We’ll Make You a Better Teacher:
Learning from Guitar Techniques
by Thomas J. Greenbowe, Chair, ACS Division of Chemical Education
Last June our Division of Chemical Education held a strategic planning session, and I was on the committee that reviewed comments and questions submitted in response to a survey of DivCHED members. Two questions really struck me:
I have […]

The theme for this year’s Chemists Celebrate Earth Day is Water—Streaming Chemistry. As we do every February, the JCE editorial staff has collected a broad range of articles in support of that theme. We hope this issue, and others we have done in the past, are really useful for those who are planning Earth Day […]

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor
The unofficial Marine Corps motto that is the title of this column was brought into popular culture by the gravelly voice of Clint Eastwood in the 1980s film “Heartbreak Ridge”. I don’t claim to have anywhere near the constitution or character of a Marine, but the motto has […]

The title is a variation of the motto on the coat of arms of the state of Michigan: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice. Looking about the Journal of Chemical Education is perhaps more complicated than seeking and viewing a pleasant peninsula, but it can be equally rewarding. Because this issue marks the beginning of the […]

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor
A family friend designs, builds, and sells furniture made from used wine barrel staves. His journey of developing production methods over the past couple of years has led him into new territory. He’s played a bit of the chemist, experimenting with the use and resulting look of various […]

“Scholarship in the chemical sciences and engineering may include discovery of chemical principles, integration of chemical knowledge within both formal academic and informal public arenas, application of chemical knowledge to new problems and situation, and the study of teaching and learning of chemistry and related sciences.”
American Chemical Society
 
Opportunities for Collaborations Among Scholars
The Board of Directors […]

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor
Growing up, I moved through a series of career choices. Early on, being a professional tennis player was high on the list. I admired two top women’s players, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert-Lloyd. However, sheer lack of talent nixed that idea. After that, being an optometrist was my […]

All of us can learn a lot when a very effective teacher communicates about teaching. An example is an interview with Eleanor Siegrist, this year’s winner of the James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching, that begins on p 1408. Reading Siegrist’s answers to the Journal’s questions led me to think further about […]

It is easy to find fault with political discourse in the
United States. The number of complaints that our system is broken, in proportion to the total population, is about the same as the number of complaints that our chemical education system is broken, in proportion to the number of chemical educators. But neither system shows […]