Author Archives: Dr. O'Connor

2014 Chemistry Olympiad

We are now in the process of planning the 2014 Chemistry Olympiad for the local Cleveland section of the ACS. The registration form will be ready in mid-December. The local competition is scheduled for March 16, 2014 at Cleveland State University. More information will be posted in December. The local competition is open to all high school students in the Cleveland Section as well as home schooled students. If you have any questions please contact us using the comment form below.

I look forward to a successful competition in 2014.

We have now added Chemistry Tutorials

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As requested chemistry tutorials are being added under Chemistry Help. At this time we are working on more tutorials to supplement the videos. We should have a nice assortment of tutorials by the end of September 2013. The tutorials will focus on problem solving in chemistry and math. Each tutorial will list one or more suggested videos. We will still produce the video tutorials that many prefer. In the near future we will post self-tests and quizzes with the tutorials and videos.

News at Pathways to Chemistry

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It has been a busy summer, and fall semester is now looming ahead. We are excited about the upcoming General Chemistry Symposium in March 2014. We already have lined up several guest speakers, and we are planning many workshops and talks. More to come later!! We are still working on the newsletter from the last symposium and hope to have it out by the end of August. The Chemistry Olympiad will be held again at CSU in March. We hope to see more schools and home schooled students participate in the next olympiad. We plan to relax for the next few weeks (while working on the newsletter) and then it will be back to work!! We are excited to start a brand new fall semester. Don’t forget the forum is open to all to discuss teaching challenges and anything else that relates to teaching.

Better Pay for Adjuncts

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Better Pay for Adjuncts

“‘Professor Staff’ Dominates Today’s Colleges” is a discussion that was broadcast on NPR, The Sound of Ideas, on Tuesday, June 4, 2013. In the discussion, the lack of benefits and pay for adjunct professors and part-time faculty is addressed. In many colleges and universities up to 70% of courses offered are taught by adjuncts and yet the part-time instructor is the lowest paid and least respected in the academic workplace. Now, colleges and universities are further limiting the hours that adjuncts can teach in order to avoid paying federally required health costs. Many part time instructors already have health care and should not be penalized by these requirements. You can listen to the audio of the interview below or at The Sound of Ideas

Subscribe to our forum to discuss this important topic.

Thanks to all for Making the Symposium a Success

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The General Chemistry Symposium welcomed attendees with two days of informative talks and discussions as well as a social event the first evening with interesting posters, wine, and appetizers. There was a feeling of appreciation at CSU for providing this opportunity for those of us who are dedicated to the effective teaching of chemistry. We hope each year to expand the topics for presentation and discussion and to include teachers also in high schools and middle schools as well as parents of home school children. The main objective of the symposium is to present a forum to discuss the many different aspects and difficulties in teaching our subject. Let’s keep moving forward and upward in our endeavors to teach the subject effectively. Thanks to all that were in attendence. You made the symposium a success. We hope to see everyone next year.

Forum now Available

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We have created several initial forums on Pathways to Chemistry for teachers. Even though this is a chemistry website, the challenges and rewards of teaching are the same regardless of the topic. Both parents that homeschool their children and teachers are welcome to discuss the issues and challenges of teaching in both the classroom and at home. To guarantee your privacy, registration is required to participate in the forums. Once you are registered, you can read posts (right now there are no posts), reply to posts, and start new topics. We can all learn from each other’s experience in teaching. We can discuss topics on teaching techniques, new and old ways to approach subject matter, challenges that we are faced with in our teaching in small and large classrooms and the home classroom, as well as issues that affect our teaching.

Just 4 days until the General Chemistry Symposium

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Everything for the symposium is all set!! Many people have worked hard over the last few weeks and are still working to make sure the event is well organized and enjoyed by all who attend. We are excited to see old friends and meet new ones. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to exchange ideas and share our knowledge about teaching chemistry. It will certainly be an informative session. If you are thinking about attending the symposium, you can still register–it is not too late.
Cheers
Anne

The General Chemistry Symposium: Today’s Challenges for Teachers of Chemistry

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We have all been working hard organizing the General Chemistry Symposium. It will be a very informative couple of days. We are still working on the schedule of talks/posters/workshops, and we have some very interesting topics that will be presented at the symposium. We have all seen many changes over the years, but today in addition to delivering the content of a chemistry curriculum we also face many of the same challenges as we did in the past. Some of these challenges include what to do about cheating, teaching in a large lecture hall, teaching chemistry with limited resources, how to engage students, etc. Should these challenges be addressed culturally or educationally? Do our students understand what it is to be students? Many of these challenges will be addressed at the symposium. Hopefully, together we can come up with solutions to some of these issues that we face everyday as teachers.

We are looking forward to your input and hopefully a resolution to some of these problems. We can do this if we talk and share our experiences as teachers of chemistry.

Chemistry Olympiad 2013 ACS Cleveland Section

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I am in the process of planning the Cleveland ACS Chemistry Olympiad local competition. It is set for March 16, 2013 at Cleveland State University. This year I hope to see more local schools participate. This is a wonderful opportunity for students and teachers. More information about the chemistry olympiad is avaialble on the ACS website.

A school may enter a total of 12 students; only four second year and eight first-year, for participation in the Local Chemistry Olympiad. A $20.00 fee permits a school to enter up to four students and an additional eight students may be added to the competition for a cost of $2.00 per student.

Results of the local examination will be sent to participating teachers by e-mail. Based on these results, the top eleven students, with a maximum of two from the same school, will have the privilege of taking the National Chemistry Olympiad Examination and Practical. The National Exam and Lab Practical will be administered on Friday, April 12, 2013 at Cleveland State University.

Following the National Exam and Practical, twenty students from the U.S. will be selected to attend a two-week training camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy to prepare for the international competition. Based on performance at the camp, four students will be selected to represent the United States in the 45^th Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow, Russia, July 15 – 24, 2012.

Teachers can register their students here.

If you have questions about the chemistry olympiad, please send me an email by filling in the contact form below.

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Introduction To Blog

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Welcome to our chemistry blog. We teach chemistry at the college level and have worked with elementary, middle school, and high school students. We are also married. There is plenty of time for us at the end of the day to discuss chemistry and teaching. We just finished up a very busy spring semester and have already started the summer semester. I am teaching a college chemistry course and Jerry is teaching a chemistry course for middle course teachers and will be teaching preparatory chemistry in the second half of the semester. At the end of each semester Jerry and I recollect both the highs and lows of each semester and try to figure out what teaching methods work and what don’t. We both agree that teaching can be discouraging at times but the big payoffs come from our students’ successes. We believe that there are many other teachers like us that experience both the joys and frustrations of teaching. In our blog we hope to create a forum to share these experiences.

Happy Teaching!!