from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor

I’m a fairly casual blog follower. There are only a few links of that sort in my Web browser’s bookmarks bar, all maintained by geographically distant friends. When I have a few minutes of downtime and the laptop is running, I’ll “drop in” for a quick update on what’s happening in their lives. It’s an easy way to stay connected. As the header of one friend’s blog states “Since we’re so bad at actual letter writing…” However, the flow of information tends to be one-way. Even though I read the majority of the posts on these particular blogs, I rarely respond to any by posting a comment. Why is this? Laziness over the extra bit of time it takes to comment? Not feeling I have anything earth shaking to comment? The pressure of writing something that sounds intelligent? Knowing that what I write will be Web crawled and cached online? I’m not sure.

Are you aware that this column, editor John Moore’s editorial, and other selected commentaries, have been blogged as part of this National Science Digital Library (NSDL) site since fall 2007? Based on the monthly data I collect using Google Analytics tools, I see that a growing number of people are visiting this blog portion of the Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEdDL) pathway of the NSDL. However, it was only recently that the first comment about the Especially for High School Teachers column was posted. It came by a roundabout journey. I was pleased to have Dick Moran, a teacher I met at the American Chemical Society conference in Boston, email me about the March 2009 column topic of curriculum change. I encouraged him to share his thoughts with a wider audience by posting a comment on the blog. Do you have thoughts to share as you read this or other Especially columns, whether you read hard copies or online? Why not share them? Can we open up a dialogue and transform the communication into a two-way flow? We know you have something worthwhile to say and contribute to the chemical education community. Laura and I both repeat it often, but I’ll say it again: We would love to hear from you.

If you haven’t yet taken the time to visit the ChemEd DL (accessed May 2009), Pharr’s article in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education might be the perfect prompt. She describes the project Today’s Science for Tomorrow’s Scientists, that is “a Web-based tutorial that introduces current scientific research into middle school and high school classrooms while simultaneously correlating with National Science Education Standards.” The resource is freely available as part of the ChemEdDL collection (accessed May 2009). Three tutorials focus on the work done by three chemistry research groups from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They cover the topics of organic chemistry/astrochemistry, inorganic chemistry/catalysis, and biochemistry/peptide design. Pharr also invites others to contribute their own research tutorials to the collection. Are you involved in research or know someone who is? What do you wish students knew about that work?

A bead necklace is used to illustrate the idea of primary and secondary structures of proteins in the Web-based tutorial, “Today’s Science for Tomorrow’s Scientists”.

Laura’s Take on the Issue

from Laura Slocum, JCE High School Associate Editor

In the Book & Media Reviews there are reviews of six Electronic Homework Management Systems, each written by a university-level faculty member who uses that particular system in his or her courses. I appreciate how Cheryl Baldwin Frech, the new editor for this column, coordinates reviews. To find the reviews, visit the table of contents for the June 2009 issue, and see the article links for pages 691-698.

I, too, use an electronic homework system at the high school level. It took me three years to decide which system to use based on the cost per student and “teacher-time” required to manage the systems I evaluated. I had evaluated some of the systems reviewed in this issue, but decided to use CALM: Computer Assisted Learning Method. It is not one of the systems reviewed, but I selected this system because it was not tied to a specific textbook and was free to the teacher and students. I found that it was simple to implement CALM into my curriculum. I assign at least one set of electronic homework assignments (5–8 problems) a week. My students also really like using CALM and many of them go back and use the questions I assign when reviewing for tests. Bettyann Howson and Diane Krone also talked about their use of CALM in their presentation during the High School Program at the ACS National Meeting in Salt Lake City this past March. I think that many of you will find this information about electronic homework systems helpful as you explore the various systems available to you. Like Erica, I encourage you to share your ideas about these or other electronic homework systems that would be helpful for other high school teachers. Share your comments on this blog!

JCE High School Chemed Learning Information Center (CLIC)