Chemical Educational Foundation® Earth Day Challenge– $1,000 Prize!
The Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF) Earth Day Challenge is a video contest for grade K-8 classes that seeks to spark student interest in chemistry. To enter, educators must submit a short video about their students’ experience conducting water-related activities from the You Be The Chemist® Activity Guides. The school of the educator who submits the winning entry will receive $1,000 for the school’s science education programs, as well as a commemorative plaque. The winning educator will receive a $200 gift card to the Discovery Channel Store. The winner will be announced on Earth Day!
To enter, review the competition guidelines and submit your video by April 15. If you have questions, please e-mail CEF (comments@chemed.org) or call 703/ 527-6223.
Teacher Resources
You Be The Chemist® Activity Guides
The You Be The Chemist® Activity Guides provide teachers with FREE hands-on science activities for grade K-8 students. The Activity Guides are divided into two manuals by grade level (K-4 and 5-8), and each contain 30+ lesson plans for activities educators can do with students—using materials found at most grocery or big-box stores—to build their understanding of chemistry and general science. Each lesson plan contains supplemental science content to help educators feel comfortable presenting the material. Beyond inquiry-based activities, the guides contain activity sheets with answer keys, vocabulary, and more!
The guides are produced by the Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting youth science education. The Activity Guides are FREE to download (as a whole or as individual lessons) and you may also order a flash drive with all of the content pre-loaded for $10 (cost of production/shipping). The guides recently won aTeachers’ Choice Award from Learning Magazine® – the only awards program that is exclusively judged by teachers in the classroom. With over 1,000 pages of material, educators can select a few of the activities – or try them all! If you have questions, please e-mail CEF (comments@chemed.org) or call 703/ 527-6223.
Teacher Education, Professional Development, and Grant and Award Opportunities
You Be The Chemist® Essential Elements
You Be The Chemist® Essential Elements is a professional development opportunity designed to help K–8 educators— the “essential elements” in education—teach chemistry concepts through engaging, hands-on activities. Essential Elements is based on the 5E constructivist learning cycle methodology. This cycle allows students to build their own understanding of new concepts from both old ideas and their own experiences. During an Essential Elements workshop, the instructor will lead educators through a full 5E learning cycle utilizing a lesson from the You Be The Chemist® Activity Guides. Following the lesson, educators will have an opportunity to discuss the lesson further and ask questions. This professional development workshop is coordinated by the Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting youth science education. Please e-mail CEF (comments@chemed.org) or call 703/ 527-6223 if you have questions.
