If you spend any time on social media sites or anywhere on the internet, you will have encountered “click bait”. Click bait is the internet slang term for online media or news content with sensationalist headlines. The CBC radio show “As it happens” did a short interview with Laura Seay, a Texas assistant professor who hit on an idea: “what if she wrote her syllabus in the style of click-bait internet headlines?” Her #clickbaitsyllabus went viral. Here is an example of one of her tweets “You thought France left Africa after decolonization. These thirteen countries show why you're wrong! #clickbaitSyllabus”.
Not to be outdone, we attempted some clickbait for our chemistry syllabus. We would love to see if your students and you could contribute to our list. Send to Jean Hein, jhein@uwaterloo.ca with the subject line “clickbait”.
- QUIZ: IONIC, COVALENT, METALLIC, FIND OUT WHAT KIND OF BONDS YOU WOULD FORM…
- 4 FASCINATING TYPES OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS THAT WILL ARRANGE YOUR WORLD
- IONS IN SOLUTION…WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW MIGHT SHOCK YOU…
- THIS SPECIAL NUMBER WILL CHANGE THE CHEMISTRY IN YOUR LIFE…
- THESE REACTIONS WILL GIVE YOU ENERGY! WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ASAP…
- AN ALKALI METAL IS ADDED TO WATER. YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…
- THOUGHT YOU KNEW ALL THERE WAS TO KNOW ABOUT LAB SAFETY? WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW...
- TRICKS TO LIMITING REAGENTS ARE REVEALED. WHAT YOUR TEACHER WON’T TELL YOU IN CLASS…
