Chemistry-related software, or chemistry "apps", on hand-held and portable touch-controlled computers such as smartphones and iPods are seeing dramatic growth with increasing adoption rates. This review covers about 30 popular and mostly free apps that can be used to learn chemistry and to serve as reference or research tools. The target…

Household water treatments (HWT) can help provide clean water to millions of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water. This article describes four common HWT used in developing countries and the pertinent chemistry involved. The intent of this article is to inform both high school and college chemical educators and chemistry students…

This paper provides nine short chemically based puzzles or problems extensible for use with students from middle school to college. Some of these will strengthen students' recognition of individual elements and element names. Others require students to focus on the salient properties of given chemical elements.

"Elements" is a competitive card game designed to help middle school students recognize and correlate the names and symbols of the most significant chemical elements. Each student is required to construct his or her own decks of playing cards--one with the names of the chemical elements and one with their corresponding symbols--and compete against…

Periodic Table Target, a game for middle school or high school students, familiarizes students with the form of the periodic table and the biological significance of different elements. The Periodic Table Target game board is constructed as a class project, and the game is played to reinforce the content. Students are assigned several elements…

"If protons, quarks, and other elementary particles are too small to be seen, how do scientists know they exist? And if these particles do exist, how can one estimate their size, structure, and or their arrangement in atoms?" These are some of the most frequently asked questions by students who study atomic theory. Atomic structure is an important…

This article describes laboratory activity that examines the chemical process of smoking and the components of smoke, of both cigarettes and water pipes (narghiles also known as "hookah"). The aim of this activity is to expose adolescents to the scientific aspects of smoking; and to present the relevance of chemistry in everyday life. (Contains 3…

The cryophorus dramatically demonstrates the cooling effect of evaporation. This article describes some simple and easy-to-make cryophoruses, ideal for demonstrating evaporative cooling to students at all levels. The most dramatic effects occurred with cyclohexane and benzene, with water generally freezing more slowly. (Contains 4 notes, 2 tables,…

The use of harmful organic solvents in classrooms has become a critical issue of concern in the field of chemistry education. This article describes a classroom activity at a high school in which an acrylic fabric was used as the extraction medium in the analysis of the detergent concentration in water instead of organic solvents. Dyes were used…

This article describes a novel, hands-on method to qualitatively determine the extent of microbial activity in topsoil using ordinary blank paper. Appropriate and scalable for the high school and college level, these experiments expose students to some of the challenges facing environmental researchers and also contribute to curriculum development…

A summer course was developed with the goal of preparing girls to succeed in secondary school chemistry. Group work and mathematical, logical, and laboratory skills were stressed in the course, with minimal emphasis on memorization. Students who took the summer course ranked statistically higher during their first semester of high school chemistry…

Gives a brief account of fluoropolymers as an important part of polymer chemistry and attempts to make the topic relevant to the secondary school audience. Provides general characteristics and applications for fluoropolymers. (MVL)

Describes topics in chemistry as related in the Classics Illustrated publications. Provides a list from "The Pioneers of Science" series with issue date, number, and biograhical topic. Lists references to topics in chemistry. Presents many pages from these comics. (MVL)

Provides a short history of the comic book. Discusses several comics and notes how chemistry was involved. Selects science fiction, chemical facts, rocketry, and educational comics as areas for study. Includes drawings as examples of each area. (MVL)

Describes how to make the following paper molecular models: trigonal prism; tetragonal pyramid; tetrahedral; and trigonal pyramid. Methodology is given for general paper model manipulation to make various shapes including a chain of tetrahedra and an icosahedron. (MVL)