Chemical Education Today edited by
Erica K. Jacobsen Associate Editor, Precollege Chemistry
Laura E. Slocum
Behind the Scenes with Chemistry
Assistant Editor, Precollege Chemistry
Erica K. Jacobsen and Laura E. Slocum
National Chemistry Week (NCW) 2010 marks over a decade of the Journal of Chemical Education coordinating and producing material specifically related to the American Chemical Society's (ACS) chosen annual theme for NCW. We kicked this special coverage off in 2000, in connection with a kitchen chemistry theme focused on food. One piece of the material JCE created in-house back then was an annotated bibliography that we termed a resource paper. I combed through past JCE articles to identify resources that teachers would find useful for their NCW celebrations, whether it took place in a classroom, at a public outreach event, or elsewhere. I remember the hours spent poring over paper copies of back issues of the Journal as I worked my way down lists of articles gleaned from selected keyword and title searches related to food. That resource paper was the first of a string of about a dozen more, each keyed to the ACS NCW or Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) theme for that year. Over the years, work to generate the resource paper transitioned from only looking at paper copies (and skipping over any articles that were from an older issue not readily at hand) to largely looking at articles using the digital archive of past JCE articles. The way things are done has fundamentally changed (or if it has not changed yet, it will). Even though no resource paper will be generated this year, I can imagine what the work might have been like with not only the availability of the digital archive, but also the ability to perform full-text searches of Journal articles through the ACS Publications Web platform. This year's ACS NCW theme is Behind the Scenes with Chemistry, which can relate to a broad collection of topics, such as how special effects are produced in the movie industry and on stage, the science behind pieces of literature, the view some people may have of science and demonstrations as “magic”, and even a connection to forensics and how subtle clues can be used to solve a mystery. Howder, Groen, and Kuntzleman offer a hands-on activity related to the special effects part of the theme: “JCE Classroom Activity #107. And the Oscar Goes to...A Chemist!” (DOI: 10.1021/ed900013z). Students test the ability of different materials to protect a marshmallow from a flame, in the context of how stunt people are able to set themselves on fire for a movie scene and emerge unharmed. The Activity also contains instructions for a demonstration that uses a thermal shield gel similar to gels used by stunt people (see Figure 1). The gel is sprayed onto a hot dog, which is then ignited along with a control hot dog, resulting in dramatic differences in charring by the flame. The authors (and performers!) of “Fusion Science Theater Presents The Amazing Chemical Circus: A New Model of Outreach That Uses Theater To Engage Children in Learning” (DOI: 10.1021/ed100143j) share information on their outreach program, which brings elements of theater and playwriting into the design and performance of a science outreach show. I saw a 1002
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Figure 1. A thermal shield gel can be used to briefly protect human skin from the effects of flame during fire-based stunts in movie scenes. See “JCE Classroom Activity #107. And the Oscar Goes to...A Chemist!”, J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87 (DOI: 10.1021/ed900013z).
shortened version of their show at an ACS National Meeting in 2009, and was excited by how they blend elements of a successful stage show with the learning of science concepts by audience members of all ages. Lynn Diener has produced another offering in a series of NCW-themed News from Online pieces. She highlights online resources related to the theme in her article “News from Online: Lights, Camera, Chemistry!” (DOI: 10.1021/ed1007074). She describes resources in the categories of Bad Science, Chemistry in the Movies, Special Effects, Makeup, and Forensics. A 2009 article by Arrietta Clauss lists past JCE articles connected to movies, television shows, and contemporary books that would also tie in with this year's NCW theme (1). NCW coverage seems to be changing a bit for next year. With 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) (see http://www.acs.org/iyc2011; accessed Aug 2010), ACS is taking a slightly different tack with its celebration of NCW and CCED. To me, it sounds like IYC is an opportunity for a giant, yearlong celebration of chemistry, instead of just during NCW. It is another way to further the NCW goal of uniting ACS local sections with the community to communicate the importance of chemistry to our lives. The ACS Web site will highlight a different aspect of real-world chemistry every day of 2011 through the feature 365: Chemistry for Life. ACS has also produced a plan for quarterly themes, along with threads that will run throughout the entire year. I have been told the theme for the NCW quarter will be health, and that ACS plans to produce a name to correspond with the theme. This is similar to the 2004 NCW theme related to health and wellness. What should we plan for the Journal? What would you like to see? What do you have that can be submitted along these lines?
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Vol. 87 No. 10 October 2010 pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 10.1021/ed1008156 Published on Web 08/23/2010
Chemical Education Today
JCE Classroom Activities CD #51-100 Now Available The second JCE Classroom Activity reprint CD, containing Activities #51-100, is now complete and available for purchase. A limited number of the CDs have been produced, so order yours now! This and any other CDs and paper products previously offered by JCE (Classroom Activity reprint CD #1, the Sherlock Holmes book, Joy of Toys CD, CLIPs CD) will only be available for a limited time, probably through the end of 2010. The cost for each CD is $20 for orders in the United States and $30 for orders outside the United States; discounts are available for those purchasing more than one of the above-listed CDs. To order, please visit the JCE Store at http://store.jce.divched.org/ (accessed Aug 2010), or email
[email protected] for a PDF of the order form. Laura's Take on the Issue I know that I talked about collaborating in the September issue, but does that word ever leave our education vocabulary? I was reminded of it yet again as I read the articles by Smieja, D'Ambruoso, and Richman (DOI: 10.1021/ed900033x) and Duncan, et al. (DOI: 10.1021/ed1000922). I gained a number of thoughtful ideas about ways that I might collaborate with art faculty; in fact, one art faculty member at my institution has been looking for a different type of art course that includes travel. The ideas that I gained from these two articles would incorporate science, especially chemistry, and various avenues of the arts nicely into a 2012 January Term course. Smieja and colleagues extensively describe the travel component of their course and I found the course descriptions, various syllabi, relevant resources, and methods of evaluation in the supporting information materials extremely useful. In Duncan and collaborators' article, the authors describe various art-based activities and these activities' connections to nanoparticles. The activities, many of which focus on the preparation of various types of stained glass, are specifically developed for students at various grade levels, including high school, and one of them is shown in Figure 2. At the 2010 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, Erica and I learned a new approach to JCE Classroom Activity #89: Colorful Lather Printing (2). Bob Becker asked if we had tried to “recycle the shaving cream” and I said, “No, after about four or five marblings, you are done and throw the lather away.” To that response, he said, “Really?” and started to mix all the colors on his plate into the lather and got a lavender color. Then, he added several drops of color, swirled it and marbled several more note cards, without adding any more shaving cream. You can see in Figure 3 that this resulted in a beautiful lavender background on the card, with additional swirls of color. After he left, I mixed his batch and had a terra cotta-colored pile of shaving cream and then added several colors and marbled four more cards. I showed Erica what I had learned when she returned to the booth and she said that we should share this with all of you.
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Figure 2. A participant making a stained glass panel as part of Nano Day in spring 2009. See J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87 (DOI: 10.1021/ed1000922).
Figure 3. Bob Becker's marbled card with the lavender background.
So, Bob Becker, thank you for asking the question and for teaching us something new! Precollege Chemistry Featured Articles 5Howder, C. R.; Groen, K. D.; Kuntzleman, T. S. JCE Classroom Activity #107. And the Oscar Goes to...A Chemist! J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87 (DOI: 10.1021/ed900013z). 5Duncan, K. A.; Johnson, C.; McElhinny, K.; Ng, S.; Cadwell, K. D.; Zenner Petersen, G. M.; Johnson, A.; Horoszewski, D.; Gentry, K.; Lisensky, G.; Crone, W. C. Art as an Avenue to Science Literacy: Teaching Nanotechnology through Stained Glass. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87 (DOI: 10.1021/ ed1000922). Literature Cited 1. Clauss, A. W. Using Popular Culture To Teach Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 1223; DOI: 10.1021/ed086p1223. 2. Hershberger, S. A. S.; Nance, M.; Sarquis, A. M.; Hogue, L. M. Colorful Lather Printing. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 608A-608B; DOI: 10.1021/ed084p608A.
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