Wednesday, August 26, 2015

NEACT 76th Summer Conference


Members of the NEACT Executive Committee
Mel Govindan opens the day with a warm welcome.
The NEACT 76th Summer Conference was a fun and action-packed one day event at Clark University.  The day started with a welcome from Mel Govindan, the NEACT President, for the approximately seventy participants. He enthusiastically greeted the new faces in the crowd along with many long-time members of the group.  Prof. Nancy Budwig, the Associate Provost and Dean of Research for Clark University, also welcomed us to her beautiful campus.  Clark provided us with a great location for our one-day workshop with lecture halls, classrooms, lab space, and a banquet for dinner.

Prof. Nancy Budwig from Clark University made us all feel right at home.
Mary Christian-Madden introducing Sr. Mary Virginia Orna
Sr. Mary Virginia Orna entertaining the crowd with her scientific story telling.
Our first speaker of the day was Sr. Mary Virginia Orna from the College of New Rochelle. Sr. Orna has an impressive list of publications and accomplishments in chemistry the include non-profit organizations, government service, industry, and of course teaching.  She entertained us with her unique style of story telling that blends together historical events, scientific discoveries, and the people behind the chemistry.  Her first talk was titled "Historic Mineral Pigments: Colorful Benchmarks of Ancient Civilizations".  Sr. Orna took us on a journey through time, looking through the lens of pigments.  She painted a colorful picture of how ancient civilizations around the world incorporated pigments into artwork.  The lecture had a feel of a wonderful travel log, as she shared her experiences traveling around the world to see the ancient artwork first hand.  Our group was captivated by her breadth of knowledge and deep understanding of the chemistry behind the enduring pigments from ancient artists. You can read about her study of pigments and color in her book The Chemical History of Color (a few lucky folks got to take home a signed copy of her book as a door prize!).











After our morning in the lecture hall with the whole group, we split into smaller groups for three rounds of concurrent sessions.  The offerings included technology applications in the chemistry classroom, lab activities, research talks, lab safety, and a trip to the local art museum.  The choices for the day provided topics of interest for participants from a wide range of teaching environments. I chose to attend one classroom strategy workshop, the safety talk, and one lab workshop.  Sr. Orna offered to give another talk about the "Undiscovered Elements" of the periodic table, based on her book The Lost Elements.

You can read the descriptions of the concurrent sessions on this google doc: Short Program Descriptions.
A group of teachers working together to computer simulations from Concord Consortium.

Daniel Damelin from Concord Consortium led a workshop on using modeling in the chemistry classroom

Dr. Jim Kaufman presented an excellent talk about lab safety.

Participants are experimenting with redox reactions that produce color changes with different indicators.

Dr. Mathangi Krishnamurthy from Fitchburg State University led a lab program.


The group gathered for the annual NEACT banquet, where we were treated to an Italian themed meal. We all enjoyed time to discuss the workshops from the day and to get to know our fellow chemistry teachers over a relaxed meal. At the banquet, Kathy Siok was awarded the John J. Swistak Award. This award was in recognition of Kathy's work behind the scenes for the summer conference every year, along with her many years of service to NEACT in a wide range of roles. It was a pleasure to join in thanking Kathy for all of her dedication our group.
Kathy Siok was the recipient of the John J. Swistak Award for 2015 in honor of her years of service in NEACT.
The day ended on a high note with one more talk from Sr. Orna titled "Fashion, Pharmaceuticals, Food and Fun: the Chemical History of Color". This talk was the perfect complement to the morning talk about pigments. Her creative discussion about the application of color in modern culture gave us a new perspective on the objects around us. Once again, her fluency with both the chemistry and history, punctuated by her research excursions, made this an inspiring ending to a wonderful day.

Now it's time to look ahead to next summer! The 77th NEACT Summer Conference will be going back to the usual four-day format. Plans are already in place for an exciting conference at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Mass. The theme for the conference is "Chemistry, Naturally". Look for more information for presenters and participants on the NEACT website. Here's a link to the flier for Summer 2016. I hope to see you there!




Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Making Friends at ChemEd15





Jean and I met in Texas at ChemEd'07.  She's my Canadian doppelgänger and my biggest fan.  Catching up with Jean is always the highlight of my week at ChemEd.
The best part about ChemEd is reconnecting with friends and meeting new people. This week was no exception.  Here are a few of my ChemEd friends, both from previous years and new this year.

We met Ben at the registration desk from the very start of the conference.  Here we are getting a little silly at the tailgate party on Friday night.


Micaela, Tim and Alyssa worked together to test the thermal conductivity of different metals in the chemistry of food workshop.  ChemEd was a great bonding opportunity for Tim, Micaela, and me before the year starts.  (bad pun, sorry)

Yvonne is a new friend from Canada.  She's the Canadian Chemistry Teacher of the year and runner up in the So You Think You Can Demo competition this year.  Her daughter came to ChemEd for the kids camp.

Kathryn and Jen are both friends that we meet at ChemEd13.  Jen, another Canadian friend, is always up for anything fun going on at the conference.

Kathyrn, Liz, and I are all part of the "Chemistry Teahcer and Mother of Three Club".  We enjoyed a fun lunch together sharing stories about teaching and raising kids.

I met Stacey in the BWI Airport.  She noticed my science t-shirt while we were waiting at the gate for our flight to Atlanta.  She asked "Are you a chemistry teacher?"  We both had a good laugh. I was very happy to see that she was leading a workshop on ChemMatters.  You can read more about her workshop at this link.


These enthusiastic chemistry teachers came out for our workshop on chemical reactions.  It was great fun to share ideas with these experienced chemistry teachers.  Melissa (second row, second in from the left) came all the way from Australia for ChemEd15.

I hope to collaborate with these folks throughout the year through the BaseCamp website for the ChemMatters workshop.






Monday, August 3, 2015

ChemMatters Workshop at ChemEd15

Workshop leaders Kathleen, Marta, Steve, Susan, Stacey, Lisa, Kathleen, and Patrice
ChemEd is a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with chemistry teachers from around the world.  When I looked through the program for ChemEd15, "Advancing Scientific Literacy with Inquiry Lesson Plans Using ChemMatters Magazine"  jumped out at me.  I love the ChemMatters magazine, and I never quite do enough work on scientfic literacy with my classes.  The inquiry lessons piece also a hook for me.  The workshop was led by Kathleen Cooper, Marta Gmurczyk, Steve Long, Susan Cooper, Stacey Haas, Lisa Culberson, Kathleen Chesmel, and Patrice Pages.  I was thrilled to join this group of enthusiastic teachers to create new lessons that incorporate articles from ChemMatters.  Not only did I walk away with a lesson of my own, but I also joined a network of teachers who are working with these same resources in their classrooms.  Through the Basecamp website, all the members of this workshop will continue to collaborate throughout the school year and beyond.

Lisa, Lynda, and I working in a small group on "Why Cold Doesn't Exist" lesson.
There were five articles that we could choose from for the workshop.  We split up into small groups to work on an article of our choice.  I decided to work on the article "Does Cold Exist" because I love my thermochemistry unit.  Lynda and I joined Lisa, who was our group leader, to collaborate on a lesson that uses the article as an integral part of the work.  We spent most of our hour talking through the thermochemistry activities that we do with our students.  We had fun stitching together pieces from all of our units into a more complete experience for our students.  The article served as an important launch pad into our thermochemistry unit.  What I realized while working with them is that the ChemMatters article can effectively replace the text book reading on heat and energy.  The article developed not only the basic terminology, but also particle diagrams and graphical analysis of some specific examples of heat exchange.  You can take a look at our lesson at this link.  Thank you, Lynda for finding time after the workshop to type up our work.

After we worked for an hour on our lessons, the whole group came back together to share and discuss our ideas.  Each article tackled a different piece of the chemistry curriculum.  The range of topics in the magazine articles, along with their engaging text, make them a good fit for high school science classes.  I have set a goal for myself to use one ChemMatters article for each unit throughout the school year.  With the five from the workshop, I'm about a third of the way there!

These were the articles we worked on during the workshop:
How Toxic Is Toxic
by Brian Rohrig (December 2014)

Why Cold Doesn't Exist
by Michael Tinnesand (Oct 2013)

I met Stacey at the BWI airport on the way to Atlanta, and then reconnected in her workshop.
Smartphones, Smart Chemistry
by Brian Rohrig (April 2015)

Salting Roads: The Solution for Winter Driving
by Doris Kimbrough (Feb 2006)

The Death of Alexander Litvinenko
by Audrey Keown (April 2007)

If you go to the ChemMatters website, you can find teacher resources for many of the most recent articles with "ready to use" lessons that you can adapt to your students.  The folks at ACS are eager to get these great resources into teachers hands and into chemistry classrooms.