The Leadership for Professional Learning (LfPL) Symposium is a gathering of about 100 K-12 school leaders and teachers, researchers, and graduate students from around the world, who come together to share ideas about common challenges and goals in education, as well as strategies they are using to support school leadership, teacher leadership and professional learning for educators. This year many of our participants will be from Maine and Florida as well as other states and countries. This meeting is held every two years in different countries, and this is only the second time it's been held in the US.

This year the symposium is being held at UMaine, June 29-July 2nd. Registration closes May 10th. Click here for information.

On April 9th, seven teachers joined me in pondering how to teach thermodynamics. The video of the 'Chat can be found here.

A lively discussion was held on the issue of particle modeling. Most thermodynamics is taught from a mathematical or statistical point of view. How does one model enthalpy? We ended up with bond energy-distance graphs but no "traditional" particle models.

How deep is deep enough was another topic. While there are guidelines for AP classes, below that lies a huge variation in how much thermo gets covered. Check out the video for more details.

The remaining ChemChats this year are:

• May 7th Phenomenon-Based Chemistry (registration now open)
• June 11th Books and Articles: Recommended Reading for Teachers and Students

-  Sue Klemmer, ChemChat Facilitator

10 teachers joined me for a dynamic discussion oh how to rep for the AP exam.We also diverged for a bit on how to keep students engaged: clickers, group whiteboards, and Socrative were all recommended.

As for AP prep, we started with a presentation from Carlin Robinson on a free part of PIVOT. Here is her email. She can sign you up for a limited time free access to the AP test prep and lab materials.

We then discussed favorite online expert resources. So many good resources were mentioned that I have a link to the Chat so you can see everything that was posted. [We didn't end up putting anyting in thenususal google.drive folder.] The big names were Michael Farabaugh  (one place to start is here), Sue Briggs, Kristen Vanderveen and Bozeman Science. And of course the AP Central released test questions, found here.

Here is a link to the video of the Chat.

The next ChemChat will be held Thursday, April 9th from 4-5 pm EST. The topic is THERMODYNAMICS.

The remaining ChemChats for this school year will be May 7th (Phenomenon Based Chemistry, back by popular demand) and June 11th (send me a topic!). Then I take a break for July and restart in August.

Five teachers spanning the USA from CA to New England had a wide-ranging discussion of electrochemistry. You will find a lot of activity and information in the google folder here. The video of the ChemChat is here. And I am trying something new this month: here is a link to the ChemChat chat text. These "conversations" have links that can be useful. Let me know if you want this to continue (sklemmer@mac.com).

Highlights of the discussion included what activities gave the best "bang for the buck" when time is limited: we agreed some type of electrolysis is probably the best at getting multiple core concepts across. But we also looked at redox activities, galvanic cells, metal reactivity vs. standard potentials, and resourc es such as the ChemMatters archive of articles and APTeach.

Here are the upcoming ChemChats, all held on Zoom from 4:00-5:00 pm EST.

• March 12th: Prepping for the AP Test
• April 9th: Thermodynamics
• May 7th: Phenomenon-Based Chemistry
• June 11th: TBA

Stay warm, my fellow chemists -

Sue Klemmer, ChemChat facilitator

Four teachers joined me Jan. 7th to talk about their favorite demos. We started with a request for demonstrations on solubility and intermolecular forces, and variations of the "mix-water-and-alcohol" phenomenon were offered. Mixing the two in a small diameter glass tube showed  the most dramatic reduction in volume (fill half with water, then the other half with alcohol, cap and mix), while doing it in a graduated cylinder allowed a quantitative measurement of the reduction. We wondered how much difference in reduction would result from using different alcohols, and some suggested coloring the water. Also, it was was noted that adding salt would reconstitute separate alcohol and saltwater layers.

   We then touched on the reduction of copper oxide to copper (see Royal Society video here) and of malachite (see this Royal Society video) and noted a good manual on microscale gas experiments that includes "gassing copper" might still be around (Microscale Gas Chemistry by Mattson, Anderson and Mattson). The conversation also included favorite silver nitrate demos and a cool gas law demo: connect a small balloon and a big balloon with a stopcock. Predict what happens when you open the stopcock. Surprise! The gas from the small balloon rushes into the larger balloon. Hmmmm.

   Unfortunately I botched the video so this one is not available. Sigh.

The next ChemChat open discussion will be held Feb. 12th and the topic is "Electrochemistry". Registrations are open under "Events".

- Sue Klemmer, ChemChat facilitator

Ten teachers gathered to share ideas on what to do at the end of the year, when both focus and attendance can be low. 

Various "snow labs" started the discussion, and we all agreed it was important to avoid Christmas references in most schools in order to be inclusive.

The discussion then ranged into lots of different content areas, from playing with ice to absorbant polymers and saturated solutions to the distillation of wood. Multiple files can be found on this google.drive folder.

The Zoom recording can be found here.

The next ChemChat will be held on Thursday, January 8th from 4-5 pm. The topic is "favorite demonstrations". Registrations are open: see "Events".

At this point I am soliciting topics for February through June. You can send them to me at sklemmer@mac.com

Ten teachers had a very informative and lively discussion about AI in the Classroom, looking at both the teacher side and the student side. Two podcasts were recommended for those who want to explore this further: skills21.org/podcast has several, and PBS's Wonder of Science posted this one. There is also a rich diversity of resources in our google folder.

Want to watch the ChemChat? It is available on YouTube here.

Upcoming ChemChats:

• Dec. 11th 4 pm EST "Holiday Chemistry"
• Jan 8th 4 pm EST "Favorite Demonstrations (postponed from October)

Seven teachers joined me in a lively discussion of how to use google classroom and the google suite of products. We ended up not saving any resources to a folder, but you can go here to see a recording of the 'Chat.

A highlight of the discussion revolved around organization. Several system for organizing materials for students were tossed around, including folders and icons. It was noted that learning how to organize information, whether in real paper folders or some digital format, is a valuable soft skill that is unlikely to become outdated any time soon. YOu can find a YouTube recording of the 'Chat here.

A second highlight was Sean Regan's sharing of his conditional formating of google.drive spreadsheets to make interactive lessons. If you are a member of AACT ( highly recommended!) try this link to read an article on his work.

Registration for the Oct. 9th ChemChat on Favorite Demonstrations is now open in "Events". Note that ChemChats, unlike division workshops, are open to nonmembers of NEACT.

The remaining fall NEACT ChemChats are:

Oct 9th Favorite Demos

Nov. 13th AI in the Chem Classroom

Dec. 11th Holiday Chemistry (or What to I do when half the class has left for vacation?)

12 teachers had a lively discussion of real world chemistry. This piggybacked on the Summer Conference, which had the same theme. One resource that was mentioned a lot was AACT. Did you know that for members you can not only find activities and lessons, but also watch any of their webinars? AND they have all 33 years of ChemMatters articles, fully indexed. AACT is found at https://teachchemistry.org/.

This google.drive folder has a great lab on titrating yellow mustard, plus a very smelly lab, and one of the ChemMatters articles: The Crash of Flight 143, which crashed due to a dimensional analysis error.

The video of the ChemChat can be found here.

Please join us Sept. 11th for a look at the google suite of programs. Need help with google classroom or have a cool tip? We'll be online from 4-5 pm EST. See Events for registration.

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