News from Journal House

Calling All Inorganic Chemists

A major feature of the ChemEd DL is to encourage development of a broad range of communities that support teaching and learning chemistry. This month we report on one such community: VIPEr.

VIPEr, the Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource, has launched! VIPEr is a dynamic, collaborative, evolving virtual library to share course materials, curricular innovation, and ideas for teaching inorganic chemistry. It also serves as a virtual community with built-in user-friendly social networking tools such as forums, polls, textbook ratings, and feedback on teaching materials. VIPEr has been developed by the Leadership Council of IONiC (Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists), a community of chemists who are interested in working collaboratively to improve inorganic chemistry teaching.

On VIPEr, teaching resources are organized by subdiscipline of inorganic chemistry and by type of “learning object” (small instructional unit). Learning objects submitted by community members include laboratory experiments, in-class activities, literature discussion assignments, resources for teaching writing, and problem set and exam questions. Visitors are welcome to download teaching materials on VIPEr, although some materials are restricted to registered members with faculty status.

We invite you to visit VIPEr (accessed Aug 2008). Register, download resources, comment on your favorite textbook, ask a question on a forum, rate the materials on VIPEr, or post your favorite problem set questions. We hope that you will come for the content and stay for the community!

The Sky’s the Limit: Earth Day 2009

Plan ahead with the Journal. We will celebrate Earth Day in 2009. In the February 2009 issue, the ACS topic is the atmosphere, using the title Air: The Sky’s the Limit.

Plans are to have articles, lab experiments, a Classroom Activity, a Resource Paper, and more related to the Earth Day theme. Mark your calendar to look for the February 2009 issue in mid-January—in plenty of time to prepare to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 2009. We will publish updates about our plans as they become available.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Science History Tours: 2009 Plans

Plans are afoot for going to England for the 2009 trip. The theme for this tour will be Darwin and Evolution, to celebrate next year’s Darwin anniversaries. A number of places that we have not yet seen, such as the home of Darwin and his wife near London, the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London, the county of Cornwall, in the southwest (including a visit to Land’s End), Darwin’s college in the beautiful city of Cambridge, and many other interesting sights will be on our itinerary.

The two-week tour will start in the second half of June. Cost is not yet known (but will not be less than last year’s tour). Accommodations in comfortable hotels of at least 3-star standard, breakfast, and at least one other meal a day, all tours, lectures, visits, and surface transportation will be included in the tour cost. Air fare to Europe is NOT included. This trip will take place only if we have a minimum of 25 people, so if you are interested in joining us, please let us know ASAP. There will be no real commitment until you register.

As most people are aware, Science History Tours is a non-profit organization, so you pay only the cost of the trip—no one makes any profit from it! Our trips should be compared with tours organized by the Smithsonian or other high-end operators whose trips cost more than ours. Many of our tour members have traveled with us many times, so at least 75% of any tour group is now composed of returning tour participants. Sign up will start in January 2009 and tour payments will be made in three installments. Inexpensive graduate credit will be available for those interested; teachers can get CPDUs free.

For further information, contact: Yvonne Twomey or Lee Marek. You may also look at Lee Marek’s Web site (look under History of Science Stuff) or that of John Oliver (a chemist and photographer who is a frequent tour member) (both sites accessed Aug 2008).

Podcasts of Nontechnical Astronomy Talks

Audio recordings of 12 public lectures by noted astronomers are now available as free MP3 downloads at the Web site of the nonprofit Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) (accessed Aug 2008).

These talks were recorded at Foothill College in the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series. They are made available to the public through the kind support of an anonymous donor with a strong interest in education. Each hour-long lecture on some exciting development in our study of the universe is followed by an extensive question-and-answer period in which the speaker gives further details and personal glimpses about the topics under discussion. Among the talks now available are:

• Better Searches for Signals from Extra-terrestrial Civilizations: Jill Tarter, SETI Institute
• Hunting for Earth-like Planets among the Stars: Geoff Marcy, University of California, Berkeley
• Asteroid Impacts and the Evolution of Life on Earth: David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center
• Climate Catastrophes in the Solar System: David Grinspoon, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
• Results from the Hubble Space Telescope: Bruce Margon, University of California, Santa Cruz
• The Planet Pluto: Maligned but Not Forgotten: Dale Cruikshank, NASA Ames
• Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe: Alex Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley
• Estimating the Chances of Life Out There: Frank Drake, SETI Institute

A few talks are also available as video files (instructions can be found on the same page.) These lectures are co-sponsored by NASA’s Ames Research Center, The SETI Institute, The Foothill College Astronomy Program, and The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Plan Ahead: Upcoming Meetings

ACS Regional Meetings

• Western Regional Meeting (WRM): September 23–27, 2008, Las Vegas, NV
• Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM): October 1–4, 2008: Little Rock, AR
• Midwest Regional Meeting (MWRM): October 8–11, 2008, Kearney, NE
• Southeastern Regional Meeting (SERMACS): November 12–15, 2008, Nashville, TN
• Great Lakes Regional Meeting (GLRM): May 13–16, 2009, Chicago, IL
• Central Regional Meeting (CERM): May 20–23, 2009, Cleveland, OH
• Northwest Regional Meeting (NORM): June 28–July 1, 2009, Tacoma, WA

2YC₃ (Two-Year College Chemistry Consortium) Meetings

• 182nd Conference, September 26–27, 2008 (in conjunction with the Southern Nevada Section, ACS): Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. Program Chair: Dick Gaglione
  
• 183rd Conference, November 21–22, 2008: Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD. Program Chair: Lynn Tracey
• 184th Conference, March 20–21, 2009 (preceding the Spring ACS National Meeting): Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, UT. Program Chair: Neil Bastian

NSTA Meetings

2008 Area Meetings

• Charlotte, NC: October 30–November 1, 2008. Westin Charlotte Hotel and Charlotte Convention Center.
• Portland, OR: November 20–22, 2008. DoubleTree Portland Lloyd Center and Hilton Portland & Executive Tower; most events at the Portland Convention Center.
• Cincinnati, OH: December 4–6, 2008. Millennium Hotel (headquarters) and Duke Energy Center

2009 National Meeting

New Orleans, LA: March 19–22, 2009. Morial Convention Center.

Materials for Teachers

Vernier Software & Technology is offering its Logger Lite software free for Intel-powered classmate PCs, as well as for other small, low-cost computer options. Logger Lite software provides fundamental graphing and analysis tools for K–12 science students. This software, when combined with Vernier probeware, gives students the ability to explore the world around them, make predictions, collect real-world data, and draw conclusions based on their analyses. Both a Windows and a Linux version of the software will be available (accessed Aug 2008).

Vernier is also offering free eco-friendly classroom investigations that demonstrate environmental responsibility. The investigations have been drawn from the company’s own experiences renovating its building to earn gold-level certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.

Real data of the building’s photovoltaic energy production from solar panels (both live and historical) are available, and a live web cam, the Vernier Solar Panel Dashboard (accessed Aug 2008), shows the solar panels and a view of Mt. Hood, giving a good indication of cloud layers and air clarity. The site also includes teacher notes for use in the classroom and questions for students to investigate.