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  • Editorial | September 2018 Be Inspired!

    AACT President Sherri Rukes hopes to inspire members to tap into the great (and growing!) collection of resources and benefits that teachchemistry.org has to offer. She offers ways for teachers to inspire both themselves and others through involvement, collaboration, and contribution to AACT.

  • In My Element | September 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. How Collaboration Helped Transform My Teaching Career

    A teacher describes her teaching journey and how she plans to prepare for her first year in the high school chemistry classroom.

  • Nuts & Bolts | September 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Designing Effective Multiple-Choice Items in Chemistry

    Multiple-choice questions are frequently used in both formal and informal assessments in order to determine if students have mastered specific learning objectives. This article discusses the characteristics of multiple-choice items as well as some guidelines for writing them. It is possible to design multiple-choice items that emphasize conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills. The creation of high-quality assessments can provide useful information about student learning and help teachers make important decisions about instruction.

  • Nuts & Bolts | September 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Setting the Tone for Safety with Younger Students

    This article outlines the basic considerations for lab safety in the elementary science classroom. Sample student safety contracts are provided by the author for teacher use.

  • Resource Feature | September 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Chemistry of Lightsticks: Determination of Activation Energy, a Guided Inquiry Approach

    Lightsticks, with their eerie glow, capture the interest of students of every age. Capitalizing on this, the authors describe how they developed and used a guided inquiry approach to help students determine the activation energy of the chemiluminescent reaction in a lightstick. They also describe how they used a Vernier LabQuest 2 system, while acknowledging that any data collection system that allows simultaneous collection of data from light and temperature probes may be used instead. In addtion, they explain how they employed the natural logarithm form of the Arrhenius equation and spreadsheet software.

  • Simulation | September 2018 States of Matter and Phase Changes

    In this simulation, students will participate in a 10 question quiz. Some questions will challenge students to analyze data to identify the correct state of matter for a specific sample, and then connect the chosen state with an animated particle diagram. In addition, students will examine the behavior of particles in an animated sample as they undergo a phase change, and must correctly identify the change that occurs.

  • Tech Tips | May 2018 Experimenting with Electronic Lab Notebooks

    The author describes her efforts to implement and effectively use electronic notebooks to capture lab work in regular, advanced, and AP chemistry classes.

  • Nuts & Bolts | May 2018 Using Learning Progressions to Improve Scientific Modeling in Chemistry

    This article describes how to use learning progressions to transform your existing modeling activities to help students construct and use models as a generative tool for predicting and explaining phenomena. In the process, the models become a learning tool, rather than just a means to illustrate understanding.

  • Tech Tips | May 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Use Moodle to Score Lab Calculations Instantly

    One of the greatest time demands for chemistry teachers is the assessment of lab work. With a little bit of preparation, you can program Moodle (a widely available and free learning management system used by many schools) to correct students’ lab calculations and provide immediate feedback. The author walks through an example using a simple stoichiometry exercise used with his 11th grade general chemistry students.

  • Editorial | May 2018 Refresh and Refocus through Reflection

    Jenelle Ball reflects on both her school year and her time as the AACT Governing Board President. She highlights some newly-implemented and improved member benefits as well as some particular resources that she valued this year. She hopes all teachers will take time as the school year comes to an end to also reflect on their lessons learned and refocus for the future.

  • Resource Feature | May 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Embracing Chemistry in the Elementary Classroom

    This article discusses why it's important for K-5 teachers to overcome the fear of teaching chemistry, and gives some simple suggestions on how to start.

  • Classroom Commentary | May 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. The AP Chem Exam is Over - Now What?

    This article discusses a short course in computational chemistry, designed for AP Chemistry teachers and students, primarily to be used for chemistry enrichment following the completion of the AP Chemistry exam.

  • Nuts & Bolts | May 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Strategies for Teaching SPED and EL Students in the Chemistry Classroom

    The article explores several different strategies for teaching EL and SPED students in the high school chemistry classroom.

  • Simulation | May 2018 Reaction Rates

    In the May 2018 simulation, students investigate several factors that can affect the initial rate of a chemical reaction, including concentration, temperature, surface area of the reactants, and addition of a catalyst.

  • Classroom Commentary | March 2018 The Science Coaches Program in Action

    This article describes the very successful Science Coaches partnership between a third-grade teacher and a Ph.D. chemist, who is also her father. The authors offer insight and tips for making the best use of a Science Coach partnership, or any science visitor to your classroom.

  • Editorial | March 2018 The Importance of Outreach

    AACT President-Elect Sherri Rukes shares thoughts about her experience doing outreach in the chemistry teaching community. She is an enthusiastic promoter of chemistry across all grade levels, and encourages others to follow a similar path.

  • Resource Feature | March 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Teaching Beyond the Cookbook

    Inquiry lab experiences provide students with a wider context for understanding the material presented in the classroom while improving student engagement and giving them a more authentic science experience. If you want to include more aspects of inquiry in your laboratory experiences, but lack the time and money to test brand new labs, this article provides specific tools and ideas for adding inquiry experiences to your own labs.

  • Simulation | March 2018 Chemical Reactions and Stoichiometry

    In this simulation, students practice classifying different chemical reactions, balancing equations, and solving stoichiometry problems.

  • Classroom Commentary | March 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Part II: Rethinking Common Practices in High School Chemistry

    This article is Part II of a series that aims at rethinking common practices in the high school chemistry curriculum. The first article in this series was published in the November 2017 issue. This article describes the shortcomings with the “5 Reaction Types” classification scheme and provides an alternative organization to the study of chemical reactions.

  • Nuts & Bolts | March 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. 21st Century Skills in High School Chemistry

    This article discusses the changing trends in science education, with a focus on the need for implementing 21st century skills into the science curriculum, and some techniques for doing so.

  • Resource Feature | March 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. Recasting Chemistry Labs with Forensic Themes

    This article discusses several examples of how forensic scenarios can be added to tried-and-true chemistry labs. The author also provides several example lab activities for the audience to use in their own classrooms.

  • In My Element | March 2018 Access is an AACT member benefit. My Long, Circuitous Route to Teaching Chemistry

    The author shares his journey from liberal arts, to the sciences, and back to the chemistry classroom.

  • Classroom Commentary | November 2017 Part I: Rethinking Common Practices in High School Chemistry

    The physical vs. chemical change dichotomy and criteria for classification often taught early in chemistry courses should be removed or delayed until students have a more thorough understanding of the particulate nature of matter.

  • Nuts & Bolts | November 2017 Access is an AACT member benefit. Integrating NGSS and STEM in the Classroom

    As an educator interested in sharing your love of science with your students, how do you incorporate the NGSS and STEM in your classroom? The answer is simple. STEM and NGSS are inherently intertwined, which makes the implementation of NGSS easier. Here is a step-by-step process for how to integrate NGSS and STEM in your chemistry classroom.

  • Simulation | November 2017 Predicting Shifts in Equilibrium: Q vs K

    In this simulation, students will take a 15 question quiz. Each quiz question has two parts. The first part requires the student to calculate the value of the reaction quotient, Q. In the second portion of the question, the students will compare the value of Q to the equilibrium constant, K, and predict which way the reaction will shift to reach equilibrium. The simulation includes five different reactions which each have three scenarios: Q > K, Q = K, and Q < K.