I am teaching a few chemistry mock lessons next week and one specifically requested a lesson on "a concept that students typically struggle with in Chemistry." It's been several years since I've taught chem, so if anyone has any ideas to help jump-start my brain, I'd appreciate it!

Tl;dr - what chem concepts do your students struggle with the most?

(Bonus if you want to share a lesson or strategy that's worked for you!)

First year science teacher here! I was originally tasked with biology and A&P, but have since gained zoology as well. My question here is “Are dissections still a thing?”

Without getting political or jumping into the ethical mudslide, do you still do dissections? Is it really that necessary? I can’t actually find anything in my standards. The old biology teacher did real specimens, could I substitute the paper foldable dissection kits?

Really just looking for science guidance as I’m the only one in my school, and my district buddy is also first year :)

ETA: typo

I have been informed that I am teaching chemistry next year. I have been teaching bio and earth for the last 15ish years, and my chem is pretty rusty. We used OSE for bio last year and I figured out the +/- of OSE I think. I dont hate it and can make it work, because I know bio. I cant say the same about chem.

One of my big concerns, as someone who doesnt know chem very well, is what concepts and skills will need more time, or are left out all together? I dont know chem well enough to know what I dont know. This is the first year of OSE chem in my district so nobody else n my school does either. I figure math will be the first place to shore up, but anybody with experience using OSE chem have thoughts about what to expect?

I teach all levels of high school chemistry. My admin wants us to focus on building relationships in the first week of school. I’ve been trying to find activities that are at least loosely related to chemistry but require very little foundational knowledge. Any ideas?

I do get lot of adds for online teaching ; but I am not sure I can trust any of those rabbit hole online forms. Has anybody doing it? TIA. FYI I’m already full time teacher.

Hello Science Teachers!

I am going to be teaching SEI Biology this year. My school is adopting OpenSciEd, an inquiry-based curriculum. I want to help guide my students in asking quality scientific questions. Does anyone have any resources (checklists, guides, videos, advice 🙂) to help teach my students about asking testable and relevant scientific questions?

Thank you!

So I'm up in the air about this crap again. School year almost starting. I teach high school Chemistry and Physics and other classes...doesn't matter. I have been having students keep a binder for every unit. I stamp their work almost daily, they do various other assignments, and I grade the binder at the end of each unit.

It's sort of worked well for me, but I just feel like it's stale or missing something. Does anyone else do a binder like this? Binder checks? I don't want it to be a huge time-sink...I spend very little time getting them setup, etc. because I already don't have enough time as it is.

When I grade them I check for stamps, neatness, vocabulary, notes, etc. Everything that should be inside of each unit.

Does anyone do something different? Or somewhat similar, but you really like what you do?

I might just be looking for more work just by asking.

I was randomly forwarded an email with an invite to learn how to teach food science to high schoolers. I've never heard of food science but the description says it could be incorporated into high school biology, chemistry, or home economics. Just in case any other educators are interested like me, I'll attach the brochure.

https://preview.redd.it/kkkesvzqeped1.png?width=1084&format=png&auto=webp&s=db9791328a63914e1e9c7707de476c619124d180

https://preview.redd.it/hle2twzqeped1.png?width=1082&format=png&auto=webp&s=9df27481c9bb481ce0ff21a5b62089de434b1363

This would be my third year as a walk-on (“career switcher”*) Life Science teacher. Both years I have suffered tremendous emotional distress that led to physical and psychological symptoms Like anxiety, depression, inability to eat - I lost 25 pounds the first year, was able to put most of it back on over the summer and it was gone again by Christmas. I could fill a book with the reasons I’m getting stressed out, but the fact of it exists.

Over the summer I read and thought about “teach like a pirate“ and was inspired by the idea that extremely well well written, well executed presentation with living examples in the classroom would actually be able to hold all 30 7th graders’ attention, and they would learn joyously! (I’ll give you a second to recover from falling out of your chair, laughing).

given my mediocre performance to this point, I clearly I lack the training, experience, time in the day (I have two children and a homestead farm) or time in my career (I’m 52) to write the 55-65, 90 minute (a/B day schedule) highly interactive, physical demo and media effect supported interactive presentations an teaching labs that would embody that vision. I know this is a crazy ideal, but I don’t see how I could do anything but flail around badly (my performance reviews are definitely not good) for another year at the cost of time I would rather spend with my children, with without something at least hinting at that awesome set of lesson plans.

It would probably make things difficult for my school to replace a science teacher at this point, but… Isn’t this just a job?

• aka “faking it” aka “not trained or supported anywhere near sufficiently” - why TF do the US state governments think this a good way to recruit teachers? Another topic.

** Rereading this, it’s pretty dark! This is how I feel, but I’m not in any sort of dangerous mental/emotional place. If you’re worried about my safety, thank you for your sympathy.

I (think) I'll be teaching APES this upcoming year and every thread on this subreddit says to join the APES teachers facebook group but they require a link to an official school website with my photo on it and the problem is that I don't have that yet, in fact I won't even be teaching in America and I'm not even in the country that I'll be teaching in yet. I'm wondering if it would be possible for someone to just invite me to the google drive because I dont even use facebook anyway. Would really appreciate it thanks.

I’ve been teaching for over 20 years and in that time what excites me about teaching has shifted from the love of science to the joy of watching kids develop boundaries, build a sense of self and gain confidence. Compared to subjects like Environmental Science or A&P, which lend themselves to rich discussions or debates, I find that so many of our chemistry standards focus on antiquated skills that I don’t even find particularly interesting. (Like scrubbers on the ISS for stoich is interesting, but is it exciting? And that’s a 5 minute discussion… maybe.) I’m having trouble finding colleagues in my real life who get what I’m saying because they still find purpose in teaching the same old skills because they’ll need it in college chem classes. Any chem teachers out there willing to share what excites you or how you shifted your perspective to keep it interesting?

I'm teaching a four-week science elective in October called "Science Reading, Science Writing" that focuses on informational texts at the 8-9-10th grade level. Culminating project is a piece of original science writing. I am looking for strong, recent examples of communicating science discoveries, history, concepts, etc. - kind of like the stuff you'd find in "best science and nature writing" but for Junior high. Pop sci stuff is okay as long as its science is sound. I have already selected an excerpt from "Into Thin Air" and a piece on the discovery of "dark oxygen." What articles have you recently read on science topics that capture interest and communicate well?

I have a few interviews today for high school chemistry and always struggle coming up with questions I should ask the interview panel.

What questions do you ask your interviewers?

What questions do you wish you had asked?

I’m a recent college grad with a bachelors in biology and I have applied to dozens of lab jobs and haven’t heard back from any. I completed a fellowship, internship, and worked in a lab on campus while getting my degree and I’m feeling so defeated and like my degree was a huge waste. I’m considering doing a masters degree online (in person isn’t possible at the moment) but have no idea if that would even help. Thinking about doing an education degree or something just to get into teaching as I want to teach at a college eventually but without experience in a lab I feel like a masters would be just as meaningless while adding to my student debt. I just want to teach biology (and ideally lab skills) to people who were just as excited as I was to learn it but I feel like it’s impossible.

This is half a rant but also half me asking for reassurance that I can turn my degree into something useful and would love any advice on how to do that please!

I'm currently teaching summer school chemistry (I don't teach chem during the school year), and have been using the unit bundles from Ms. Razz (https://www.msrazzchemclass.com/). I've never used pre-packaged resources before, but I have been SO impressed.

Powerpoints with guided notes and video lectures for flipped learning. Bell ringers/ exit tickets. Homework for each day of the notes. Tests and test reviews. Everything comes with an answer key. It has really made my summer so easy.

Anyhow, does anyone have any resources like this that they would recommend for physics? Any level (except conceptual).

I'm a first-year APES teacher and am currently drafting my students' first few days of lesson plans. I have been reading all the posts and reviewing all the resources in the APES teachers Facebook group and I am overwhelmed with all the information available! I don't want to throw too much information at my students the first few days of school so I was wondering if there are concrete things that students need to understand when first coming into class. I have the book I will be teaching from and I already have an outline of how lecture structures will go, but I am stuck with what to teach the first day of school before diving into everything else. Any advice or suggestions will help greatly! Thank you!

I am having trouble understanding the new content and was hoping for some help.

My goal was to create a cluster of multiple models about star formation and lifecycle. It's not going great.

Regarding the Reference Table diagrams...

Generalized Nucleosynthesis in a Massive Star (page 2) - Does this diagram simply indicate that as a massive star ages, the composition of the star will change, because the mass causes fusion of lighter elements into heavier elements?

Emission Spectra of Some Elements from Stars (page 3) Can this diagram be used in conjunction with the nucleosynthesis diagram mentioned above? Do massive stars that have reached later stages emit heavier elements?

Example: If spectral line emissions show carbon, does that mean the star is older than 7 million?

H-R Diagram ( Page 4) This diagram includes "lifetime" - is that the time it took for that star to reach main sequence?

https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/state-assessment/earth_space_science_ref_tables_2024.pdf

Greetings...Urgent help needed!
I am a University of Wisconsin graduate student conducting a brief pilot study on whether states have implemented information on climate change into K-12 curriculum. If you are a middle school science teacher, whether or not you teach about climate change, could you please take this brief 10 question survey? Or refer the survey to a teacher you know? Most standards introduce these topics at the 5th grade level, but this can vary by state and school. If you are a teacher in another discipline including climate change at the middle school level, you are welcome to take the survey too. I am gathering surveys this week, 7/22/24 - 7/26/24.

Survey link

https://forms.gle/d4AW3wc1HGGgvN1k6

Hello All! Does anyone have any insight or experience with teaching the new science teks, specifically for middle school? I come from a small district, and my teaching partner and I are looking for resources for assessments and learning material. Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you!

I’m about to start my first full year teaching as a HS science teacher (biology, anat/phys, and earth science). I need help planning experiments that my students can do without really any tech (including microscopes) and preferably on a budget. I only have a science degree and I haven’t actually taken any education courses yet, so I am not very familiar with resources or strategies that can help in situations like this. (I was hired on an emergency license.) I have reached out to fellow teachers at my school, however, it is summer, so they haven’t responded. I fully respect and understand that they may not check their emails over break, or may simply not want to respond until the mandatory teacher workdays start. Mandatory workdays start a week before classes begin in August, but as a beginning teacher I have mandatory meetings starting tomorrow, so I am already in planning mode.

My school does have the resources like microscopes and safety equipment, but they are assigned to specific classrooms, and I did not get assigned one of those classroom. I was hoping I could use those classrooms when those teachers had planning, but all of the biology teachers have the same class schedule. My classroom is on the history hall, so there is no safety equipment, and not enough outlets to use borrowed microscopes or much else. I have looked online and found some DIY experiments, but I don’t know how relevant they are to the HS standards.

It may be important to note that I did not go to a typical high school. My high school had a dedicated biology lab, chemistry lab, and physics lab, so my experience with potential labs has been very skewed. Any advice or help at all would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!

I am teaching pre AP bio this school year. I recently attended college boards APSI. I am having trouble figuring out to make sure I incorporate the college board curriculum and my state standards [TEKS]. If anyone would be willing to provide a pacing guide or any advice. Thank you!

So I just completed the Praxis 5436 General Science Praxis test. I received a NS for unofficial score. The "raw score" or the questions I got right were 60. I know that there are pretest questions that do not help or hurt you because they are looking for questions to use for future tests. Are those questions included in the 60 questions I got correct or are the 60 questions are the ones that count towards my score? I won't get my official score until Aug 9.

First year chem teacher here…. i would like to do a flame test lab. Using metallic salt solutions. This may be a silly question, but how do you know how to dispose of chemicals? I see the SDS sheets, but I am overwhelmed and nervous. I have not been in my classroom yet, so I am not even sure if they have “lab sinks” for drain disposal. Or even how to dispose of chemicals in waste jugs. I’ve taken labs in college, but never knew what you can dispose of together in waste jugs.

My fear is messing up chemical disposal… any help is appreciated.

I’m reviewing biology standards in Utah (where I teach) and noticed that cancer is not even mentioned as a word nor in the core guide, nor among the formative assessments they offer. Any ideas why it’s not included there, nor in NGSS nor in most other state’s standards? Thanks for any insights!

My school's math and computer science teachers use, and recommend to their students, https://cs.stackexchange.com + https://math.stackexchange.com + https://stats.stackexchange.com.

But to my bewilderment, why has none of the other (natural) science teachers heard of

https://biology.stackexchange.com

https://chemistry.stackexchange.com

https://physics.stackexchange.com ?

My students love SE, as they get answers anytime to last minute questions before a test! I love SE, as they forestall students from emailing these questions at night, on the weekend! SE is a win-win situation!

Have any of you found nifty ways to incorporate phone use in a productive way (beyond just polling/Kahoot)? More specifically, any successful projects to use a phone to collect data, rather than a traditional lab instrument to make it more accessible? No idea is too big or too small - just need to brainstorm!

Hi there!
I was wondering if is there any visual simulator for atomic bonding, even (an ideally) with a quantum approach (i.e., showing the orbitals and the transitions between them).

Of course I'm not asking for an exact simulator, since such a thing is pretty complicated and belongs to research level, but just an interface who may show at least well-known results, and could depict both the formation of bonds and the detaching of former ones, in the context of a chemical reaction.