Archive for June, 2010

Safety: More Can Always Be Done

Safety in science laboratories, especially chemistry laboratories, should always be a foremost concern. There is always more that can be done to assure that students in science laboratories, both research and teaching, can carry out experiments without accident. This week Chemical & Engineering News, the magazine that goes to all members of the American Chemical […]

Posted in Topics: General, Health, High School, Undergraduate

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Plagiarism Detection Tools

How many of you have had students use the ideas of others inappropriately? Plagiarism has become easier on the Web and many people are not aware of what proper behavior is. A nice collection of online tools for detecting plagiarism is available at http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/online-teaching/plagiarism#q. These will be useful if you have made clear to students […]

Posted in Topics: Ethics, High School, Middle School, Teaching, Undergraduate

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Anybody Using Whiteboards? Your Comments Requested

Do any of you readers have experience with whiteboards? If so, I would be interested in your comments on this article from the Washington Post.
http://bit.ly/9kSHRQ

Posted in Topics: General

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Gulf Oil Spill: A Chemistry Perspective

Chemical & Engineering News, the magazine that goes to all members of the American Chemical Society, has devoted a special issue to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The articles are mostly available to anyone, but a few of them are only available to ACS members. They provide important scientific background for […]

Posted in Topics: Energy, News & Announcements

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Nanotechnology Degree Programs on the Rise

. As recently as a few years ago it was popular to regard nanoscience and nanotechnology as fads that would pass. I recall, for example, being chided by some for using the term “nanoscale” in a first-year college chemistry textbook. But this is one fad that is not passing–at least as measured by the rapidly […]

Posted in Topics: Careers, Education, High School, Undergraduate

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Is Anybody Paying Attention?

Is the only way children will be able to communicate with their parents going to be through Facebook or Twitter?
I was struck by an item in the New York Times (Thursday, June 10, p. D1; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/garden/10childtech.html?scp=2&sq=Scelfo%20&st=cse) that described a toddler who, after numerous attempts to get his mother to respond to a question, tried to […]

Posted in Topics: General

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News Item: Jean Dreyfus Boissevain Lectureship Awards

The Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation has established the Jean Dreyfus Boissevain Lectureship, which  provides an $18,500 grant for a primarily undergraduate institution to bring in a leading researcher to give a series of lectures in the chemical sciences. In addition to presenting lectures, the Jean Dreyfus Boissevain Lecturer is expected to […]

Posted in Topics: General, Undergraduate

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Changes in the ChemEd DL Blog

In the past the ChemEd DL blog contained mainly items from the Journal of Chemical Education. These included editorials that I wrote when I was editor of the JCE and columns written by Erica Jacobsen and Laura Slocum, the high school editors. Other items were reprinted from the JCE when we thought they would be […]

Posted in Topics: General

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