Celebrate Earth Day 2016 with the Journal of Chemical Education

Chemists Celebrate Earth Day is an ACS annual event that seeks to bring international focus to environmental topics, such as clean air, water, and energy. Earth Day serves to illustrate the positive role chemistry plays in understanding and preserving the Earth. In honor of Earth Day 2016, the Journal of Chemical Education is highlighting recently published content with an emphasis on environmental chemistry.

The Journal of Chemical Education (JCE) publishes peer-reviewed articles and related information. We do this as a resource to those in the field of chemical education and to the institutions that serve them. The novel, interesting, and useful material in JCE includes chemistry content, activities, laboratory experiments, instructional methods, and pedagogies. JCE serves as a means of communication among people across the world interested in the teaching and learning of chemistry.

Environmental chemistry engages students of all levels in learning new chemistry concepts by relating chemistry to their daily lives as well as triggering awareness of environmental issues. Recently published articles, activities, and laboratory experiments provide ideas and suggestions for bringing environmental chemistry to students. Some the topics recently covered include: water quality; climate science & greenhouse gases; atmospheric chemistry; sustainability, green chemistry & environmental awareness; and energy storage technology.

The Journal of Chemical Education has 93 volumes of interesting material on a wide variety of environmental chemistry topics. Some of the topics covered such as teaching environmental chemistry at a science summer camp, determining arsenic in sinus wash and tap water, investigating ocean acidification, exploring cloud formation, and experimenting with solar cells.

Connect the classroom experience to the greater world by accessing the Journal of Chemical Education today.

Water Quality:

• A Multidisciplinary Science Summer Camp for Students with Emphasis on Environmental and Analytical Chemistry
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00211

• Development and Implementation of a Simple, Engaging Acid Rain Neutralization Experiment and Corresponding Animated Instructional Video for Introductory Chemistry Students
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00635

• Determination of Arsenic in Sinus Wash and Tap Water by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00744

• Introducing Students to Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry Analysis and Determination of Kerosene Components in a Complex Mixture
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00830

Climate Science & Greenhouse Gases

• Designing and Demonstrating a Master Student Project To Explore Carbon Dioxide Capture Technology
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00073

• CO2 Investigations: An Open Inquiry Experiment for General Chemistry
  DOI: 10.1021/ed5006932

• Ocean Acidification: Investigation and Presentation of the Effects of Elevated Carbon Dioxide Levels on Seawater Chemistry and Calcareous Organisms
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00676

• Updating a Student-Generated Ice-Core Data Plot Exercise for Courses Investigating Climate Change Topics
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00947

Atmospheric Chemistry

• Measuring Heterogeneous Reaction Rates with ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy To Evaluate Chemical Fates in an Atmospheric Environment: A Physical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory Experiment
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00290

• Investigating Freezing Point Depression and Cirrus Cloud Nucleation Mechanisms Using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00663

Sustainability, Green Chemistry,
& Environmental Awareness

• Incorporating Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment into First-Year Inorganic Chemistry Major Laboratories
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00281

• Design of a Dynamic Undergraduate Green Chemistry Course
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00432

• Exploring Green Chemistry Metrics with Interlocking Building Block Molecular Models
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00696

• Using a Carbide Lantern To Illustrate General Chemistry Concepts and Introduce Students to Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00604

• Flotation of Mineral and Dyes: A Laboratory Experiment for Separation Method Molecular Hitchhikers
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00514

Energy Storage Technology

• “Can” You Really Make a Battery Out of That?
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00496

• Experiments To Illustrate the Chemistry and Bouncing Ability of Fresh and Spent Zinc–Manganese Oxide Alkaline Batteries
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00796

• Discovering Inexpensive, Effective Catalysts for Solar Energy Conversion: An Authentic Research Laboratory Experience
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00591

• A Biphasic Ligand Exchange Reaction on CdSe Nanoparticles: Introducing Undergraduates to Functionalizing Nanoparticles for Solar Cells
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00847