Exciting developments ahead

We closed 2013 with a spectacular event held at the Chemistry Centre in London to mark Education in Chemistry’s 50th anniversary. The evening was attended by 75 guests and included a host of people who have supported, contributed to and worked on Education in Chemistry over the last 50 years, along with guest speaker, Bill Bryson. The evening was a true celebration of EiC’s achievements in supporting innovation in chemistry education and I was overwhelmed by the respect and goodwill that our community have for this magazine. You can find out more here: EiC's 50th anniversary.

Education in Chemistry saw some quite dramatic changes in 2013. We kicked off the year with a fresh new look and feel for the magazine and ended it with a fabulous new website. 2014 promises to be no less exciting. In this issue, we have an introduction by Keith Taber to a new series of regular articles on the topic of professional development for teachers. This series aims to help you, as teachers, to diagnose and correct common misconceptions found in chemistry education. It will also provide links to other supporting resources provided by the Royal Society of Chemistry. We will investigate a new topic in each issue, starting with bonding in issue 2.

We are still developing the website and working on how we interact and support you as a community of chemistry educators. Michael Seery will soon be joining us online as a guest blogger, which I’m sure will prove to be very stimulating and a mine of useful information, as well as offering his opinions on those things that matter.

Learn Chemistry Partnership

I have always thought it important that we know who our readers are, so we can interact and provide the content that really makes a difference to your teaching. At the moment, Education in Chemistry is sent directly to schools and colleges and not to a named contact, which means we don’t know who is reading each issue or what their requirements are. Over the coming months, with your help, we plan to change our distribution methods from sending Education in Chemistry and The Mole to an anonymous head of department to a real, engaged chemistry teacher. To do this, all we ask is that you register with Learn Chemistry Partnership and become your institution’s named contact. In return, your school will receive its bimonthly copies of EiC and The Mole as usual and an entire package of additional goodies. For example, named contacts will receive free membership of the RSC – benefits include personal copies of EiC, The Mole and Chemistry World.

Anyone who joins Learn Chemistry Partnership in its first six months will receive a huge (yes, really that big!) periodic table for their classroom wall. Schools will also have free access to a wide range of supporting resources and the opportunity to network with other schools and chemistry educators.

I was explaining Learn Chemistry Partnership and its rational to a teacher recently and received the response, ‘What, all that? What’s the catch?’ To which I answered, ‘Absolutely none, we just want to engage with you and help you teach and support our much needed chemistry students of the future.’

This is the real message – we need to ensure that there is a supply of bright young chemists to sustain our future. Education in Chemistry is your route to providing that innovative chemistry education.

Best wishes for 2014!

Karen J Ogilvie, editor