Describes a program designed to educate and train selected teachers to utilize hands-on activities, provide inservice workshops for their colleagues, and function as resource persons within their school districts. Discusses participant selection, workshops, and final project overview and evaluation. Concludes that the stated goals of the project…

Focuses on the qualitative methods used to examine a high school science teacher's instructional practice and his students' performance. Explains participation-observation, collection of field notes and documents, pre-post survey, interviews, and analysis of analytic memos; and discusses the teacher's goal of combining skills-based instruction…

Recommends the use of origami to construct models of unit cells and crystalline structures. Provides templates and suggestions for use with students. (DDR)

Describes a sea-water analysis project that introduces qualitative and quantitative analysis methods and laboratory methods such as gravimetric analysis, potentiometric titration, ion-selective electrodes, and the use of calibration curves. Uses a problem-based cooperative teaching approach. (Contains 24 references.) (YDS)

Carries out a naturalistic small-scale study involving a class from a senior high school in Spain over two years. Analyzes students' essays on chemical change using text analysis techniques. Reports the development of four conceptual profiles and the implications of research for the process of teaching the concept of chemical change. (Author/KHR)

Reports an analysis of American Chemical Society electronic journal downloads at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) by individual IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Highlights include usage statistics to evaluate library journal subscriptions; understanding scientists' reading behavior; individual use of articles and of journals; and the…

Examines the short-term effects of online availability on the use of print chemistry journals based on a study at Duke University Chemistry Library. Discusses results that showed a diminished use of the print collection and considers implications for collection management in scientific and technical libraries. (Author/LRW)

Any overhead projector easily can be converted into a simple spectrometer by placing a piece of diffraction grating over the projecting lens. A detailed description of the apparatus and suggested spectroscopy experiments are included. Demonstrations can utilize solutions of cobalt chloride, potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, or…

In this demonstration of the generation and combustion of acetylene, calcium carbide and water are allowed to react in a latex examination glove. Two student volunteers perform the demonstration with instructor guidance. This safe, popular demonstration, originally intended to illustrate the alkyne family of compounds, can be used with a variety…

Examines the self-directed activity of two students who learned about molecular structure by writing computer programs. The programs displayed the solution of a mathematics problem, then the programs were extended to represent several classes of organic molecules. Different ways to enhance mathematical connections to chemistry education are…

Conceptual understanding of chemistry is an important issue in chemistry education. Examination questions with word answers are one way of reinforcing and testing conceptual knowledge and should be included in chemistry courses. Students involved in this study felt they did better on numerical questions and poorer on conceptual questions than they…

Describes four chemical terms that students with well-considered reasons use in a way that is not accepted in chemistry. From 4300-7500 senior high school students completed a series of multiple choice tests while other groups of students participated in discussions about the problem situations. Contains 34 references. (DDR)

Presents an activity in which students investigate the chemistry behind color-changing markers. Includes the objectives, materials, procedures, and follow-up for the activities. (DDR)

With "Chemical Abstracts" and "Science Citation Index" both now available for citation searching, this study compares the duplication and uniqueness of citing references for works of chemistry researchers for the years 1999-2001. The two indexes cover very similar source material. This analysis of SciFinder Scholar and Web of…

Describes a project involving the development, application, and evaluation of a virtual chemistry laboratory (VCL) that involves basic step-by-step laboratory procedures and simulates real laboratory activities. Presents the program in terms of tutorial, VCL, and evaluation, and a section that allows instructors to create their own tests. (KHR)