Category Archives: Teaching Chemistry

Chemistry Lab Page Created

We have created a chemistry lab page. The activities on this page can be used in the classroom or even at home. Most of the activities include everyday household chemicals. If you cannot obtain enough materials for your students you can always use these activities as demonstrations. These activities are also great for homeschooled students. Each lab activity will include a list of materials needed, a procedure, safety tips, and the chemistry involved. The activities are meant to reinforce chemistry concepts taught in the classroom or at home. The activities range from elementary school level up to basic high school level.

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.

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.