ChemWest Teacher Network - Recently Updated Pages

Our Next ChemWest Meeting

MrCraddock — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:32:28 CST

Our Next Meeting
Wednesday December 9th
Where:
Niles West High School
5701 Oakton St.
Skokie, IL 60077
STEM center on 3rd Floor for refreshments and a "tour"
Room 3235 for Demos and Discussions
When:
6:30 pm: STEM center on 3rd Floor for refreshments and a "tour"
7:10 pm: Meeting and Demos in Room 3235
Host:
Mike Heinz and the rest of the FABULOUS Niles West Crew
michei@niles-hs.k12.il.us
work phone: 847-626-2770
cell phone: 630-254-3329
Or you can contact us at
kcraddock@d211.org/ chemwest@hotmail.com
Parking:
Park in the Northeast lot off of Oakton (corner of Oakton and Gross Point Rd).
Come in the AUDITORIUM entrance and past the security desk up to 3rd floor - follow the signs.
Theme:
Our theme will be Holiday theme demos with a side of technology. What do you do to celebrate holidays (not just limited to December holidays) and what do you do to incorporate technology into the classroom? Niles West just got a state of the art STEM lab that they will demonstrate. In addition in celebration of technology, we are looking into Podcasting and/or streaming the meeting on the web. More details will come as we figure them out.
Of course feel free to bring anything that you would like to share! If you have never been to a ChemWest meeting, we meet, have fun, share demos and labs that we find successful in our class. The activities do not need to be earth-shattering (even those are cool), or even new, just show your spin on how you "make it work." And if it does not work, that is what we are here for as well. If you are looking to see how others teach a topic or to fix a problem lab, bring it and we will discuss it in a welcoming and comfortable environment. We are here to keep that passion for the classroom alive and share it with others.

We typically have meetings in:

September
November
December
January
February (North Central College Demo Night)
April
May (Sometimes)

If you would like to host one of these meetings, please email me at kcraddock@d211.org.

ACS Chemistry Day 2009

jvilla — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:10:36 CDT

Hello! Mark your calendars- ACS Chemistry day is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 24th. For those of you who have never had the chance to attend- it is a day of celebrating chemistry- talks, activities, demonstrations, “make and takes”, and more. This marks the end of ACS National Chemistry Week. This year’s theme is “Chemistry- It’s Elemental!” This is a GREAT way for new teachrs to get involved in the chemistry community!

This year, I am going to be coordinating the participation by high school teachers and their students. (I am graciously taking over this role from Mike Heinz, our fearless leader/coordinator/chemistry teacher extraordinaire). I am really looking forward to having another successful day of getting students of all ages engaged and excited about chemistry.

Three ways to be involved:
1) CHEMISTRY IDOL: Bring a small group of students to participate in Chemistry Idol. This is the grand finale where students put on demonstrations for other students at the end of the day. See high school students cheering on their classmates performing chemical demonstrations with the same spirit and enthusiasm that is usually reserved for football or basketball teams and games.
2) DEMONSTRATION/HANDS-ON ACTIVITY: Have a table or area where students can come by and see some exciting chemistry. This can be hands-on for small groups or just a demo. You might even want to have your students run the table with you as the supervisor.
3) STUDENTS, STUDENTS, STUDENTS: Bring your own students and/or just help publicize the event. We want to have as many student visitors as possible. (The official flyer that you can handout to your students will follow shortly.)

Here is a little information for Irene Cesa who is coordinating the event: “Chemistry Day will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2009, at DePaul University. We are scheduled from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm and would like the Chemistry Idol show to be the “grand finale,” probably starting at 1:30. DePaul University has a new chemistry building (wing) which is very impressive and they are eager to host the event. I toured the site in June with Avrom and we should have plenty of wonderful space for presentations, lab activities, exhibits, demonstrations, etc.”

Other things: - If you need supplies or kits (i.e. from Flinn Scientific), let me know.
- Students and teachers doing demos should wear goggles at all times as you would for any chemical demonstration.
- No gas will be available for Chemistry Idol.
- As you are planning for an activity or Chemistry Idol, please let me know your topic so we can avoid overlap.
- Also send any questions regarding needs for electrical, table space, etc.
- Here is the website with updates soon to follow:
http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/ChemDay/chemday09.html

Please let me know if you would be willing to join us for chemistry day and how you would like to be involved.

Sincerely, JulieAnn Villa
Niles West High School
(847)626-2798
julvil@niles219.org

p.s. Please pass this information along to other teachers whom you feel might be interested.

Past Meeting Notes and Future Meeting Ideas

MrCraddock — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:02:49 CDT

Look for info here for what you missed at the last meeting and places we could go for future meetings.

Intro Topics

JanelleHollingshead — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:33:55 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use in your first chapters? Everyone I am sure teachers very different things when they begin the year.

What is chemistry?, ice breakers, group building activities, states of matter, chemical vs. physical changes, conservation of mass...........

ChemWest Teacher Network Home

MrCraddock — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:15:09 CDT

Welcome to the 2009-2010 School year! I am sure we are all excited (on some level :) ) to go back! We are lining up our meetings for this year, so if you are interested in hosting, please drop me an email at kcraddock@d211.org. Feel free to add anything you made over summer!

Welcome to the brand NEW ChemWest.org! I decided to update the website a bit and move into the world of Wiki's. Have you ever wondered "When is the website going to updated?" Or "Where can I contribute more to ChemWest?" Or "I have a great idea or something coming up that I need to share!"

Well here it is. This is a new way to easily share information, demos, labs ideas to everyone! YOU control what is here! Registered users can add/delete/modify anything on this website. This is supposed to be a teacher collaboration group, and what would be better than a wiki! If you are not familiar with Wiki's, this site can be similar to Wikipedia.com where users control the content. So add away!

To the left are links to a few of my suggestions:

Upcoming Activities is for you to see when and where the next ChemWest meeting is. It is also to see other activities such as ACS Chemday or the History of Science Trips.
Past Meeting Notes and Future Meeting Ideas is to see what you missed at the meeting and what people want to see in the future.
Demonstrations and Class Activities is for you to add and borrow class activities, labs and demos. That is what we are all about!
Links and Technology is for cool links or articles that you find. It is also to see how you do and can integrate technology into the classroom
Job Postings are for school districts (or other people) who are looking to hire us!
Jobs Wanted are for those of us that are looking to see a new scene
And???? What ever you want it to be. YOU (as a registered user) can add whatever you want.

There is also a discussion board within each topic to discuss away. At the top there is also a picture gallery.

So lets have fun and collaborate!

If you have any questions or comments, join and make them in the discussion forum. Or you can email Karl Craddock from Fremd High School at kcraddock@d211.org or chemwest@hotmail.com .

Stoichiometry

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:39:42 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
the mole, avogadro's number, molar mass, molar ratio, 22.4 L, limiting reactant, percent yield, percent composition, empirical formulas, molecular formulas, ........................

Susan Camasta Writes:

We start stoichiometry making S'mores...we do a couple of other simple labs to illustrate the concept and then our discussion and problem solving go in 2 directions: air bags & burning of fossil fuels and CO2 production. This lab comes after discussion and calculation with air bags as the context. See the attachment 42 below.

Intro Demos and Lab Safety

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:37:49 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

First Week of Class

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:36:04 CDT

How do you handle everything that has to do with the first week of class including; activities, topics, demonstrations, room management, and as simple as how do you go over the syllabus and start good class routines?

Solutions

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:34:54 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
water (surface tension and surfactant), solvent vs. solute, solvation, electrolyes (strong vs. weak), hydrates, suspensions vs colloid vs solution

Organic

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:34:30 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
Add topics here and maybe new folders under this topic.

Nuclear

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:34:10 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
radiation, half-life, fission, fusion..............

Electrochemsitry

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:33:39 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
voltaic cells, battery, fuel cells, cell potentials, electrolytic cells

Oxidation-Reduction

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:25:42 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
oxidation numbers, balancing redox equations

Equilibrium

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:25:14 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
activation energy, reversibly reactions, Le Chatelier's principle, equilibrium constants....................

Thermochemistry

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:24:47 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
exothermic vs endothermic, heat capacity, specific heat, calorimetry, enthalpy, entropy, heat in changes of state, heat of reaction

Advanced Topics

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:24:27 CDT

Add to the topics listed under this section. Advanced topics are housed here because the list is getting very long and I am trying to include everything.

Solubility

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:13:42 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
what effects solubility (stirring, temp, surface area), saturated vs unsaturated vs supersaturated, Henry's Law, molarity, molality, concentrated vs dilute, dilution equation, colligative properties

Acids, Bases, and Salts

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:01:09 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
properties of acids and bases, Arrhenious, Bronsted-Lowry, Lewis, pH, strong vs. weak, neutralization, titration, buffers......................

Gas Laws

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:57:23 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
compressibility, relationships between temp, volume, pressure, and moles (Boyle's, Charles, Gay-Lussac's, Combined, and Ideal),
Dalton's Law (partial pressure), and Grahm's Law (diffusion and effusion rates)

States of Matter

JanelleHollingshead — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:56:48 CDT

What activities, demonstrations, songs, or dramatizations do you use when you teach this topic?
Nature of (solids, liquids, and gases), kinetic energy theory, gas pressure, barometer, atm, changes of states, boiling point graphs, phase diagram, heating curve