An illustration of two hands miming the structure of Ammonia

How visuospatial thinking boosts chemistry understanding

2024-04-18T06:07:00+01:00By

Get your students to use their hands to help them get to grips with complex chemistry concepts

Education in Chemistry

Photograph of Education in Chemistry magazine. Image text: receive a free bimonthly copy of EiC when you register for Teach Chemistry

Ideas

A female engineer inspects a turbine in a nuclear power plant

Fuel curiosity in science careers

By

Help foster the next generation of scientists by linking teaching topics to real-world events and career pathways

A teacher interacting with a robot on a screen who has written a question given four optional answers about the standard formula of alkanes

Use AI to successfully assess students’ understanding

By

Discover how to quickly and effectively generate multiple choice questions on key chemistry topics

An old wooden molecule modeling set

5 ways to successfully teach structure and bonding at 14–16

By

Strengthen students’ grasp of the abstract so they master this tricky topic and effectively tackle exam questions

Education Prizes 2024

It’s time to recognise the teams, collaborations and individuals making an impact in science education

Nominate now

Exciting demos

A photo of a test tube of a clear liquid containing with brown-edged blue liquid blobs. The test tube is also submerged in a clear liquid.

Demonstrate concentration and density with a transition metal colloid cell

A round glass flask glowing blue

Highlight transition metal chemistry with an oscillating luminol reaction

A series of photos of glass beakers of a clear blue liquid turning to an opaque orange. Then another clear chemical is added by syringe and the liquid turns back to clear blue.

Reversible reactions with transition metal complexes

A number of glass conical flasks attached by clamps to a metal stand. Each flask has a colourful balloon sealed around its neck that has been sucked inside the flask.

Demonstrate changes of state using volume differences

Lots of small bubbles in a clear liquid rising to the surface

Creating a supersaturated gas evolving oscillator

  • Demonstrate concentration and density with a transition metal colloid cell

  • Highlight transition metal chemistry with an oscillating luminol reaction

  • Reversible reactions with transition metal complexes

  • Demonstrate changes of state using volume differences

  • Creating a supersaturated gas evolving oscillator

Evidence-based teaching

An illustration of two hands miming the structure of Ammonia

How visuospatial thinking boosts chemistry understanding

By

Get your students to use their hands to help them get to grips with complex chemistry concepts

Tiny people looking at giant models of ammonium and sulfur dichloride trying to figure out the inter molecular forces

Understanding how students untangle intermolecular forces

By

Discover how learners use electronegativity to predict the location of dipole−dipole interactions

Looking down at feet between forward and backward arrows on a street

3 ways to boost knowledge transfer and retention

By

Apply these evidence-informed cognitive processes to ensure your learners get ahead

Opinion

A cartoon of a young person in a shopping trolley wearing an astronaut's helmet rolling towards a lightbulb

Why we should ditch working scientifically

By

Explore a new approach to this this national curriculum strand, grounded in contemporary cognitive science

A multicoloured question mark

How do you feel about working in science education?

By

Tell us what it’s like by taking part in the Science teaching survey, and we can improve our support for you

A woman pushing play on an oversized remote control.

Why I use video to teach chemistry concepts

By

Helen Rogerson shares why and when videos are useful in the chemistry classroom

How to teach ...

A cartoon showing iron ore being mined then processed in a furnace before being made into buildings, household goods and ships

How to teach extraction of metals at 14–16

Tubes of flourescent spheres and organic molcules

How to teach chromatography at post-16

A diagram showing UVC breaking down oxygen gas into individual oxygen atoms that then combine with oxygen gas to make ozone. Ozone is broken down again by UVA and UVB

How to teach atmospheric chemistry at 14–16

A yellow oil sits on top of a clear liquid in a test tube

How to teach chemistry through electrostatics at post-16

shutterstock_355435697

How to teach equilibrium constants at 14–16

  • How to teach extraction of metals at 14–16

  • How to teach chromatography at post-16

  • How to teach atmospheric chemistry at 14–16

  • How to teach chemistry through electrostatics at post-16

  • How to teach equilibrium constants at 14–16

News & analysis

A young woman eyes a cafe menu on the wall with a napkin tied around her neck and holding her knife and fork ready

Reviewing the ECF

Do new teachers leave the early career framework a five-star review or are they left with a bad taste in their mouths?

Blue jeans

Enzymes make dyeing denim more sustainable

Can researchers find a way to make jeans blue without using toxic chemicals?

A close up of blueberries one has been cut open to show the yellow flesh under the blue skin

Revealing blueberries’ nanostructure

Find out how microscopic, self-assembling particles give blueberries their characteristic blue hue

A lake from above with red sludge spreading across its brown waters. There are houses and trees on the banks.

Using polluting red mud for greener metal production

Transforming toxic mud into iron in a breakthrough for steelmaking sustainability

Latest issue

March 2024
How to teach polarity, diffusion, Earth’s resources, atomic structure and more

Read it now