4 teachers from NH, ME, MA, and Korea (yes, this brave soul got up at 5 am to join us!) held a wide-ranging discussion on June 12th. We started out sharing the realities of teaching in small schools, such as teaching in rooms not equipped for chemistry and with very limited equipment, and teaching 2 levels of chem at the same time in the same space.  We moved on to handling AP under these conditions and everyone agreed you do the best your can with what you've got. Can't do some of the labs? Then dig into other aspects of the curriculum such as good experimental analysis techniques or particle modeling. I did not record this session. Two resources that were mentioned during the 'Chat were Adrian Dingle's Chemistry Page for AP resources and the use of simple alcohol burners (like these on amazon) when gas is not available.

   ChemChats goes on break for July, but will be back on August 21st (a little later in the month than our usual 2nd Thursday) at 4 pm. A topic has not yet been chosen, but registration will be open shortly and when I have a topic I will amend the registration notice.

- Sue Klemmer, ChemChat moderator

ChemChats are a service NEACT offers freely to all chemistry teachers everywhere: nonmembers are welcome.

On May 7th eight teachers from Maine to Wisconsin had a lively conversation about "End of the Year Activities". You can find the Zoom recording here.

A variety of options were discussed, from extended labs and experimental projects to research opportunities to  deeper dives into curriculum topics not touched during the year. You can find some of these ideas in our resource folder on google.drive, uploaded here. (You can still add to this folder, too!)

The last ChemChat of the 2024-2025 school year will be held June 12th from 4:00-5:00 pm EST. The topic is "Summer Work for Students". Registration is now open in "Events".

Note that ChemChats will take a break in July. ChemChats will resume August 14th, Registration for that event will open July 1st (there will be an email that goes out to members). The tentative topic is "Beyond the Textbooks: Other Books for Chem Classes."

If i don't see you in June, have a wonderful end of your year,

Sue Klemmer, ChemChat moderator

We had quite an animated discussion on EL learners in Chemistry on April 10th, ranging from cultural aspects (students afraid to share their country of origin due to political issues in the US and abroad) to specific curriculum challenges (the abstract nature of chemistry makes it one of the harder sciences for bridging language barriers).

We had some bright spots in our discussion as well. Sean Regan shared an article he wrote for AACT that you can find here. Its about a technique applicable not only to EL students but to all students. And we thought it would be great to remind folks of AACT's webinar archive, which you can find here. Sean gave a webinar on 4/12 which should be uploaded soon.

The recording of the April 20025 ChemChat can be found here.

The May ChemChat will be held 4:00-5:00 pm EST on May 8th. The topic is "Activities and Topics for the End of the Year. Registration is now open under EVENTS.

ChemChats for the 2024-2025 school year will end on June 12th with the topic "Summer Work for Students". Registration will open May 9th.

We have had three interesting discussions this winter. In January eight teachers joined me in discussing Chemical Literacy. In February 15 folks took a hard look at AI, sharing resources and sharing experiential advantages and problems when using AI as a teacher or having students use AI.  No one left resources on the google.drive for these chats, but you could still add resources for Literacy here and for AI here.I am working at uploading recordings of the Zoom sessions. (Sorry for the delay.) 

Just today we had 9 people talking about Acids and Bases, which the AP teachers are hitting right now. There are a bunch of resources in the google.drive folder here. And the Zoom recording is here.

The April ChemChat will be on Zoom on April 10th from 4:00-5:00 pm EST. The topic is "Assisting Multi-Language Learners in an Inclusive Chemistry Classroom".

In November 21 educators signed up to talk about "Sense-Making". We had a great discussion among nine on how to help students understand what they are seeing in terms of unseen particles: building conceptual understanding form phenomena. We did not end up putting anything in the google.drive folder.  Here is the Zoom recording: we had trouble recording and I only have the 2nd half of the discussion.

In December 9 educators signed up to talk about Teaching in Non-Ideal Spaces. We talked about portable butane burners and alcohol burners, inexpensive centigram or milligram electronic balances (like this one from amazon), and the use of videos to replace demos and labs. We got into a discussion of using historical data and there are some examples in this google.drive folder. A participant tried out the Zoom AI companion to record the ChemChat and we discovered it can't be recorded from 2 sources. So I do not have a recording of this ChemChat.

You can sign up for the January 9th session on Chemical Literacy under Events.

SEPTEMBER: "What's New for 2024-25?" 9/19/24

Nine folks joined me and discussed "What's New for 2024-25?" There was no recording made,  but we did end up with a set of topics that will take us through January 2025. They are listed at the bottom of this report.

OCTOBER: "Green Chemistry" 10/10/24

Eight people joined me for a lively discussion on how to replace labs with toxic chemicals with safer alternatives. Attached here is a link to a document that is an old "recommended not to use" list. [Please ignore the handwritten comments.] The recording of the 'Chat will be up soon.

UPCOMING ChemChats:

• November 21st, 4-5 pm: "Sense-Making" registration now open
• December 12th, 4-5 pm: "Teaching Chemistry in Non-Ideal Spaces"
• January 9th. 4-5 pm: "Chemical Literacy: Can our Students Communicate?"

submitted by Sue Klemmer (sklemmer@mac.com)

The Northern Division of NEACT will hold a 2-part virtual workshop on OpenSciEd (https://www.openscied.org/). This is a nonprofit company that has designed curricula for grades 7-12 that are "different from traditional science curriculum. Our world-class, Next Generation Science standards-aligned instructional materials are designed for how students learn science best. " - OpenSciEd website. My school has found their phenomenon-based, driving question approach to be in line with our own philosophy of teaching, and are spending our departmental PD time this year exploring how their curriculum might be implemented within our program. (Note: The curriculum is not free.)

  During our main evening event a presenter from their partner Kendall Hunt will provide an overview of the Chemistry curriculum in which participants will try out some of the activities. We will follow this up with a shorter afternoon open consultation session with an OpenSciEd staffer to answer specific questions you may have about how OpenSciEd might work in your situation.

I do not have an exact date yet, but am aiming for the last week in January through the first week in February. Stay tuned for more information.

2 minutes into the April ChemChat on "Differentiation", internet died at my location in the midst of driving rain. It came back around 5 minutes later, but the one person that had signed on had left by then and neither of the the other two invitees signed in. So ... enjoy your month, folks!

The May ChemChat is scheduled for 5/9. See "Events" to sign up.

A small  but intense group discussed the problems (and joys) of implementing NGSS in the chemistry classroom. We discussed resources, especially for phenomena around which to craft curriculum and assessments.

• You can see a video of the Zoom here.
• You can access our folder of shared documents here.

See "Events" to register for the March ChemChat. 

14 chemists had a great discussion on "Using Everyday Reactions as Anchoring Phenomena."

You can watch a recording of the chat here.

You can access a folder of shared ideas here.