Reviews

The Periodic Table — A Very Short Introduction

Book review

The Periodic Table — A Very Short Introduction, by Eric R Scerri, 2019 Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 154 pages, paperback, ISBN 978-0-19-884232-3 $11.95 USD This Very Short Introduction is actually part of a very large series of books by the Oxford University Press on a very wide variety of subjects. The second edition was timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table and the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT). Author: Lyle Sadavoy (retired), Toronto, Ontario

The Bastard Brigade

Book review

The Bastard Brigade is Kean's first book involving physics. By his own admission, even though physics was his minor in University, his previous books(1-4) dealt with stories concerning chemistry and biology. As an English literature major, he prefers to tell a "rip roaring" story with science as a backdrop and he has picked a bombshell, literally, to launch his foray into physics. Author: Lyle Sadavoy (retired), Toronto, Ontario

A Guide to the Elements

Book review

Stwertka launches the book in science mode with a brief history of the construction of the Periodic Table. Author: Lyle Sadavoy, Toronto, Ontario

More Molecules of Murder

With Emsley’s third book on murder, one might get the impression that he is preoccupied with this subject. In his introduction he mentions his first book, Elements of Murder, and the precursor to this one, Molecules of Murder. Anyone planning a murder may want to check these books for ideas. Author: Lyle Sadavoy,Toronto, Ontario

The Poison Squad

Deborah Blum's The Poison Squad is actually a prequel to her The Poisoner's Handbook — both a book and an online documentary.

Intriguing Morsels from the Science of Everyday Life

Book review

Lyle Sadavoy, Toronto, Ontario reviews Dr. Joe Schwarcz's latest book Throughout A Feast of Science. Throughout his book Dr. Joe makes the point, before you arrive at an opinion, check the facts. Before you believe what you read on the internet or elsewhere, check the credentials of the author, check if evidence is cited and check the references.

Tornadoes, Rainbows, and Chemistry

Excerpted from A Feast of Science: Intriguing Morsels from the Science of Everyday Life

An excerpt from Feast of Science by Dr. Joe Schwarcz: “There are no safe or dangerous chemicals, only safe or dangerous ways to use them.” And methanol is a classic example....

The Radium Girls - The dark story of America's shining women

The Radium Girls chronicles the dial painting industry and the women who painted these dials with radium–based paint. As sad and depressing were the lives and times of the dial painters, it is equally important to understand the full narrative.

Chemistry in Your Kitchen

Chemistry in Your Kitchen is without a doubt a delicious book. Hartings serves up a marvellous mix of recipes and chemical explanations that can literally whet your appetite.

Caesar's Last Breath Decoding the secrets of the air around us

Caesar's Last Breath is an absolutely delightful book of science, of history, of humour and of fantasy. Kean provides the reader with his trademark humorous and irreverent style of writing, making this book, like his others, engaging and so very enjoyable.

The Cosmic Machine — The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It

With The Cosmic Machine — The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It, Bembenek has attempted to write about science in a manner that excites the reader without intimidation. To that end he has focused on the history not the theory, the story not the solutions. He notes that equations can be daunting, and he has attempted to omit them entirely.

Poisons and poisonings — Death by Stealth

The book Poisons and Poisonings — Death by Stealth is outstanding for the following reasons: the book explains different poisons found in history; it explains the numerous ways one could be poisoned (e.g., injection vs inhalation); and it describes poisons derived from animals, plants, minerals and human concoctions.

Book review: The Elements

The Elements — a tour of the periodic table is one of a plethora of books on the subject. Dingle’s version focuses on each element’s history, uses and how they connect to each other.

Periodic Table of emission spectra

I’m not sure where I first saw this poster...

Redox and murder

Have your students read Andrea Sella’s engaging article, Marsh’s Mirror in Chemistry World online(1), which has both murder and redox.

Shoutout

On your way home tonight, listen to a podcast on the “Elements”. If you like story-telling and chemistry together, you will enjoy this podcast by NPR Radiolab —radiolab.org/story/elements/.

Not quite sure…

A headline caught my interest: “A Miss America contestant performed a science experiment on stage as her talent and the crowd went wild.” I had to watch…

The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons

The Tale of the Duelling Neurosurgeons is Sam Kean's third book and again, he does not disappoint. Kean has an engaging, engrossing, entertaining and subtly witty writing style that make his books very easy to read and understand, even if the content is not simple...

Education research denialism

Have you heard these denials? As a high school chemistry teacher, are you a denier of educational research? It is a question worth pondering. I recommend you read the entire article and keep up with — and believe — educational research just as you do with the latest advances in chemistry.

Book review

The book series 50 Ideas You Really Need to Know covers a variety of subjects, and Hayley Birch has written the one involving chemistry. While decidedly British, it is easy to disregard the differences in idioms — the chemistry is the same on either side of "the pond".

Book review

November 25, 2014, the date of the release of this book, marked exactly 100 years since Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity to an audience of scientists. Choice* named this book “Outstanding academic title for 2014.”

Book review

Reading a Dr. Joe book is always a thrill and Monkeys, Myths, and Molecules is no exception. Dr. Joe’s writing style is comfortable, engaging and humorous. While he writes for a general audience, he does so with a chemical flair. Monkeys, Myths, and Molecules appeals to chemistry teachers for numerous reasons.

Book review

Rick Smith, who has a PhD in biology from the University of Guelph, is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, an activist group based in Toronto. Bruce Lourie is President and Chair of ED’s board of directors.

Book review

Chemistry teachers everywhere will recognize the CRC Press (the Chemical Rubber Company) which has been publishing the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (aka the Rubber Book) since 1914. That compendium is likely on every teacher's bookshelf. Molecules that Amaze Us is another reference that every chemistry teacher ought to have.

Ready for university chemistry? Have students use our online self-diagnosis tool

There has been a great deal of effort over the years in developing instruments to predict student success and reduce failure rates in general chemistry. While the results often include placement examinations at the post-secondary level (e.g., Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Toledo Chemistry Placement Examination (TCPE), California Chemistry Diagnostic Test (CCDT)), they have also generated tools and strategies to identify students at risk, which is also applicable to learners at the secondary level.

Book review

The Teenage Brain is incredibly well written and engaging.  Jensen has married scientific research and anecdotal case histories, often including her own family, into a readable, understandable and spellbinding book.

Zinc metal in a solution of copper(II) sulfate and sulfuric acid from Beautiful Chemistry Website

Recommended link

The cover photo is from BeautifulChemistry.net, an amazing website for both you and your students.

Engaging story on Marguerite Perey

Wondering what to do on your lunch hour? Thanks to several Chem 13 News readers who brought a New York Times magazine article to my attention, I spent mine reading about Veronique Greenwood’s great-great aunt, Marguerite Perey. The story is freely available online at the link provided and is called “My Great Great Aunt Discovered Francium. And It Killed Her.”

Chemical in the news: Osmium tetroxide

Osmium tetroxide has made the news in Canada and worldwide when Christopher Phillips, a Halifax man, was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon. In January 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found “floor to ceiling” stacks of chemicals — many unlabelled. One chemical that was identified in the new reports was osmium tetroxide.

Book review

Stuff Matters is an extremely interesting and engaging book, cleverly written and thoroughly enjoyable on a personal level. On a professional level for a chemistry teacher, it is an important — perhaps necessary — read as it provides background from a material science aspect often missing from chemical education.

Book review

Denialism is a thoroughly engaging book — both frightening and encouraging. Specter is a writer and a former journalist, and the ease of his writing style is evident throughout.

Handouts worth keeping by Cation Designs

Having taught chemistry at all levels for many years, I know that teachers are all about borrowing/stealing from other teachers — God knows I did my share as a beginning teacher. Even with the wealth of resources out there, though, sometimes I was unable to find handouts with the content I wanted.

Book review

In their Apologia to this paperback edition of the critically acclaimed sui generis book (Prometheus Books, 2005) that was selected by Choice magazine and the American Library Association as an “Outstanding Academic Title,” Cathy Cobb, Instructor of Calculus and Physics at Aiken Preparatory School and Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Carolina at Aiken, and Monty L. Fetterolf, Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Carolina, proclaim...

Book review

If you are a chemistry teacher in search of a new demo, or perhaps looking for just the perfect teaching hook to start a lesson, or maybe something just a little zany, then Mad Science 2 is the book for you.

Why educational research matters to you: Rote vs meaningful learning

[This article was first published online on the blog called Educational Theory and Practices, which is maintained by Stuart T. Haines, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Maryland. The blog is “random musings by people who think about educational psychology and the practice of instructional design.” We recommend you visit this blog for lots of interesting reading.

ECCNvideos: Free online demonstrations for students and teachers

At the recent International Conference on Chemical Education, Toronto, the Early Careers Chemistry Network (ECCN) presented (or shall we say launched?) the new ECCNvideos chemistry demonstration project (ECCNvideos Youtube channel and @delaneysw). With this online resource we hope to encourage teachers worldwide to incorporate more demonstrations into their chemistry teaching.

The creative stimulus

Too often, science teaching presents science as a body of knowledge to be learned and regurgitated, rather than an inherently creative process of discovering new problems, and having the courage to imagine what the answers might be.

All kids should have these…

You can find these colorful labels for crayons on “Que Interesante” at Etsy.com. Chem 13 News asked “Que Interesante” about this wonderful idea.

Student teacher’s life lessons

In June 2013, “6 lessons I learned as a student teacher” was published on CNN’s Schools of Thought blog. Heather Sinclair Wood summaries her lessons in the following six statements...

Compressed organic class

Take 2.5 minutes and watch a time-compressed glimpse inside Dr. Rogers Organic Chemistry class at University of Texas at Arlington TX. It is just as interesting to watch the students as it is to watch Dr. Rogers in front of the class.

Book review

Chemical education research (CER) is a relatively new discipline that deals with the issues of both teaching and learning chemistry. It uses the theories, tools and experimental designs of a number of fields such as education, psychology and sociology.

An all-natural banana

On the next page, you will find a poster from a website created by James Kennedy, a chemistry teacher in Melbourne, Australia. You might have already heard about this poster since his “all-natural banana” has gone viral with two million views.

Viewpoint: Why do people hate the word “chemicals”?

I really enjoy my job, I'm a chemist in academia. I get to wallow in the fascinating world of research science and then pass on my passions to eager young minds.

Book review

The Case of the Poisonous Socks, Tales from Chemistry

The Case of the Poisonous Socks is a dense, robust, scholarly book which one must read slowly and carefully in order to enjoy all the nuances that William Brock has explored within each chapter. The book is actually not a book at all but a collection of essays Brock has written over his forty-year career as a chemical historian.

Book review

When protons themselves, particles that characterize elements, have half-lives, it should not be shocking that knowledge is not forever. The proton’s half-life, however, is on the order of 1033 to 1034 years.

A CD review

Renowned chemical educator Bassam Shakhashiri explores a broad range of reactions in this captivating 57-minute Christmas video. Through detailed explanations, Professor Shakashiri provides the background chemistry required to understand each demonstration — all while maintaining his “Science is Fun” approach to learning.

Deleted scene from Breaking Bad that a chemistry teacher can relate to

Director Vince Gilligan describes a deleted scene from Breaking Bad's final episode in which Walter White, the former chemistry teacher-turned-methamphetamine synthesizer, runs into a former student. Dying of cancer, Walt asks the ex-student if he thought he was a good teacher.

Book review

On Fact and Fraud is a little book with a large message about staying clean in science. Goodstein has had a lot of experience with scientific fraud both as a professor — teaching a course on Scientific Ethics at California Institute of Technology, Caltech — and as an administrator.