News For The Classroom

Education Discussion Group

The Education Discussion Group is a time for everyone (teachers from grades K-12 as well as people from industry) to gather together to share ideas that work in the classroom, to ask for help, to order special supplies, to share what is happening in the world of chemical education, and to share in the excitement and fun of the classroom. We meet monthly at various locations. We urge you to join us.

Our first meeting of the new year will be Monday September 25, at 7:00 PM at Sycamore High School. The main program will be the use of graphing calculators from Texas Instruments as lab probes in the laboratory. Other topics will include sharing from summer adventures and workshops; setting the calendar of meetings, workshops, dates and places; and any equipment requests.

Teachers' Workshop on March 9, 1996

A workshop all of those interested will be held on Saturday, March 9, 1996 at the College of Applied Science. We are working on more speakers and hope to have variety of exciting ones. More information will be available later in the fall and registration information will be mailed in January.

Diane Rose -- Winner of the 1994-1995 Outstanding Educator Award from the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society

Diane teaches chemistry at Ursuline Academy. She has held that position off and on, around maternity leaves, for nine years. Diane is a full member of National ACS. At the local level, she has served as Registrar for the Education Workshops and has just been elected as Second Vice-Chair of the Cincinnati Section. She is a regular participant in the Education Discussion Group.

Diane has served as a presenter and a presider at each of the local biennial education workshops. She has served as Registrar for these events for the last three years. She has presented at several Education Discussion Group meetings each year for the past five years. She has also helped coordinate posters at the Section Poster Session. Diane is one of the few classroom teachers in the area that has published in The Journal of Chemical Education. Diane has written papers on "The Learning Cycle," "Discrepant Events," and Holiday Experiments."

Diane presents on a regular basis at national meetings such as CHEM Ed '93 and NSTA in the field of chemistry and chemical education. At the State level, she presents at SECO. At the local level, she presents at monthly Education Discussion Groups, at the Education Workshop, at the Museum Center, and throughout her school district.

Diane is constantly striving to find better ways of teaching chemistry and stays on the forefront of techniques, methodology, and new approaches. She reads all the latest curricular approaches and selects and adapts the parts that best fit her students. A new approach is her monthly home experiment plan where students have experiments that they are to perform with their families at home. Each is written on special paper that is also an experiment (e.g., goldenrod to serve as an acid-base indicator).

One unique lesson that Diane continues to expand each year is her celebration of National Mole Day which has become National Mole Week (and will probably soon be National Mole Month). Her inclusion of many activities that involve the parents, the school community, and the community of Blue Ash show the positive aspects of learning chemistry and instill great attitudes and long lasting memories.

Diane also participates every year in performing demonstration shows during National Chemistry Week. For the past three years, these have included shows at the Museum Center. She has involved her students showing again that chemistry is fun and for everyone.

For summer fun this year, Diane back-packed up Mount Rainier.

Congratulations to Diane, this year's honoree as the Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher!

Rebecca Stricklin
Educational Services
Committee

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