Chemical Education Today
April 2011 News & Announcements Alice J. Teter Journal of Chemical Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53715, United States
[email protected] Chemists Celebrate Earth Day;You Can, Too! From the original “teach-in” on April 22, 1970, which greatly exceeded founder Gaylord Nelson's expectations, Earth Day spread worldwide in annual celebrations. In 2011, we celebrate Earth Day Number 41. The American Chemical Society joined the Earth Day celebration in 2003 with Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) and thereafter promoted events annually. Each year ACS chooses a specific theme for the CCED celebration. This year, in conjunction with the International Year of Chemistry, ACS has chosen Energy;It is Everywhere as the CCED theme. Details can be seen on the ACS Chemists Celebrate Earth Day site at http://www.acs. org/ > Education > Community Outreach (accessed Feb 2011). I undertook to gather a brief list of general activities of interest to our readers, but found the task overwhelming;the number and diversity of activities are astonishing. The most upto-date information is, of course, on the Internet. An “Earth Day 2011” search produced more than 150,000 hits. A quick scan through the first few pages found official city sites, county sites, organization sites, and Facebook and Twitter sites, among many others. Sites as diverse as Sauk County, Wisconsin; City of Flagstaff (Arizona); Casper Planetarium (Casper, Wyoming); and Archie Comics all include Earth Day activities. Activities range from poster contests to races of various kinds to expo-like gatherings. With so many choices, it seems best to leave it to readers to find Earth Day activities near them. For chemistry-related activities, I recommend the ACS site shown above; for more general Earth Day activities, you might start at http://earthday2011.net/ or http://www.earthday.org/ (both accessed Feb 2011), or search for “Earth Day 2011” and location or type of activity. Also in April The 2011 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry Nominations are invited for the 2011 James Flack Norris Award, which consists of a certificate and an honorarium of $3,000, given annually by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS). The presentation will take place at a ceremony and dinner in November 2011, and will include a formal address by the awardee. The Award was established in 1950 by NESACS to honor the memory of James Flack Norris (1871-1940), a professor of chemistry at Simmons College and M.I.T., chair of NESACS in 1904, and ACS President in 1925-26. Nomination materials consist of the primary nomination letter, supporting letters, and the candidate's curriculum vitae. Reprints or other publications should not be included. The material should not exceed 30 pages, and should be submitted 378
Journal of Chemical Education
_
_
electronically in Adobe PDF format through April 15, 2011 to Ms. Anna Singer, NESACS Administrative Secretary, secretary@ nesacs.org. For more information about the Award, see http:// www.nesacs.org/awards_norris.html (accessed Feb 2011). Questions about the Award or the nomination process should be directed to the Chair of the Norris Award Committee, Ms. Kathi Brown,
[email protected]. Grant for Supercritical Fluid Education Applied Separations, Inc., world leaders in Supercritical Fluids technologies, recognizes the importance of a practical scientific education and has committed to assisting colleges, universities, and two-year institutions in preparing their students for the scientific workplace of today and tomorrow. Therefore, Applied Separations is accepting applications for SCF-PRIME-11, an award that will allow the selected college or university to offer instruction on supercritical fluids. The winner will receive a Spe-ed SFE Prime Package, which includes a supercritical fluid system designed specifically for the higher education market as well as supporting classroom materials, such as a syllabus, handouts, suggested applications and more. The total value of this package exceeds $20,000. Deadline for submission is April 30, 2011. For more information and to submit a grant application, visit http:// www.appliedseparations.com/Grant/ (accessed Feb 2011). Please contact Tasha Festel or Deb Moran for more information. In May Nominate a Science Teacher for a Presidential Award The National Science Foundation will accept nominations for the 2011 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching until May 1, 2011. This award is given annually to the best precollege-level science and mathematics teachers from across the country. Winners of this honor receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion. They also receive an expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, for an awards ceremony and several days of events, including visits with members of Congress and science agency leaders. For more information about the award, including criteria and deadlines, go to http://www.paemst.org/(accessed Feb 2011). Other Opportunities Nanoscience for Teachers: An Online Course Teachers, welcome to the world of Nano! Would you like to learn more about nanoscience and nanotechnology, and how you can incorporate these topics into your curricula? This summer,
_
Vol. 88 No. 4 April 2011 pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 10.1021/ed2000846 Published on Web 02/16/2011
Chemical Education Today
Central Michigan University in partnership with the NSEC at UW-Madison is offering an eight-week online course for teachers about nanoscience, starting June 20, 2011. This course covers a variety of nano-related topics, highlights activities for use with students, and enables instructors to incorporate nanoscience into their particular courses. Teachers will receive two hours of graduate credit for completing the course, and partial support for tuition and fees is provided. Here are some comments from teachers in previous semesters: • “I loved the class and would like to get as many people to take it if they can.” • “The material is quantity and quality... I think all of chemistry could be taught from a nano perspective...if students could be fully immersed in the nanoscale...people would understand chemistry better.” • “I have learned a tremendous amount and I have seen many places to include what I have learned.”
For more information or to reserve a space, contact Janice Hall Tomasik right away:
[email protected], telephone: 989/774-3330. 2011 cCWCS Workshop Schedule These workshops are organized under the auspices of the NSF-sponsored Chemistry Collaborations, Workshops and Community of Scholars (cCWCS), the successor to the Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences (CWCS). They provide a background and modern perspective on various topics in the chemical sciences, along with methods to introduce these topics into the college curriculum. • • • •
Computational and Theoretical Chemistry: June 12-17 Crystallography for Chemists (and others!): June 19-24 Guided-Inquiry Organic Labs: July 10-15 Green Chemistry: July 16-21
And a continuing collaborative initiative with the Telluride School on Theoretical Chemistry: • Advanced Workshop on Theoretical Chemistry: Jul 10-16
The cCWCS workshop program is open to faculty, instructional staff, and laboratory coordinators at two-year and fouryear colleges, and universities, as well as postdoctoral scholars and advanced graduate students who plan to embark on a career in teaching college-level chemistry. Registration, accommodations, and a per diem for food are provided at no cost to participants. cCWCS is supported by the NSF CCLI program as a Phase III project. Aspects of the impact of the program at a wide variety of institutions are discussed on the cCWCS Web site, where you will find the online application: http://www.ccwcs.org/ (accessed Feb 2011).
Figure 1. Terbium tile prepared for the Chem 13 News Periodic Table Project by Journal of Chemical Education staff. Used with permission from Chem 13 News. (Individual images comprising the whole tile are also used with permission: Terbium, Copyright 2010 Theodore Gray periodictable.com; terbium sulfate crystals, Copyright 2009 Juergen Bauer smart-elements.com; X-ray “Handskelett” Hellerhoff Wikimedia Commons.).
(Figure 1) mimics a typical cover of the Journal of Chemical Education, with the “issue” focusing on the element, its history, and some common applications. The small box contains the “cover leads” for the issue and shares highlights about terbium, which are also reflected in the selected graphics. To complete the project, Chem 13 News is creating an interactive periodic table using the tiles designed for the project. At the time this article was written, it had not yet been launched. However, by the time this issue reaches you, it should be ready for use. Look for it at http://www.chem13news.uwaterloo.ca/IYC/ iyc-periodic-table.html (accessed Feb 2011). Web Sites of Ongoing Interest There are a number of Web sites that regularly add information about programs and funding sources for science educators. They sometimes post dates and deadlines too late to make it into print. Here is a partial list of such sites. We encourage you to visit them often (all accessed Feb 2011). • International Year of Chemistry: http://www.chemistry2011. org/ • Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge: http://www. wecanchange.com/ • American Geological Institute: http://www.agiweb.org/geoeducation.html • AGI Earth Science Week: http://www.earthsciweek.org/ • ACS Grants: http://www.acs.org/ (Home > Funding & Awards > Grants) • Dorothy and Moses Passer Education Fund: http://www. divched.org/index.php?module=webpage&id=19 • National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/
JCE Participates in Chem 13 News Periodic Table Project; Terbium Journal of Chemical Education staff members joined chemistry classes and other chemistry organizations around the world in participating in the Chem 13 News Periodic Table Project. JCE was assigned terbium as its element. After researching terbium and its uses, staff members shared ideas in informal conversations and on a wiki. The overall layout
r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
_
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
_
Vol. 88 No. 4 April 2011
_
Journal of Chemical Education
379
Chemical Education Today • NSF Education and Human Resources: http://www.nsf.gov/ dir/index.jsp?org=EHR • ACS Meetings: http://www.acs.org/ Home > Meetings • Research Corporation for Science Advancement: http://www. rescorp.org/
380
Journal of Chemical Education
_
Vol. 88 No. 4 April 2011
_
Do You Have News or Announcements To Share? If you have news or announcements of interest to the chemical education community, send a brief description to Alice Teter at
[email protected].
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
_
r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
