Teaching Resources

Homepage > Teaching Resources > Teaching Resources Form

TEACHING RESOURCES INFORMATION

TITLE OF TEACHING RESOURCE

Amazing Chemistry Teacher Resources

WEBSITE OF THE PRODUCT

http://www.nclark.net/Chemistry#ManagementTips

TYPE OF PRODUCT

Web Site/Portal, Downloadable software

LEVEL OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE

Medium, Advanced

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

Cooperative learning, Problem solving

SUBJECT AREA

Fundamental Chemistry, Materials Science

TARGET GROUP LEVEL

Lower Secondary School

LANGUAGE/S OF TEACHING RESOURCES

English

DESCRIPTION

• The prerequisites
All teacher documents were originally created in Microsoft Word and some were saved as Web Pages. Those may be easily copied and pasted back into Word for making any changes desired. However, some of the files don't translate back into Word that well. So, some files are in Word only. Where files are in both htm or html and Word you can click on the Word icon after the link. You can save the Word files in Word and make any changes you want.
• The contents
Pupils are to solve tasks and answer basic questions as well as provide results. Themes are very interesting, connected to real life and nature.
All items can be demonstrated on real life examples.
• The aims
Science is a hands-on laboratory class. You will be doing many laboratory activities which require the use of hazardous chemicals. Safety in the science classroom is the #1 priority for students, teachers, and parents. To ensure a safe science classroom, a list of rules has been developed and provided
to you in this student safety contract. These rules must be followed at all times.
Two copies of the contract are provided. One copy must be signed by both you and a parent or guardian before you can participate in the laboratory. The second copy is to be kept in your science notebook as a constant
reminder of the safety rules.
• Task Description
The task descriptions seem sometimes quite long, but it is necessary because the experiments could be conducted at home, therefore the pupils must understand everything very well. For that matter the instructions are quite clear and straightforward. Points, received from work appears as a good source of motivation
• How to use it in class
As written on the website: it can be used in experimental/ practical lessons, but it can also be solved as homework. I think, students like home projects, they can work in groups or they can compare different results and discuss them.

COMMENTS

• Points of strength
Very interesting themes, properly written instructions and tasks, feedback
Provide for cooperation between teachers, pupils and parents
Knowledge received by actually conducting experiments is much larger than by watching experiments on TV or video.
• Points of weakness
Pupils must sometimes work without help; there should be cooperation between teachers and parents of pupils.
Instruction are sometimes very long although pupils prefer shorter descriptions, they don´t like to read long articles, but if working at home, it is necessary to provide these long descriptions.
• Scientific reliability
I think, all is perfectly explained and students are led to make the best results. After every task should follow a session where everyone discusses the results and teacher corrects the mistakes.
• Pedagogic value
The pedagogic value is large. Students that are sick can work on experiments at home and without everyday consultation with the teacher.
Every teacher can use this web site and teachers can consult results together. The materials are very useful.

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome

Date: 2014.05.21

Posted by Ciara O\' Shea (Ireland)

Message: Amazing Chemistry Teacher resources is an excellent resource for chemistry teachers at all levels. It provides resources on health and safety in the lab in the form of videos to show the students, labels to put on glassware and chemicals etc.

The layout of the site is well ordered. It has a section on games and a section on chemistry in the news which keeps both teachers and students up to date.

The site definitely has the ability to keep studnets interested in chemistry whether through games, reading material or simulations, which all help in motivating students in the world of chemistry.

The simulations, worksheets and quizzes are a super way to engage the pupils and have advanaced the speed of learning in my classroom.

Date: 2013.02.07

Posted by Jana Škreková (Slovakia)

Message: Web pages of Nancy Clark, who is a teacher at a high technical school in Bristol-Plymouth, are illustration of how to create a quality educating environment for students and teachers from the area of teaching subjects as biology and chemistry. The web page is not focused only on teachers of high schools but also for teachers at universities. The author has long experiences as a high school teacher. Her web pages represent her own teaching materials but also materials from other authors. On this web page you can find a lot of teaching materials as worksheets, puzzle, games and songs, online test and a lot of links to interesting educative pages. The author offers teaching in a form of game which is very motivating for students. In subject of chemistry, there is 13 topics which contain a lot of activities for students including study materials, crosswords, worksheets, topics for laboratory exercises, games, videos of chemical experiments, simulations of chemical actions (eg.naturalisation reaction), links to other interesting web pages from which each teacher can choose. Each of those topics is divided into 3 parts. The first part is dedicated to activities for students but there are also ideas for teachers. The second part is dedicated to ideas for laboratory exercises (also with laboratory protocols) and in the third part there are links to web pages and softwares. I like the online game at http://chemgametutor.com/ because the environment of the game is very attractive for students.

Date: 2013.01.28

Posted by Zita Valentová (Czech Republic)

Message: This web is compiled very well for preparation of teaching materials. The prepared materials in MS WORD can be arranged for particular event. Furthermore, there are plenty of links to experiments, various games and creative work. The website is very well turn out regarding its color; when a tab is chosen, the background of the site emphasizes basic topic of the tab. Structure of the homepage is simple, so it offers clear choice to enter to particular tabs. The topics are chosen well, so that inquiring man can find something interesting. There is a good structuring to sections: activities, experiments and links. I like very much the chemical experiments for holidays and other memorable days. It is very positive to motivate the students in such way, they all are looking forward to holidays and sure the atmosphere in the school is more pleasant during these experiments. Even the teacher can teach more easily and (s)he needn’t to be so strict.

There are really many ideas here; however I must reproach low emphasis on safety. In particular procedures, relatively concentrated acids or bases are used and these must be handled carefully. On the contrary, there is sometimes noted right that the substance can be poured to sink. Somewhere labels appear the age of which varies; but better some information than none. In Czech schools, low attention is paid to regulations and proper labeling. As soon as this appears in any instruction, they notice it and if they see this labeling in other situation, they recognize danger. The same can be said about toxic substances or the ones that should not get to the environment. Everybody should remember that waste is separated not only to paper, glass and plastics, but also according to its hazardousness.

Date: 2013.01.07

Posted by Helena Kaniewska (Poland)

Message: This site is designed to provide high school and middle school science teachers access to the materials and resources that the author (nancy clark) has collected during her 37 years of teaching in the field. Some of the materials are of her own design, but many are those she has borrowed from others and refined for her own use. They include:
Activities and worksheets
Laboratory exercises
Links to useful pages
Puzzles, games, and songs
Online test reviews by topic

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.