Home / Resources / Science Content Planning Resources

Resources

Chemical

The LeTaS! teachers found these books to be particularly helpful:

Other helpful resources:

Rader’s Chem4kids!
Great introductory website that covers all the basics and include quizzes to test understanding (question are not trivial which is nice).

HyperPhysics' Chemistry
This is hosted by HyperPhysics and again provides a wonderful flowchart of all the interconnections in chemistry.

Basic Chemistry Concepts
Provides a reasonable introduction to basic chemistry. It covers most of the common terms used in chemistry. There is however only a limited amount of information on this website.

Chemistry Tutorial
Provides an overview of basic chemistry at the college level. The idea is to provide the necessary chemistry in order to do biology.

Introductory Chemistry
Another webpage going over introductory chemistry.

General Chemistry: Q & A
Contains large quantity of general chemistry level information. Questions on site cover basic to detailed.

Science in the News

The following article, which can be found on many news sites, deals with the current shortage of helium gas in a America. The article touches on the important fact that helium is a non-renewable resource. Much like natural gas and oil when the underground supplies are gone, there will be no more accessible helium on earth. This is not to say we are in the midst of crisis, there is still large reserves of helium around the world. The main problem, as the article points out, is that the recovery of helium is not as important as natural gas. There is little financial incentive for gas companies to capture helium gas when they drill for gas, so most just escapes into the atmosphere. (See article to find out where we currently get helium).

Helium is a very special element. It is the only on which does not become a solid when cooled at atmospheric pressure. It is the coldest liquid, having a boiling temperature of 4.2 Kelvin. It is has several other interested properties, including the ability to become a superfluid or a supersolid. It is used in universities around the world to perform experiments at ultra-low temperatures (where really cool things happen). Most universities have a means to capture the gas and reuse it but not all.

Want to know more about helium?

The following article titled "Edible 'Antifreeze' Prevents Unwanted Ice Crystals In Ice Cream And Frozen Foods" talks about how chemistry is being used to improve the quality of frozen foods; specifically ice cream. The article states "preventing the formation of large ice crystals is a major challenge for frozen food manufacturers and consumers who store packages in home freezers" and that the solution maybe to use "gelatin hydrolysate, a protein known to act as a natural antifreeze".

I bring this article up to show the wide impact of chemistry. Hopefully, if students begin to understand stand all of its uses, they may be more inclined to understand it.

Today's article comes from the New York Times and is entitled "Scientists Would Turn Greenhouse Gas Into Gasoline". The article talks about a method for capturing carbon dioxide and turning it back into gasoline.

While the idea is currently not practical, it seems feasible. The important part of the article is that one comes away with the sense that problems of this nature are going to need scientist skilled in many fields (chemistry, physics, engineering...) and will most likely have to be tacked by your students in the coming decades.

This article is a cross between biology and chemistry.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23638483/

The article discusses research on how DEET works to repel insects. The main result is that the DEET keeps insects from being able to smell human body odor, by blocking specific receptors in the insects olfactory system. Scientist hope to use this result to find a chemical that performs the same function as DEET, while having a lesser adverse health effect.

Here is an article about the importance of teachers who are enthusiastic about science.

Did you know that oxygen is a paramagnetic substance? This means oxygen should be attracted by a magnetic field.

Why do we not see the behavior in gaseous oxygen? While gaseous oxygen is paramagnetic, the molecules move to fast to be affected by a magnetic field. However the effect can be seen in liquid oxygen.

The following link leads to a video on the paramagnetism of liquid oxygen.

A couple of facts about liquid oxygen:
Boils at 90K (-183 Celsius)
Powerful oxidizing agent, organic materials burn rapidly in liquid oxygen.
Used as propellant in rockets, including space shuttle.

So why is oxygen paramagnetic?
Basically, because the oxygen molecule has two unpaired electrons. Actual answer more detailed, see Molecular Orbital Theory.

Recently NOVA (on PBS) aired a program called absolute zero. The program chronicles sciences attempt to reach every lower temperatures, in the ultimate pursuit of reaching absolute zero; the temperature at which all motion should cease to exist.

By clicking the watch online link, you can choose which part of the program to watch. I highly recommend Chapter 8 because it shows videos of superconductivity and superfluidity; effects that most people will never encounter.

From a chemistry stand point Chapter 9 is interesting because it talks about a different state of matter, one unlike the states of normal experience: gas, liquid, and solids.

As the last two post demonstrate, I like low temperature experiments and demonstrations. It is unfortunate young children do not have more interaction with the phenomenon’s that occur at low temperature. I strongly encourage teachers to make an attempt to acquire or show such demonstrations.