May 2010
Vol 47, No 3. Selected articles and reviews available online to all. Full issue available online to subscribers.
Column
Walport's wake-up call?
Independent report on pre-19 science and mathematics education in the UK recommends changes to curriculum and assessment regimes
Open University awards Eurobachelor label
First students graduating from the Open University's molecular science (hons) degree to be awarded the Eurobachelor label
Top of the Bench winners
Students from North Halifax Grammar School win this year's Top of the Bench competition
Bristol teacher - an 'unsung hero of science'
Tim Harrison receives Royal Society Hauksbee Award for inspirational outreach work in the chemical sciences
Get practical - on course
A course for chemistry teachers and technicans aimed at improving practical work in the classroom
RSC gives boost to practical chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) launches a USB version of the interactive AS/Alevel web tool, LabSkills
Foundation degrees for industry
Foundation degrees for the science-based industries available from September 2011
ChemSpider - reviewed
How useful is ChemSpider database for school chemistry teachers?
Chemistry FM
The University of Lincoln's first-year undergraduate forensic science programme is freely available to all online
2010 UK Olympiad team selected
Four sixthformers win their places to represent the UK at the 42nd International Chemistry Olympiad in Tokyo this summer
In brief
Items: Various short items
Chemlingo
Peter Childs, University of Limerick, investigates words in chemistry. In this issue: from pewter to pinchbeck
Soundbite molecules - meow meow or M-kat
Simon Cotton takes a look at those compounds that find themselves in the news or relate to our everyday lives. In this issue: meow meow or M-kat
Web watch
Tony Tooth looks at some websites that may be of interest to chemistry teachers. In this issue: an Interactive Lab Primer, a dvd from Cardiff University and Chemists' Net
Letters
Letters
Education in Chemistry Letters, May 2010
Exhibition Chemistry
A sensitive, contact explosive
Demonstrations to capture the student's imagination by Adrian Guy of Blundell's School. In this issue: Nitrogen triiodide - a sensitive, contact explosive
The Elements
Features
Mass spectrometry - the early days
1912, physicist Joseph John (J. J.) Thomson discovers mass spectrometry
Modern mass spectrometry
Advances in mass spectrometry (MS) technology over the past 30 years have pushed this technique into the hands of biologists and biochemists
Making the most of valency
Teachers are encouraged to use valency as a way of rationalising the atomic composition of a large number of compounds
Synthetic vaccines
The design of synthetic vaccines offers a more systematic approach to vaccine therapy for many illnesses, including cancer, and even drug addiction
Maths for chemists
Significant figures
Tips for teaching maths skills to our future chemists, by Paul Yates of Keele University. In this issue: Significant figures
Distillates
New Zealand versus Thailand
How do secondary school science students compare in the two countries?
Practical motivation?
Ian Abrahams, the London Institute of Education, investigates the role practical work has in motivating students
Improving CPD
Researchers in Germany exploit the findings of educational research in a professional development course for school science teachers
Reviews
The elements: a visual explanation of every known atom in the universe
Theodore Gray and Nick Mann
Quanta, matter and change. A molecular approach to physical chemistry
Peter Atkins, Julio de Paula and Ronald Friedman
Lies, damned lies, and science
Sherry Seethaler
Nanoscale: visualizing an invisible world
Kenneth S. Deffeyes and Stephen E. Deffeyes
Endpoint
Mathematical skills required
David Smith has the last word
Infochem
