Dear IACT Members or soon to be,

We are an organization of high school classroom teachers that promote the teaching of chemistry in Indiana. We are all volunteers who just like to talk with other chemistry teachers. It makes for a lot of fun! We got together this summer at Purdue and thought it would be pretty cool to put a newsletter together to communicate labs, demos and any ideas for the chemistry classroom. We plan to send out seven newsletters this school year. Yea, another reason to take the hike to your mailbox.

Ideas we thought we should discuss & need feedback on:

1. What do you do for your first chemistry lesson of the year?

2. How do you get reluctant students to wear goggles?

3. Report web sites that you use for teaching chemistry lessons.

4 Report your favorite demo? And why?

5. How do you feel about the Core 40 test for chemistry?

6. How do I get my students to read the text book?

7. Or suggest you own question you would like to answer.

We can't guarantee all responses will be published, but we will try to pick out the best.

If you are picked as a published response, you will win an all expense free vacation to Chemland!

(It's an imaginary place where all day long you can do really cool chemistry stuff and your

students just want to do chemistry stuff)

Schedule: Fall IACT Meeting

When: Saturday, November 4, 2000 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Room 104, Wetherill (WTHR) Chemistry Building, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

9:00 - 9:30 a.m. Registration

9:30 -10:30 a.m. "The Role of Chemistry in the Modern Forensics Laboratory", Mr. James Hamby, Director, Marion County Crime Lab

10:30 -10:45 a.m. Break

10:45 -11:30 a.m. "Atoms in Action", Paul Smith, Director, Lecture Demonstrations, Dept. of Chemistry, Purdue University

11:40 -12:00 noon IACT Business Meeting, Vickie Hess, President

12:00 noon -1:00 p.m. Lunch on your own (at the Purdue Memorial Union or at a variety of eating establishments within easy walking distance)

1:00 - 1:50 p.m. First Concurrent Session

2:00 - 2:50 p.m. Second Concurrent Session

(Each of the presentations below will be repeated during both concurrent sessions)

Presentation A: "Oldies but Goodies or Hints that Helped Me Survive in the Classroom" by Carol Chen, Kokomo High School

Presentation B: "Out-takes: Activities to Simulate and Stimulate Scientific Thinking" by Patricia Mason, Delphi High School

Presentation C: "Teaching to the Standards Through Activities" by Maria R. Walsh, IUPUI

Presentation D: "Chemobile/Indiana Scientific Instrument Project" Julia Hains, Purdue University

Presentation E: "Core 40 and ISTEP" by Pat Strawbridge, Indiana Department of Education Representative

Scientific Inquiring. Which side of the bread lands side-up--jelly side or bread side? The scientific method is first discussed. The students are asked to write a hypothesis, design an experiment, collect data and write the results. Second day the students exchange procedures and try to duplicate the other students' procedure and determine if they get the same results. Peer evaluation and feedback is great.

Another good scientific inquiry question to demonstrate the scientific method is: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop? I have had results anywhere between 3 and 530 licks. There are lots of ways for students to design an experiment.

The Journal of Chemical Education?!? Come on! I'm a high school teacher. I don't have the time to sift through all of JCE to find what I need." But wait! We have done the sifting for you! JCE has many resources that are especially designed to meet your needs. Check out the web page:

http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/HS/index.html

We need to get some good chemistry presentations for HASTI. HASTI is Feb 15 & 16, 2001 at the Indiana Convention Center. If your school will not give you a professional day, try presenting a lesson at the conference. You and your school will get good P.R., maybe this will get your professional day approved.

The IACT members will have a booth at HASTI in the exhibit hall. If you become a member for the incredible low price of $500 or $5.00, which ever fit your budget, you can enter the Mettler Balance Drawing!!!! (Balance worth between $2000 and $3000, this is not a typo!)