This paper summarizes my experience with teaching a first-year, General Chemistry course to a visually impaired student. This includes accommodations and modifications for both the lecture material and the laboratory. Included are also examples of formats and syntax for txt-based quizzes, tests, and laboratory reports, as well as other general…

There are many ways in which wire coat hangers can be used other than for suspending clothes. The author has been making use of them in his teaching for many years--copying ideas from colleagues and creating some for himself. In this article, he shares five examples that can enrich learning about science. (Contains 6 figures.)

In my previous article on apparatus named after physicists and physics teachers, I discussed five relatively common pieces of apparatus from the 1875-1910 era. Now I will go back to the 18th and early-19th centuries to discuss eponymous apparatus that we are still using in lecture demonstrations. [For Part I, see EJ912907.]

As an astronomy instructor I am always looking for commonly experienced Earthly phenomena to help my students and me understand and appreciate similar occurrences elsewhere in the solar system. Recently I wrote short "TPT" articles on frost and precipitation. The present article is on winds in the solar system. A windy day or storm might…

Lynne Cherry Brandwein Lecture March 2010 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference, Philadelphia, PA. Young Voices on Climate Change: Inspired and Empowered Youth Tackle Climate Science and Find Climate Solutions. As a child, Lynne Cherry was profoundly connected to the natural world and a special place. She watched the destruction…

Five years ago, a pair of science teachers at Woodland Park (Colorado) High School turned their pedagogical approach upside down. Rather than stand up in front of the classroom, they sent their respective students home with videos of themselves lecturing. And rather than assigning traditional homework, work that most students could get tripped up…

This article features two high school chemistry teachers, Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann, who have overturned conventional classroom instruction by using video podcasts to form the root of a new learning model. Thumbing through an issue of "MacWorld" a few years ago, Aaron Sams was struck by an article about an application called ProfCast that…

Many college science educators have moved away from the traditional lecture format and toward learner-centered classroom environments. Yet many of us struggle to cover large content loads, reverting at times to rote memorization. This paper suggests rote memorization simply does not work and students must be actively engaged to learn. (Contains 1…

In the past few decades, the physics teaching community has witnessed a surge in creative and often effective ways of using technology to improve physics instruction. Most of these findings suggest how technology can help instructors create interactive learning environments and how interactivity influences the effectiveness of physics learning.…

Described are different chemistry curricula that use lecture-experiments. Different components are discussed within the lecture-experiment format, such as determinism, memory, note taking, descriptive chemistry, and holistic chemistry. Also discussed are different personalities in chemistry education. (DS)

Described is a workshop for graduate students and faculty members that focused on improvement of teaching methods. Topics included were: common weaknesses of inexperienced lecturers, diagnosing teaching weaknesses, elements of a good lecture, creating an atmosphere of participation, Piaget's developmental psychology, behavioral objectives,…