Annotated Bibliography

Mark Barr

Digital videos

StudiSchool. “Importance of Chemistry in Life, Everyday Uses - Studi Chemistry.” YouTube, YouTube,
11 Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Q2q20KaEk.

This is a short and entertaining video that shows students that everything around them is
chemistry, from how they prepare their food and what happens when they eat it, to how
chemistry affects the environment. This is by no means a video that will help students
understand chemical concepts, but it could be useful to spark a bit of interest in students before
the first lesson. This video was found with a quick search on youtube.

itsokaytobesmart. “6 Chemical Reactions That Changed History.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 May 2016,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb4CMnT2-ao.

This video is somewhat longer and more in-depth than the previous video listed. The video still
has an entertaining aspect to it, but it has more specificity to it in how certain chemical
reactions have changed the way humans interact with their environments. Similarly to the first
video, this video can be used to pique interest in the field of chemistry while adding an
additional layer of complexity that the other video does not have. Again, this video was found
simply by searching the importance of chemistry online.

Movies

“CHEMISTRY - Greatest Discoveries with Bill Nye. Science Documentary HD.” YouTube, Discovery HD,
10 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCPxsxtw8Xs.

This movie is available on youtube and brings the viewer through about 100 great discoveries in
the field of chemistry. With Bill Nye as the narrator, the tone of the movie is laidback and
entertaining rather than rigorous. This could be used on a day before an exam or at the end of
the first chapter. Similar to the two youtube videos listed under the ‘digital video’ header, this is
by no means an advanced video that will help students understand chemical concepts, but
rather a video to develop interest from the students. I have spent some time in the past
watching this video and I really enjoyed it and I can see how it can be applied in the classroom.

An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore. Paramount, 2006.

Arguably one of the most talked about media pieces ever made in any scientific field, former
presidential candidate Al Gore’s landmark piece on global warming can give students insight into
how the chemistry of global warming Is changing the world around them. This movie is very well
known in many scientific circles.

Fiction Books

Weir, Andy. The Martian. Del Rey, 2016.

 This is and probably always will be one of my favorite books of all time. Teens should have no
trouble reading through it even though it boasts quite a bit of (very true) scientific information.
The main character of the story, Mark Watney, finds himself stranded on Mars after a mission
failure and he’s forced to use science (engineering, chemistry, and biology) to survive until he
finds a way to communicate with earth and plan an escape from the red planet.

Wang, Weike. Chemistry. Deckle Edge, 2017.

This book was suggested to me by a colleague but I have yet to read it. From what I know, the
story follows a young girl and she parallels life’s happenings with those of chemical reactions,
equilibrium, catalysts, etc. This novel is not as scientifically in depth as The Martian, but
connecting life with chemistry in such an interesting way may be really helpful to some
students.

Non-fiction books

Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures: the Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped
Win the Space Race. William Collins, 2017.

This book is in my collection, and it happens to be one of the most empowering books I have
ever read. Many people may feel like they are not capable of achieving great things in the fields
of science (even passing high school chemistry should be considered an achievement), but the
story of several African American women who revolutionized space travel will surely change
their mind about what can be accomplished. This is more of a heartwarming story and will not
necessarily help students understand chemical constructs, but I would still recommend it to help
develop the interests of the students in science.

Birch, Hayley. 50 Chemistry Ideas You Really Need to Know. Quercus Publishing, 2015.

The best way that I can explain this piece is a textbook that is much easier to read than any
other textbooks. This would be extremely helpful to a lot of students as it breaks down 50 of the
most important topics in the science in an easy-to-digest manner. This particular book is in my
collection, as well.

Children’s books

Ferrie, Chris. Rocket Science for Babies. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2017.

I purchased this book for my daughter a few days after she was born. She is 1 year old now and
absolutely loves this book. It briefly covers the main points of rocket science, such as thrust,
weight, balance, etc, with 3-5 word sentences at a time. The book has a perfect balance of child
friendliness and scientific concepts.

Ferrie, Chris, and Margaret Wise Brown. Goodnight Lab: a Scientific Parody. Sourcebooks
Jabberwocky, 2017.

Another book I purchased for my daughter long ago. This book is a parody of the popular
children’s book Goodnight Moon, but rather than saying good night to the moon and stars, a
young scientist says goodnight to her lab equipment. This book does a good job at balancing
cuteness with an introduction to laboratory equipment.
 Articles

Urquhart, James. “Simulations Solve 200-Year-Old Ionic Mystery of Water.” Chemistry World, The
Royal Society of Chemistry, 14 Mar. 2018, www.chemistryworld.com/news/simulations-solve-
200-year-old-ionic-mystery-of-water-/3008777.article.

This is an extremely recent and somewhat complex article about a very new development in the
field of chemistry. The article itself is written rather well and is not convoluted in it’s
presentation, but the topic that it is written on is somewhat complex. This could be assigned to
students who are well off in their understanding of chemistry and are looking for an additional
challenge. This article was found simply by searching for news in the field of chemistry.

Ray, C. Claiborne. “Why That Sippy Cup Won't Dry in the Dishwasher.” The New York Times, The New
York Times, 2 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/science/plastics-
dishwasher.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Chemistry&action=click&contentCollection=scien
ce®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collectio
n.

This article is less complex than the first listed article, but will still be helpful in helping student’s
understand how two materials of different chemical compositions interact with one another.
This is an interesting article with a moderate amount of scientific information available, a good
one for any student who is looking for some interesting trivia style knowledge in regard to
chemistry. Again, this article was found simply by searching for news in the field of chemistry.

Academic/Peer-reviewed articles

Pence, Harry E, and Barbara Losoff. “Going beyond the Textbook: The Need to Integrate Open Access
Primary Literature into the Chemistry Curriculum.” Chemistry Central Journal, BioMed Central,
2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3078087/.

Quite a few of these kinds of articles have been published through academic and peer reviewed
journals in the past few years. Many educators have been calling for changes to how scientific
information is published so that it can be more accessible to the public. This particular article is
calling for open access primary literature to help educate chemistry students directly. The
authors state that while textbooks do a good job of summarizing the main concepts of scientific
information, they quickly become outdated and students never get a proper understanding of
‘today’s science’ and what kinds of projects scientists are working on now. While it may not deal
specifically with chemical concepts, it can allow students to gain insight into what direction
chemical education may be going in.

Zanin, Marina, and Ana Luisa Mangabeira Albernaz. “Impacts of Climate Change on Native Landcover:
Seeking Future Climatic Refuges.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 12 Sept. 2016,
journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162500.

This is a good article, and I chose it for a few reasons, the first being that Plos One is a well
known open source scientific publication that allows scientists to publish and share their
scientific findings with everyone. The second reason I chose this article is because it is
crosscutting and offers insight into both chemistry (global warming) and biology (biodiversity,
 ecology). Articles on Plos One are peer reviewed, but they have shown a history of publishing
some spotty scientific information, but this article seems to have some merit.

Websites

“Chemistry News.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily,

www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/chemistry/.

ScienceDaily is an excellent place for students to browse some of the most recent developments
in the field of chemistry with articles that are written in a high school friendly manner. Articles
available on the website fall anywhere between rather simple to very complex, so student’s can
choose to read leisurely or to really challenge themselves. I find myself perusing articles
published through ScienceDaily quite often.

“Chemistry | Science.” Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry.

I can honestly say that I do not think I would be where I am now without help from Khan
Academy. Whether you are using it for a quick late night study session or using it to familiarize
yourself with concepts coming up in class, Khan academy publishes extremely helpful videos
that can help anyone understand any concept covered in a high school level chemistry course.

Forums

“High School Chemistry Forum.” Chemical Forums, www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=4.0.

Upon googling for a high school chemistry forum, I stumbled across this. It looks easy to use and
it seems to have quite a bit of traffic as questions that users upload are typically answered
quickly and correctly. Questions on the website vary from simple chemical properties, to
equations and how to use them, to stoichiometry.

“Best High School Chemistry Forum.” Chemistry Help Forum RSS,

chemistryhelpforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2.

Again, I found this after googling for high school chemistry forums, and very similar to the other
forum listed, this seems like a helpful tool that students could use if they ever found themselves
needing homework help.

Audiobooks and other help

Catherine Drennan. 5.111SC Principles of Chemical Science. Fall 2014. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-
SA.

This is not exactly an audio text, but it can be used as one. Through the OpenCourseWare
program at MIT, students all over the world can treat themselves to FREE college level
instruction in many fields including chemistry. The professor of this course in particular,
Catherine Drennan, does a pretty good job at speaking clearly and walking students through
chemical concepts.

Bishop, Mark. Section 1.1, preparatorychemistry.com/Bishop_Section_1_1.htm.

 This is the introduction section of Mark Bishop’s textbook narrated by himself. The entire
textbook is available in audioformat on the website listed above.

Visual Guides

Gonick, Larry, and Craig Criddle. The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry. Harper Collins, 2005.

This is a helpful and surprisingly detailed visual guide for chemistry. It can be extremely helpful
for learners who struggle with reading or other formats that would be presented in class.
Students who are visual learners would benefit greatly from this book. It is in my personal
collection.

Krieger, Paul A, and Dr. Sandra L. Andrews. A Visual Analogy Guide to Chemistry. Morton Publishing
Company, 2012.

This book is a bit more serious than the previously listed book. Rather than cartoons, the
authors show visual analogies to introduce chemical concepts. I have not read this book, but it
has very good reviews on amazon, where I first found it.

Useful Activity

Before each unit, I would ask students a question. For example, when we begin the energy and energy
transformation unit in chemistry, I could ask students, “How does a small spark lead to a huge
explosion?” We could briefly discuss, and then I could ask all students to write their thoughts on a sticky
note. I would take a sticky notes and place them all on a piece of poster paper that is taped to the front
of the room. At various points in the unit, we will come back to visit their answers to the question and
see if they still agree. Also, at the end of the unit, I could ask students to write down their final thoughts
of the question and how their final thoughts are different than their initial thoughts as well as have the
students design an experiment to reinforce their explanation of the concept. This is a modified version
of an activity that I observed while at Simeon Career Academy. Allowing students to come up with their
own explanations of scientific phenomena can be challenging and extremely rewarding, and students
should be excited to learn more about the topic to determine if they were right.

After The Text Activity

My selection of text to read after the textbook chapter would be the New York Time’s article Why That
Sippy Cup Won’t Dry in the Dishwasher. I feel as if it is a good fit in this instance because it speaks
specifically about how materials with different chemical compositions interact with one another and
their environment and why the act in such a way in a fun and interesting way.

Words to Define:

 Heat
 Hydrophobic
 Surface energy
 Polypropylene
 Hydrophilic
 Bonds
Techniques to teach vocabulary in my content area:

1. Word Drawings – write a word in a style that shows what the word means. For example,
students could write the word electricity with lightning bolts, or the word heat to look like it’s on
fire. This is modified from http://thesciencepenguin.com/2013/12/science-solutions-
vocabulary.html
2. Vocabulary folder – this is more straightforward than word drawings. It simply asks students to
keep a journal or folder of any scientific vocabulary words that come up in their reading. This is a
very well known way to practice vocabulary.
3. Concept Maps – I like this activity because it shows that many vocabulary words that the
students encounter may have a connection to another vocabulary word. For example, if we used
the a concept map for the above vocabulary words for the article, we could draw an arrow
relating hydrophobic to polypropylene and heat to bond breaking. This is again from
http://thesciencepenguin.com/2013/12/science-solutions-vocabulary.html