Overwhelmed by the available chemistry resources? Looking for new chemistry teaching ideas? Elementary Articles is the place for chemistry, education, and everything else.

Elementary Articles is the official blog for the RSC's Learn Chemistry – your home for chemistry education resources and activities.

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Archive for October, 2013
 
I am really pleased to be sharing the exciting plans of Dr David Glowacki's Chemistry Education by Danceroom Spectroscopy. The Royal Society of Chemistry has sponsored David to produce chemistry education content pitched at year-9 curriculum. This material is delivered as an outreach activity using his wonderfully engaging danceroom Spectroscopy (dS) technology.

Chemistry Education at dancerrom Spectroscopy

About the technology: Using multiple Microsoft Kinect cameras in a dome environment dS is the world’s first immersive chemical dynamics framework. Combining rigorous physical chemistry, high-performance computing, and interactive video game technology, it allows people to literally step into a chemical dynamics simulation and control molecular behaviour using their real-time motion.

On the 24th-26th October; David will be implementing phase I of the education programme covering topics like atmospheric molecular structure, solid/liquids/gases and molecular vibrations. This will be presented as 10min tutor groups followed by dance interventions which will physically communicate the dynamic differences and energy transfers to the student as they move around the dome. This video highlights the potential of the dS

As part of the sponsorship the Royal Society of Chemistry plans to utilise some of the captured video footage as an education resource for incorporation into Learn Chemistry. We will also look to develop the existing dS software framework into a tool for use directly in schools. There are also future live events planned at the London Barbican in March 2014 and the London Science Museum in April/May 2014.
Posted by Lee Page on Oct 18, 2013 5:06 PM BST
Learn Chemistry is continuing to grow and a new approved resource has just been added;

The Great Recovery is an RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) project which launched in September 2012 supported by Technology Strategy Board and key industrial players. The videos in this resource were produced as part of the project and are both high quality, thought provoking general interest clips.




The Great Recovery introduces students to the idea of wastage and how it can be reduced through more efficient product design. The clips could be used to stimulate discussions and ideas for the future when discussing recycling or Green chemistry.
Posted by Stephanie Musson on Oct 11, 2013 2:57 PM BST
A great new update to Learn Chemistry went live this week. You may have noticed it, but here are the details:
  • We’ve enhanced the Higher Education area for Learn Chemistry. The site now has five key areas: Resources, Careers, Conferences, Finances, and Courses/Policy/Data. The Industry and work placements section also has a neat little interactive map for locating your university industrial placement coordinator.
  • Search results on Learn Chemistry now have something called ‘infinite scroll’. This means that when you get a long search result you don’t have to click ‘next’ for each page of results, but instead just scroll down and the results automatically appear.
  • Learn Chemistry now supports Vimeo. We know that YouTube is blocked by many schools, and some of the excellent chemistry resources we feature are available only on Vimeo.
Go forth and explore. And if you've not yet considered taking part in our health-themed 2013 Global Experiment, do!

Posted by Duncan McMillan on Oct 4, 2013 3:39 PM BST