Ideas for Teaching Chemistry
Ideas for Teaching Chemistry
Be sure you are familiar with all safety requirements before selecting an activity and purchasing and using chemicals.
Chemistry for Informal Educators content on howtosmile.org funded by The Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation.
"Skeletal chemistry"
Chemistry tends to be difficult for many students, partly because of the challenges in both teaching and understanding how macroscopic observations relate to the nanoscale behavior of particles. Research suggests that focusing on the most important concepts can help students build their understanding.
The following nine lists of howtosmile.org activities are organized based on a set of core concepts in chemistry that were proposed by chemist Peter Atkins in his article "Skeletal chemistry."
- Matter is atomic ("Skeletal chemistry" 1 of 9)
- Elements display periodicity ("Skeletal chemistry" 2 of 9)
- Chemical bonds form when electrons pair ("Skeletal chemistry" 3 of 9)
- Molecular shape ("Skeletal chemistry" 4 of 9)
- There are residual forces between molecules ("Skeletal chemistry" 5 of 9)
- Energy is conserved ("Skeletal chemistry" 6 of 9)
- Entropy tends to increase ("Skeletal chemistry" 7 of 9)
- There are barriers to reaction ("Skeletal chemistry" 8 of 9)
- There are only four types of reaction ("Skeletal chemistry" 9 of 9)
Demonstration Ideas
- COSI's "Chemistry for Museums: A Manual of Chemistry Demonstrations"
- Sciencenter "Chemsations!" demonstration show
- Hubert Alyea, 1955: "Atomic energy, weapon for peace" 1955
- Hubert Alyea, 1985: "Lucky Accidents, Great Discoveries and the Prepared Mind"
- Flinn "Teaching Chemistry eLearning Video Series" -- Sample Episodes
- Bassam Shakhashiri's videos and teaching guides
- ExploScience Demo Videos
- Kentchemistry's Chemical Demonstration Videos
