to assess students’ content knowledge. The activity tasks small groups of students with developing and conducting an experimental procedure to separate a mixture provided by the teacher. Read the article to learn more and to access the activity for use in your own classroom!
Classroom Commentary | September 2021 Heterogeneous Chemistry Classrooms: Experiments in Desegregation
How do we create community in a diverse chemistry classroom? How can our classroom dynamics lead to greater social justice in chemistry? ACS Conant Award winner Shea Wickelson shares stories and ideas from her experience teaching de-tracked high school chemistry.
Nuts & Bolts | May 2021 Chemistry Experiments at Home
In this article, a teacher shares about how she successfully completed lab experiments with students while they were learning at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The author describes how careful planning allowed her to provide students with all the necessary materials for each lab experiment. Additionally, she explains how lab set-ups can be easily modified with substituted materials, while still providing a valuable learning experience for students.
Classroom Commentary | May 2021 The Value of Integrating Real-World Projects in Science
The author of this article pulls from her experience as both a teacher and a water specialist at a government agency to inspire readers to connect real-world science learning opportunities in the classroom.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2021 Chemistry Semester Exam Redesign
In this article, the author shares about her experience redesigning a traditional multiple-choice chemistry semester exam to an authentic assessment for her Honors Chemistry students. Motivated to create an assessment made up of more thought-provoking questions, and encouraged by the style of the AP chemistry exam, she shares example questions, grading rubrics and overall feedback related to the redesign and implementation.
Tech Tips | March 2021 How to Use Online Forms and Surveys to Enhance Remote Learning
In this article, the author describes how the remote learning setting can be challenging for teachers. The inability to observe students’ body language and other types of real-time feedback can make it difficult to plan ahead and adjust lessons on the fly. With this in mind, the author shares some practical ways to use online forms and surveys to both engage students in remote learning and gain more real-time feedback on lesson comprehension.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2021 Remote Teaching Strategies that Will Outlast the Pandemic
In this article, the author reflects on four new teaching practices that he has successfully implemented in response to the current remote learning environment, and shares about how these strategies can continue to be valuable in the future.
Nuts & Bolts | March 2021 Beneficial Classroom Strategies for Teaching in a Pandemic and Beyond
Teaching during the pandemic has challenged teachers to find new ways to help students learn chemistry. In this article, AACT Middle School Ambassador Jennifer Smith describes several teaching methods that have been successful in her classroom. These strategies include weekly student check-in surveys, providing students with audio feedback, and creating video instructions for labs. All are easy-to-implement practices that teachers can leverage both during and after the pandemic
Classroom Commentary | November 2020 Online Chemistry: My Top Five Ingredients for Success
In this article, the author discusses the five main ingredients that led to success when she was forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to quickly redesign an in-person accelerated summer chemistry course to instead be delivered online. Twenty students participated in the seven-week accelerated class, which covered the same amount of content as an entire school year of chemistry. Their feedback, as well as that of their parents, is included in this article.
Resource Feature | November 2020 Creative Ways to Conduct Traditional Labs in a Homeschool Environment
In this article, the author shares about creating meaningful lab experiences for chemistry students in a virtual homeschool environment. She discusses how she transformed a traditional lesson plan into a virtual project-based experience for students, following basic four rules. The author encourages other teachers to transform their own content for remote learning, and reassures teachers that doing so is not as difficult as one might think.
Tech Tips | November 2020 Remote Technology Resources in a COVID-19 World
In this article, the author describes three specific technology resources — Flipgrid, Collisions, and Gizmos — that she relied on when the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools to switch to remote-teaching. She highlights the benefits of each platform, and shares examples of her successful experience using each. She concludes that Flipgrid was valuable as it allowed for asynchronous class connections, while Collisions and Gizmos allowed for inquiry-based learning experiences.
Nuts & Bolts | September 2020 Using Sketch Notes in the Chemistry Lab
Sketch noting is an alternate method of flowcharting for chemistry labs. In this article, the author shares about the implementation of sketch notes in her chemistry classroom. Additionally, she highlights specific areas where she has seen improvement by her students, including student safety, laboratory skills, content knowledge, and confidence.
Tech Tips | September 2020 My Favorite Technology Tools for Teaching Chemistry — Remotely and In-Person
In this article, the author highlights her five favorite technology tools for teaching chemistry, both in-person and remotely. She includes examples and tips for effective use — and encourages teachers to incorporate these tools into their own lessons!
Nuts & Bolts | September 2020 Mole of Reaction: Application in Limiting Reactants
In this article, the author describes the use of mole of reaction in limiting reactant calculations in first-year advanced chemistry. In addition to describing how mole of reaction was used in limiting reactant calculations (including advantages and drawbacks), the author also describes how introducing mole of reaction in first-year chemistry impacts students’ subsequent use of this unit in AP Chemistry.
Resource Feature | September 2020 Using an Online Meeting Scavenger Hunt to Offer Kinesthetic Learning
In this article, the author describes her use of an online scavenger hunt activity during remote learning. This activity offers students an engaging opportunity for kinesthetic learning and class discussion, while learning about the chemistry in their everyday life.
Resource Feature | September 2020 Lab Safety Teaching Resources for the Chemistry Classroom
This article provides an introduction to the ACS lab safety videos and demonstrates ways to implement the videos into a 5E lesson plan. Specific resources and activities are provided to integrate safety into chemistry lesson plans.
Nuts & Bolts | September 2020 Engaging Students with a Thinking Routine in Chemistry
Thinking Routines are an effective way to increase engagement and understanding during distance learning. In this article, the author shares about how she uses this tactic to help students think more deeply about the complex content they are actively learning.
Resource Feature | May 2020 Using Escape Rooms in the Chemistry Classroom
In this resource feature article, the author describes her use of two escape room activities in the chemistry classroom. One activity was used in AP Chemistry as an assessment, while the other used in a first-year chemistry class as a test review. She shares her successes, challenges, and lessons learned, and encourages other teachers to try these and other escape room-themed activities in their own classrooms.
Nuts & Bolts | May 2020 The BOSSO: A Tool for Enhanced Comprehension and Retention
In this article, the authors share about the BOSSO, a highly effective homework assignment that is used specifically with reading assignments and is designed to help students organize their learning.
Resource Feature | May 2020 Molecules that Changed the World: A Molecular Modeling Project
In this article, the author shares about a successful culminating project that she uses in her classroom. Students select from an approved list (that ranges in level of difficulty) a molecule that has changed the world. Each molecule is one that they encounter in the real world, and students are asked to research about its uses, physical and chemical properties, structure, synthesis reaction, by-products, environmental issues, related current events, and more. Additionally, students build a three-dimensional model of their molecule, which they present to the class with an accompanying oral presentation.
Classroom Commentary | March 2020 The Importance of Teaching Literacy Strategies in High School Chemistry
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 | March 2020 The Benefits of Culminating Tasks
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.
Resource Feature | March 2020 Teaching Periodic Trends with a Popular Card Game
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.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2019 Developing the Skill of Modeling to Reinforce Complex Topics in Chemistry
In this article, the author explains the progression of skill development in particulate modeling in the chemistry classroom to help students better understand complex chemistry.
Nuts & Bolts | November 2019 Drawing Exit Tickets: A New Way to Formatively Assess
The author uses a modified version of traditional exit tickets as a useful strategy to formatively assess student understanding at the end of the lesson. Her students are asked to summarize what they have learned by creating drawings. She shares that recent research has shown that drawing can be more effective than writing as a tool for remembering concepts. Read this article to see how you can use this strategy in your own classroom!