A series of molecules or molecular systems were described to students in the second semester of general chemistry as a way to convey that "everything is a chemical", to demonstrate the relevance of chemistry in their everyday lives, and to promote student engagement in a class that was offered in the early morning. Students thought highly of this course feature and chose their favorite molecules based on interest, relevance, and being a current topic in the news. There were no significant differences among the list of their favorite “Molecule of the Week” topics based on their career aspiration (i.e., major) or gender. When asked about additional molecules or systems, the most requested category of medications does seem to parallel the large number of health professions students in the course.
Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.