Chemical Education Today
Especially for High School Teachers
by Erica K. Jacobsen
A Real Rock Star? Did I ever mention I was in a rock band? We didn’t write Secondary School Featured Articles our own music, but had a lot of fun performing other artists’ ◭ The Changing Landscape of Teaching High School songs, particularly popular tunes from the 1980s and 1990s. I Chemistry by Kristin D. Collins and Terri Taylor, p 21. jumped around a bit, playing guitar for one, lyrics on another, ◭ An Esterification Kinetics Experiment That Relies on the even drums once in awhile. Did I mention this was only for Sense of Smell by Deborah C. Bromfield-Lee and about three days this summer? Oh, and did I Maria T. Oliver-Hoyo, p 82. mention it was a simulated rock band played through a video game console? Summer travels this year took our family Chemical Society’s Chemists Celebrate Earth Day theme to my brother’s house, where my husband and “The Sky’s the Limit!” in the Activity. We’ll celebrate the I tried the video game “Rock Band”. It takes the Activity series at the ACS National Meeting in Salt Lake game experience beyond what you see on the City in March 2009. John Moore and I will preside at a screen. We used versions of the actual instrusymposium split into two afternoons. Invited speakers ments, such as a multi-pad drum set, complete include those who contributed to the first Activity, auwith bass pedal and drumsticks, guitars you thors of our most popular Activities, along with teachers could “strum”, and a microphone. Each instruwho have tips on how to use them in your classroom. The ment registered our actions electronically and symposium will end each day close to the time the High translated it into the song our video band was School Day program begins. (Note that High School performing on the screen, wrong notes and all. Day is expanded to “Days” at this meeting; it is currently We got a taste of the real thing, quickly and scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in the late afternoon with little training. It was easy and fun to get through the evening.) If you plan to attend the High into the experience—feeling as if you were reSchool program, join us an hour or two earlier at the ally jamming out with each other in the living Activity symposium for more great teaching ideas. JCE room. At the same time it was just a game, a very also has a slot in the High School program for hands-on sophisticated simulation. sharing of JCE staff ’s favorite Activities from throughout Simulations, whether electronic, on paper, the years. See you there! or in some other format, have their place in the classroom as well. For example, in this month’s Classroom Activity Connections feature, Deo Laura’s Take on the Issue and Hunt (p 19) suggest a simulation extension Column chromatography Once again the language of my 33 years in chemto JCE Classroom Activity #61 “Checkerboard is used to separate Chromatography”. The original Activity is a the components of a istry is likely changing. All my “chemistry-life” it has lightstick. been atmosphere, Torr, and mm Hg as units of pressure. board-game style simulation of column chroThough physicists use the units pascal and kilopascal, matography that uses colored squares of paper, and I do teach them, we as chemists rarely use them. However, a drawn grid, and a die. Deo and Hunt describe a way to extend McBane’s commentary (p 17) highlights why “We chemistry the Activity to simulate gel-filtration and affinity chromatogeducators should abandon the atmosphere and replace it with raphy. They state “Using this extension eliminates the need to the bar or the kilopascal or both.” I do not know if I am ready purchase large quantities of expensive biological reagents to for, or willing to make, such a change, but like other changes in construct and use actual columns. The extension is a simulation, the chemistry vocabulary (for example, energy levels not energy as is the original board game, but still provides a visual separation shells), it is wise to make changes that are in the best interest of with the colored paper squares.” Using such a simulation can be my students. a quick and easy stand-alone introduction to chromatography, Collins and Taylor (p 21) also remind us of several other or a supplement to a demonstration of the real thing. For a changes that high school teachers have encountered, in their colorful, high-interest column chromatography separation (an article about the American Chemical Society’s second edition of example is in the photo), take a look at “Glowmatography” by Chemistry in the National Science Education Standards. Various Kuntzleman, Comfort, and Baldwin (p 64). They separate the chapters within the book suggest how to address these changes. components of various lightsticks and use the demonstration I highly recommend this book to each of you. to illustrate which reagents in a lightstick must come together to activate the glow. Supporting JCE Online Material http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2009/Jan/abs13.html JCE Classroom Activity #100 The 100th JCE Classroom Activity will make its way to your mailbox next month. We plan to highlight the American
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© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 86 No. 1 January 2009 • Journal of Chemical Education
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