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“What do you teach?” is usually the first question on my lips as I casually meet someone at a science conference. We might be sharing a pair of seats on the shuttle back to our hotels. We might be waiting in line for an event. We might be sitting next to each other, waiting for a workshop to start. Answers to the question are varied and always interesting. We have a short chat, maybe discussing curriculum, recent challenges, great presentations we’ve seen, or just our lives. The brief encounter ends. Afterward, I often belatedly realize that we never even exchanged names. But at the time, it didn’t seem as though it was necessary. We already knew each other. We were already connected, as fellow members of a teaching and learning community.
With the connection, it doesn’t matter that you may not always be familiar with the specific topic or techniques a person shares. For example, this month’s issue presents papers from the Waters Symposium on the history of electroanalytical chemistry. I’d be hard pressed to tell you how a dropping mercury electrode works, or how you might use a polarographic instrument. But I was drawn in anyway, to hear about Kissinger’s experience with building an electrochemical instrument for a high school science fair project in 1960. He travels through developments in history and connects instrumentation to the modern day pharmacy. Apparently I’ve already seen commonly used advanced electroanalytical instruments—glucose meters. Flato also describes some heavy-duty history, but wraps it in a description of how he began researching and designing new instrumentation. He says “I was fresh out of grad school and way over my head”. It’s an intriguing picture of how an instrument is developed, built, and finally marketed and sold to the public. It didn’t matter that I know little about the instrument. The connection is still there.
At the JCE booth during National Science Teachers Association conventions, we speak to teachers of K–12 and beyond, and teachers of all sciences. But, guaranteed, we can always point out a connection. For example, we usually invite visitors to marble their name badges using shaving cream and food color. Hershberger, Nance, Sarquis, and Hogue present that idea in this month’s JCE Classroom Activity “Colorful Lather Printing”. At the elementary level, it might function as more of an art project, or a way to decorate first-day name tags. But teachers can still have young students observe how food color interacts with different substances such as water, paper, and shaving cream. More advanced classes can take a look at the chemical structures of water, cellulose, and soap to explain their observations. They can also relate the terms lather and colloid to products they may use every day. And it’s just fun, for all ages! JCE staff member Linda Fanis created several gorgeous patterns that you see on this page and elsewhere in the issue (including the cover). For more about how shaving cream relates to states of matter, see Clark’s discussion of the fourth state of matter, “squishy”, from an article in The Physics Teacher (See? Even more connections between science areas!).
The expansion and further development of such a community can enrich the connections. The American Chemical Society (ACS) Education Division is in the midst of an exciting ChemClub pilot program. Taylor states “The mission of these Clubs is to invite, motivate, and encourage high school students who are fascinated by the many ways that chemistry connects to their world”. The Club goals may vary from school to school; one group may focus on attending presentations by visiting scientists, another may try additional experiments outside of class time, and yet another may use the Club as a vehicle for community service. No matter the goals, they all achieve the same purpose of building connections among teachers, students, and chemistry.
Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL)
In a recent editorial, John Moore quoted one of founding JCE editor Neil Gordon’s goals for this Journal, to “encourage community of effort in chemical education” (1). When Gordon stated this goal in 1924, he probably could not even imagine the widely-available digital tools and resources that exist today. The ChemEd DL, a Pathways project in the National Science Digital Library, is one of those modern-day tools that serves as a medium for continuing to strive to meet Gordon’s goal. One of the major pieces of the ChemEd DL is to build communities, such as high school chemistry teachers and students, that would both use and develop resources within the library. Moore describes ways teachers can already help (1). Workshops and booths at future regional and national meetings are another place to learn more. How do you envision this community and your place in it?
Literature Cited
- Moore, J. W. Beating a Path to the National Science Digital Library. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1735.
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