Not only chemistry, but science in general, is one of those subjects that is effortless to some children, but hard to get their head around for others. Learning how to inspire children to learn science can be a life-changing educational move.
Not only kids are allowed to learn science, though! High school is an even more important period for getting interested in STEM. The best way to feed teens interest is letting them play with science experiments kits designed for teenagers.
With massive variations in subject matter and the involvement of maths, it is no wonder more students are struggling to keep up with biology, physics and chemistry than ever before. So when it comes to inspiring children to be more interested in the sciences, and to succeed in learning, having a little input is essential.
Everything we can see, anything around us is made up of chemicals! Therefore, you can find a scientific reasoning to explain most common facts. We have previously covered a big list of 100 fun chemistry facts, all explained, which can be a great starting point for finding stuff that can be of interest to your kids.
Inspiring children to understand and learn science is easy if you thinkbeyond the basics. Whether hiring a tutor sounds like the perfect solution, orgetting out in nature sounds like the best way, going the extra mile does makeall the difference to their learning and knowledge building in the long term.
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Still, chemistry has its fair share of inspirational science. There is such a wealth of historical, world-altering discoveries out there that, if the public only knew about the science behind them, they would surely be inspired. Or would they? Perhaps it is the future challenges of chemistry that should be the source of inspiration for future generations of chemists. Letters to a Young Chemist takes exactly this approach and frames the fascinating research questions of chemistry as letters, written by a diverse group of academics, in response to a fictional undergraduate student called Angela, who is interested in pursuing a career in chemistry research. The letters vary greatly in tone and nature with the authors embracing a variety of roles; for example, as Angela's anaesthesiologist during childhood surgery, or a favourite and proud uncle. The editor, Abhik Ghosh, has pulled together a diverse collection of essays addressing some of the most fascinating and fundamental questions that modern chemistry researchers are attempting to address. The 'Letters to...' format brings unity to what would otherwise be a strange mix of chemistry sub-fields.
The more subtle messages inherent in many of the essays speak strongly about the changing face of chemistry. From high-brow lunchtime debates between students and professors, discussing how chemistry research applies to the big issues of the day, to reassurances that, despite being female, there is very definitely a place for scientists like Angela in the world of academic chemistry research. One particularly refreshing aspect of the book was that the people writing about the research were as diverse as the science itself. Many of the authors seem aware that inspiring students to pursue research in chemistry is as much about breaking down cultural assumptions as it is about finding an intellectually challenging and important question to work on. Inspiration takes many forms, and many of Angela's correspondents share the experiences that were their own personal sources of inspiration at key moments in their career.
My main criticism is with regard to the differing levels of assumed knowledge between essays. In some, complex molecules are drawn; in others, simply named. In a few essays, advanced concepts are named then brushed over while very simple ones (even to undergraduate chemists) are described in precise detail. Some of this might be ascribed to differences in undergraduate curricula between countries, but it makes parts of the book inaccessible to a wider audience. The book is clearly aimed at college students, those at the same stage of their careers as Angela, but those with some chemistry background or the willingness to look things up would also enjoy it. The book is a great source of chemical processes in real-world contexts for educators at a variety of levels, which are regrettably rare. To give one example, the description of a pulse-oximeter in 'Anesthesia: Don't Forget Your Chemistry' covers several topics in basic spectroscopy and allows normally obscure theory to be placed firmly in a tangible context.
A set of accompanying personal videos, one for each scientist featured, illustrates their journeys to becoming scientists. Some of these videos highlight challenges that have been overcome, such as dealing with learning disabilities, growing up gay and intellectual in a conservative small town, and having to learn English in order to understand science class.
Our goals in creating these videos were to bring the excitement of MIT research into the chemistry classroom and to illuminate both the why and the who of chemistry. These videos are intended to help motivate students to learn chemistry, inspire students to tackle important scientific problems in their future careers, and expose students to the many faces of chemistry.
The videos can be viewed online or downloaded for use in the classroom. Each science video is under three minutes, and the personal videos are three to five minutes in length. Teachers are welcome to use any or all of our videos in their classrooms. Video creation was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) through an HHMI Professors Grant to Professor Cathy Drennan and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Unported License.
The videos were produced by the Drennan Education Laboratory as part of an HHMI Professors grant to Professor Cathy Drennan at MIT. The videos were created for our own general chemistry course, MIT course 5.111, and for other educators to bring the why and the who of chemistry research into introductory classes.
The science videos are intended for use in introductory college classes and high school chemistry classes. The personal videos are appropriate for all ages and require no chemistry or science background for viewing.
Yes! You can access one or all of the videos directly from MIT ODL Video Service and use them in any way that fits with your curriculum. The science videos assume that the viewer has already been introduced to the chemistry topic discussed, so the video on pH and pKa, for example, is best shown after students begin to learn about pH in class.
The videos are protected under a creative commons license with the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike option. This means that users must attribute the work in the manner we specify (but not in any way that suggests that we endorse you or your use of the work). It also means that users may not use this work for commercial purposes.
The videos are extremely short so that they can fit into any curriculum without requiring that other material be removed from a course. The videos are not intended to completely explain the research introduced, but rather to illuminate the connection between what students are learning in introductory chemistry and how those basic principles are essential for cutting edge research.
The science videos can be searched by chemistry topic (i.e. atomic theory, bonding, acid-base equilibrium) or by research application. A set of accompanying personal videos, one for each scientist featured, illustrates the journeys to becoming a scientist. Some of these videos highlight challenges that have been overcome, such as dealing with learning disabilities, growing up gay and intellectual in a conservative small town, and having to learn English in order to understand science class.
The goals in creating these videos were to bring the excitement of MIT research into the chemistry classroom and to illuminate both the why and the who of chemistry. These videos are intended to help motivate students to learn chemistry, inspire students to tackle important scientific problems in their future careers, and expose students to the many faces of chemistry.
The videos can be viewed online or downloaded for use in the classroom. Each science video is under three minutes, and the personal videos are three to five minutes in length. Teachers are welcome to use any or all of these videos in their classrooms. Video creation was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) through an HHMI Professors Grant to Professor Cathy Drennan and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Unported License.
Providing a holistic overview of general chemistry and its foundational principles, this textbook is an essential accompaniment to students entering the field. It is designed with the reader in mind, presenting the historical development of ideas to frame and center new concepts as well as providing primary and summative sources for all topics covered. These sources help to provide definitive information for the reader, ensuring that all information is peer-reviewed and thoroughly tested.
William Tucker's passion for chemistry was inspired by his high school teacher Gary Osborn. He left Maine to pursue Chemistry at Middlebury College, and after graduating in 2010 he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Sandro Mecozzi, where he developed semifluorinated triphilic surfactants for hydrophobic drug delivery. After earning his Ph.D. in 2015, he took a fellowship at Boston University as a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow. There he co-taught organic chemistry while working in the laboratory of Dr. John Caradonna. In the Caradonna laboratory, he worked on developing a surface-immobilized iron-oxidation catalyst for the oxidation of CH bonds using dioxygen from the air as the terminal oxidant. Throughout all of this work, his passion has always been for teaching and working with students both in and out of the classroom. He has been lucky for the past six years to work at Concord Academy, where his students have, through their questions, pushed him to think deeper and more critically about chemistry. Their curiosity inspires him, and their inquisitiveness inspired his writing.
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