ChemEd 2025

Modern technology relies on a host of metals. This presentation will discuss classroom activities developed to address sustainability and ethics related to the extraction and use of certain metals.

Explore a safer, student-led conductometric titration using household reagents. This eco-friendly approach promotes green chemistry, tracks ion changes, and fosters inquiry-driven learning.

Several different liquids are sealed into glass tubing.  The tubes are inverted and a small air bubble travels slowly up the tube.  By measuring the speed of the air bubble, we can get a measurement related to the viscosity of the liquid inside the tube.  Several alcohols, ketones, and alkanes of different molar mass are used and a graph of molar mass vs bubble speed is created.  By separating the liquids by type of intermolecular force, we can see the different strengths of different types of intermolecular forces as well as the dependence of molecular size on the strength of the intermolecular force.  Participants will be instructed on how to make viscosity tubes for themselves so they can create a classroom set.

Getting microscale chemistry to work in a school setting brings challenges, though the educational and environmental benefits at scale are great.  This is the story of how it can work.  

For anyone looking for simple and effective demos/activities to help explain and explore the weirdness of Triple Point Curves and phase change graphs. We will use water to start fire, make dry ice turn to liquid, and use ice to make water boil.

Chemical safety, teacher´s awareness of risk assessment and sustainability, using microscale chemistry are crucial parts of future chemistry education. Experimental and inquiry based work is important in chemistry education.
 

Microscale chemistry is fast, safe, affordable and engaging.  Microscale combined with guided inquiry provides a great educational environment for a wide variety of students.

The full integration of green chemistry into the undergraduate curriculum was necessary to engage our students in projects and discussions on sustainability. Foundational chemistry labs integrated green and sustainable chemistry into all labs, projects, and activities. We will share our journey from course review to implementation. We will also share resources and organizations, such as Beyond Benign and the Green Chemistry Commitment and GCTLC, as well as our open educational resource (OER) lab materials. 

We created a series of safety courses to remind teachers to monitor classrooms for potential hazards.  We will review important aspects of safety every teacher should know how to identify.