Chemical Education Today
Especially for High School Teachers by Erica K. Jacobsen
“Only When You Know the Hazards…”
www.JCE.DivCHED.org
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Secondary School Featured Articles 䊕 Amino Acid Complementarity: A Biochemical Exemplar of Stoichiometry for General and Health Sciences Chemistry, by Ed Vitz, p 1013. 䊕 Steel Wool and Oxygen: A Look at Kinetics, by James Gordon and Katherine Chancey, p 1065. 䊕 The Relationship between Balancing Reactions and Reaction Lifetimes: A Consideration of the Potassium– Argon Radiometric Method of Dating Minerals, by William A. Howard, p 1094.
A laboratory by Gordon and Chancey (p 1065) offers a kinetics experiment that uses household chemifrom cals. Students examine the kinetics of the rusting of steel wool as the iron reacts with molecular oxygen. A Vernier oxygen gas sensor is used to collect data that students use to construct graphs to determine the reaction order. ACS National Meetings, Past and Future This past March brought another High School Day, held at the spring ACS National Meeting in San Diego. Teachers enjoyed several presentations, including an opportunity to try the hands-on, taste-buds-on, JCE Classroom Activity “A Cool Drink: An Introduction to Concentrations” (2) and to win great door prizes (see photos). Annis Hapkiewicz also received the James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching (p 979) and presented her award address. The September issue is scheduled to contain an interview with this inspiring educator. August brings the fall National Meeting in Washington, DC. JCE staff will share two presentations at High School Day: “Chemistry Teacher Connection: A Super Bargain for High School Teachers” and “JCE Classroom Activities: How To Use Them and How To Publish One”. See the August issue for program information. Above: Wendy Nicholas displays her newly-won door prize, “The Chemical Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. Left: Diane Krone, Bettyann Howson, and Allene Johnson prepare serial dilutions of Kool-Aid.
Literature Cited 1. Young, J. A. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 444–446. 2. Bedrossian, M. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 240A–240B.
Vol. 82 No. 7 July 2005
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Journal of Chemical Education
969
photos by J. W. Moore
A guardian angel in the chemical storeroom? Maybe not, but I felt like someone was watching over me that day. I was tucked away in the storeroom, sorting through its various treasures before I started my new teaching position that fall. The three plastic soda bottles were perched on a shelf above my head. They each appeared to contain some sort of chemical solution, but I couldn’t make out the handwritten labels as I stood on the ground. I decided to lift them down and put them in the lab prep sink to await further action. I carried the first two to the sink and set them down on the sink bottom. The bottoms of the bottles instantly shattered into dozens of brittle pieces, while their contents mixed and spilled down the drain. The disposal concern was unsettling A dust explosion, enough, but in the aftermath of the incident, CCA! 7. I considered another scenario. What if they had shattered while I was lifting them down, and showered the chemicals on me and the storage shelves below? I located a stepladder and a large dishpan to retrieve the third bottle. I wasn’t taking any chances now that I knew what might happen. This incident came to mind as I paged through Jay A. Young’s most recent Chemical Laboratory Information Profiles, or CLIPs (p 990, 991). The CLIP heading reads “Only when you know the hazards, can you take the necessary precautionary measures.” How true! These safety sheets debuted in JCE in April 2001. In his article “Introducing Chemical Laboratory Information Profiles: CLIPs” (1), Young discussed the problems in acquiring relevant hazard information from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) and labels. He saw a need for a document that described the hazards of a chemical in a manner more useful for teachers and their students, and the result was CLIPs. Two or three new chemicals are included in every issue, and the number of published CLIPs is now over 100. CDs containing more than 100 CLIPs will be available for purchase and as door prizes at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in Washington, DC this August. CDs will be available at the JCE exhibit booth and during the High School Day program. Young will even be autographing CDs at select times during the meeting and will be making a presentation about CLIPs during a CHED symposium on safety. Don’t miss your chance to get your own set of CLIPs! The abstract of Chemistry Comes Alive! (CCA!), Volume 7 (p 1102) also brings safety to the forefront. Many classic demonstrations cannot be performed today due to safety concerns. Sometimes chemicals are deemed too hazardous or cause too much difficulty with disposal. However, the demonstrations can still illustrate important aspects of chemistry. A solution? CCA! Volume 7 includes over 200 QuickTime movies and more than 6700 still images (including images of the movies caught step-by-step) of various demonstrations, mainly flames and explosions (see photo). As the abstract states, the CD “is sure to spark an interest”.
