Background Information for Teachers

In this section, we’ve included information on an online course that will improve your content knowledge of chemistry concepts and help you implement inquiry lessons in your classroom. An article from Science Scope describes a teaching method that uncovers students’ misconceptions. Other resources provide a good overview of the chemistry of matter and reactions as well as the evolution of chemistry over the last 100 years. The magazine ChemMatters provides in-depth information on a variety of everyday items.

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Chemistry through Inquiry: An Online Course for Elementary and Middle School Teachers http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education\wande\OnlineCourse.html

The American Chemical Society and the JASON Academy offer teachers a fun way to improve their own science knowledge and learn about inquiry-based physical science activities their students will enjoy. This five-week graduate-level course is based on the National Science Education Standards Inquiry and Physical Science strands and features investigations from the book Inquiry in Action - Investigating Matter through Inquiry. The chemistry-related physical science topics addressed are physical properties, physical change, chemical change, states of matter, and density.

Chem4Kids http://www.chem4kids.com/index.html

Don’t let the name of this site fool you—whether you are a student or teacher, it provides a good overview of the chemistry of matter, elements, reactions, and biochemistry. The Matter Section discusses properties of different states of matter such as solids, liquids, gases, and plasma, as well as mixtures and solutions. The Elements Section presents the periodic table and the different elements with families, structures, and properties. This includes halogens, inert gases, metals and others. The Atoms Section explains atomic bonds, ions, atomic structure, compounds, naming atoms and isotopes. The Reactions Section provides details about acids and bases, thermodynamics, reaction rates, catalysts, and stoichiometry. The Biochemistry Section looks at carbohydrates, lipids, amino acid structures, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, and metabolism. MSP full record

Beyond Books: Introduction to Chemistry Concepts http://www.beyondbooks.com/psc92/index.asp

This online textbook provides a more in-depth explanation than the Chem4Kids site but is still very understandable.

Will It Float? http://learningcenter.nsta.org/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/4/ss06_030_02_22

Student preconceptions are one of the greatest challenges we face as science teachers. This Predict, Explain, Observe, and Explain (PEOE) activity challenges students' preconceived notions about why matter floats or sinks when placed in a liquid. The idea behind this model is to do a demonstration that first confirms students' conceptions followed by a second, similar demonstration that provides discrepant information creating cognitive dissonance. Learning happens as students are forced to modify their conceptions so that their view of how things work is not in conflict with what they are seeing. This article from the middle school professional journal Science Scope, can be downloaded free of charge by members of the National Science Teachers Association. MSP full record

ChemMatters Magazine http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education%5ccurriculum%5cchemmatters%5cissue_arch.html

ChemMatters is an award-winning magazine for high school students that reveals chemistry at work in everyday life. Each issue provides a teacher's guide with background information for each of the concepts included, follow-up hands-on activities, classroom demonstrations, and additional resources. There is a charge for a subscription, but some articles and all teachers' guides are available for free online. (From American Chemical Society Education.) MSP full record

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/articles/malmstrom/index.html

This site provides a picture of the development of modern chemistry. The prizes cover the whole spectrum of the basic chemical sciences, from theoretical chemistry to biochemistry, and also a number of contributions to applied chemistry. MSP full record

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Copyright June 2007 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.