News from Journal House

Details of Periodic Table Live!—Go to the Wiki

Last month we introduced the new Periodic Table Live! (PTL) as part of the Chemical Education Digital Library. For each element, PTL contains videos showing chemical reactions, a fully manipulable crystal lattice and unit cell (Jmol image), lots of data on the macroscopic and atomic levels, and a general description of discovery, uses, and other properties. You can also list in a table, sort, and graph data for each element, and there is a glossary where chemical terms used in PTL are defined.

PTL is a great resource for teachers of science from middle school through graduate school, but there’s even more. We have just made available a wiki that allows anyone to contribute to the information and data in PTL. Scroll down to the Collections section, and click on Periodic Table Live! You are invited to contribute to the description of each element and to the biographical material on each of the scientists currently mentioned in those descriptions. Soon you will also be able to contribute to the glossary and other aspects of PTL. We invite you to use the program and also to contribute your expertise to this major collaborative project in chemical education.

Share the JCE Experience: Organize a Workshop

Report from the West Coast

For a group of seven chemistry teachers in Oregon, “Our Favorite Chem Lessons and Activities” included two JCE Classroom Activities. This past October, the group led a presentation by that title at the Oregon Science Teacher Association conference at LaSalle High School in Portland, OR. Peggy Bromley shared “A Kool Reaction from the Fine Print” and “Colorful Lather Printing”. Both Activities were popular with the 60–70 teachers who attended the hands-on session. In addition to Bromley, the group included Bernie Carlsen (recently named the Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher for the Portland Section of the American Chemical Society), Lori Lancaster, Angela Hoffman, Ellen Reynolds, Rachel Marble, and Rosa Hemphill.

If you’d like to share JCE materials at a conference or workshop, please contact Linda Fanis of our Outreach Office. We’re happy to email PDFs of Activities for photocopying as handouts, along with other JCE freebies such as recent issues, special subscription offers, temporary JCE Online passwords, pencils, and more. It’s your journal—please help spread the news about it!

Opportunity on the East Coast

Don’t miss three JCE-related presentations at the March 2008 National Science Teachers Association conference in Boston. In the program, you’ll find:

• Bringing Chemistry Home. Julie Cunningham; Thursday, March 27, 2–3 p.m.

This hands-on workshop, Julie will show participants how she uses JCE Classroom Activities as take-home labs with her students in Lake Mills, WI. She finds them an excellent way for students to experience chemistry outside of the classroom and a unique method for involving family members.

• Publishing Your Chemical Education Ideas: What, How, When, Where, Why? Erica Jacobsen; Friday, March 28, 11 a.m.–noon

This presentation will share information on why a teacher might be interested in getting published in a professional journal, will provide tips to get started, and will discuss common fears and obstacles.

• A Tasty Lesson: Using the Senses of Taste and Smell to Teach the Basics of the Cell. Lynn Diener and Robert Payo; Saturday, March 29, 11 a.m.–noon

Participants in this hands-on workshop will investigate taste and smell by attempting to fool their taste buds using a JCE Classroom Activity. They will also explore the JCE Featured Molecules resource and learn ways it can be used in the classroom. These resources are available as part of the ChemEd DL and the National Science Digital Library.

To participate in these workshops, check your conference program for up-to-date room information, and join us for these free, fun, and informative programs.

Share Your Work at NSTA

If you’ve been published in JCE and plan to attend the 2009 NSTA conference in New Orleans, please consider submitting a presentation or workshop proposal to share your work. The online session proposal form is available (accessed Dec 2007). Proposals are due by April 15, 2008.

Awards Announced

Environmental Education Award

The winner of the first Richard C. Bartlett Environmental Education Award has been announced by the National Environmental Education Foundation:

• Debra Weitzel, Middleton High School, Middleton, WI

The award, intended to increase environmental consciousness nationwide, recognizes a teacher who brings this concept to the classroom. Weitzel is a high school environmental science teacher. She believes that environmental education should be a requirement in every school. She says, “I find that the most rewarding part about this experience is looking at course evaluations at the end of the year, when students comment that learning about the environment opens their eyes to what they can do to make a difference”.

Information about the organization, the guidelines for the Bartlett Award, and Weitzel’s acceptance speech is available online (accessed Dec 2007).

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Pittcon Invited Symposia for 2008

The Pittsburgh Conference has announced the Invited Symposia topics that will be offered at Pittcon 2008, to be held March 2–7, 2008 in New Orleans. In addition to the conventional areas of focus such as pharmaceutical science, bioanalytical chemistry, and environmental chemistry, there will be several new symposia:

• The Archeology of the French Explorer La Salle’s 1684 Wrecked Ship La Belle: Artifact Preservation Using Polymers
• Art and Medicine in Epic Times: The Analytical Chemist’s View
• Science for Art
• 50 Years of SAS: Looking to the Future with Atomic Spectroscopy
• 50 Years of SAS: Looking to the Future with Vibrational Spectroscopy
• Astrochemistry: It’s Out of This World!

A complete listing of all sessions in the technical program is available online (accessed Dec 2007).

Meeting and Hands-On Symposium: International Year of Astronomy

The 120th annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, cosponsored with, and part of, the 2008 summer meeting of the American Astronomical Society, will be held May 31–June 3, 2008, in St. Louis, MO. The meeting title is Preparing for the International Year of Astronomy: A Hands-On Symposium. The International Year of Astronomy is 2009.

At this meeting, education and outreach professionals will gather to discuss international, regional, and local programs for the International Year, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of the astronomical telescope. Included are a symposium for education and outreach professionals and two days of hands-on demonstration workshops for diverse audiences. For more information, go to the meeting Web site (accessed Dec 2007).

Free Instructional Support CD

The Partnership for Research in Science & Math Education (PRISM) Project is a university/K–12 school partnership program designed to provide resources for high school teachers and students. PRISM is supported by National Science Foundation grant from the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K–12 Education program. This partnership program, one of 56 in the nation, supports science and mathematics graduate students to provide resources for high school students and teachers in local school districts, including materials suitable for high school chemistry.

The program will gladly send teachers a free instructional support CD that contains 1000s of pages of highly animated PowerPoint presentations, lecture outlines, worksheets (with answer keys typed in an equation editor), and laboratories. All worksheets can easily be edited using Microsoft Word. Teachers may modify the materials as they wish, but are asked not to post the materials online. All files (except answer keys) can be viewed online (click on Chemistry or AP Chemistry in the toolbar) (accessed Dec 2007).

To receive a free CD, contact Jeff Christopherson at and include your school name, address, and preferred email contact information.

Science Safety Guide from NSTA

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) announces the publication of The NSTA Ready Reference Guide to Safer Science by Kenneth Russell Roy. It is described as a need-to-know survival guide for middle school teachers, principals, science resource coordinators, and science supervisors. It includes the latest NSTA Position Statements.

To find more information as well as to read or download a free sample chapter, go to the Web site (accessed Dec 2007).

Social Network for Educators

Ed2Chat.Com has announced that it is offering educators, professors of education, and students aspiring to be educators the ability to join the first free social site devoted solely to educators. The move follows three years of extensive research with teachers, principals, superintendents, students, and professors. Educators will be able to create their own profiles complete with photos of themselves, their classroom, descriptions of their favorite books, and quotes. Each member of Ed2Chat.Com will have full access to view other educator’s profiles, join the thousands of forums, view daily updates of educational news, purchase school supplies at a discount, choose to meet other single educators, and search the Ed2Chat database of educational Web sites that have been screened for quality. Educators will also gain access to free lesson plans, classroom decoration ideas, and professional development opportunities in their state.

Ed2Chat.Com (accessed Dec 2007) also offers school districts and teacher unions the ability to set up their own learning management system without charge in order to track professional development, enable teachers to place their resumes online for new jobs in the district or union, and post announcements to the district or union.