Chemistry For Your Life

What if chemistry classes were organized around real-world problems instead of chapters in a textbook?In this bonus BCCE Community Conversation preview, Melissa talks with Vicente Talanquer about helping students think like chemists rather than simply memorize chemistry. They explore why authentic, real-world problems can transform learning, how instructors can make meaningful changes without rewriting an entire course, and why teaching chemistry is about developing a way of thinking—not just delivering content.

 
Important Links

Submit a Question for Community Conversations

bcce.divched.org/2026

YouTube.com/@chemforyourlife

chemforyourlife.com

Free resources
Chemical Thinking Curriculum Structure: https://sites.google.com/site/chemicalthinking/structure
More on Chemical Thinking Curriculum: https://sites.google.com/site/chemicalthinking/

General Chemistry - CLUE textbook & activities: https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/clue/general-chemistry.aspx

Organic Chemistry OCLUE textbook & activities: https://www.chemistry.msu.edu/clue/organic-chemistry.aspx

Time Stamps

0:00 – Why Melissa loves BCCE and chemistry education
2:50 – Meet Ellen Yezierski and the idea of scholarly teaching
4:00 – Moving beyond intuition and using evidence to improve teaching
6:35 – What chemistry educators can learn from cognitive science and education research
8:30 – The biggest challenge: finding time to improve your teaching
11:00 – Why conferences and community matter for innovation
13:45 – Barriers to evidence-based teaching and the risk of changing what’s familiar
16:20 – Applying the same scientific scrutiny to old teaching methods
19:40 – A practical first step toward scholarly teaching
21:00 – Finding useful teaching research without getting overwhelmed
25:20 – Meet the panelists and the ideas they’ll bring to BCCE
29:10 – How the Community Conversation will work
32:35 – Why good teachers are made, not born
34:00 – Filling your teaching cup back up at BCCE

Support this podcast on Patreon 
Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

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There are a lot more ways to reveal a fingerprint than the black powder you see on TV.In this second part of our forensic chemistry series with Nicki Stewart, we explore the surprising chemistry behind fingerprints. From powders and iodine vapor to super glue fumes and chemical reactions, we break down how forensic scientists reveal invisible fingerprints—and why choosing the right method depends entirely on the surface, the chemistry, and the evidence they’re trying to preserve.

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0:00 – What are fingerprints, really?

5:30 – What’s actually left behind when you touch something?

9:20 – The two main categories of fingerprint detection

14:00 – How fingerprint powder actually works

18:40 – Iodine fuming and why fingerprints disappear again

25:25 – Revealing fingerprints on sticky tape

29:40 – Ninhydrin and the chemistry behind purple fingerprints

35:05 – The surprising science of super glue fuming

42:20 – Why collecting fingerprints is much harder than TV makes it look

46:10 – Jam’s biggest takeaways from fingerprint chemistry

 
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References from the Episode:

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What does it mean to teach chemistry like a scientist?
In this BCCE Community Conversation preview, Melissa talks with chemistry education researcher Ellen Yezierski about scholarly teaching: making evidence-guided decisions about how we teach and how students learn. They discuss why content knowledge alone isn’t enough, how educators can improve their teaching without becoming full-time researchers, and why some of the best chemistry teaching ideas come from asking better questions about learning.

 
Important Links

bcce.divched.org/2026

YouTube.com/@chemforyourlife

chemforyourlife.com

 
Time Stamps

0:00 – Why Melissa loves BCCE and chemistry education
2:50 – Meet Ellen Yezierski and the idea of scholarly teaching
4:00 – Moving beyond intuition and using evidence to improve teaching
6:35 – What chemistry educators can learn from cognitive science and education research
8:30 – The biggest challenge: finding time to improve your teaching
11:00 – Why conferences and community matter for innovation
13:45 – Barriers to evidence-based teaching and the risk of changing what’s familiar
16:20 – Applying the same scientific scrutiny to old teaching methods
19:40 – A practical first step toward scholarly teaching
21:00 – Finding useful teaching research without getting overwhelmed
25:20 – Meet the panelists and the ideas they’ll bring to BCCE
29:10 – How the Community Conversation will work
32:35 – Why good teachers are made, not born
34:00 – Filling your teaching cup back up at BCCE

Support this podcast on Patreon 
Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

#061

Be honest. Have you ever glued yourself with super glue? Everyone should accidentally make that mistake at least once, so you can literally feel the impressive stickiness of super glue. Well today, you can learn about the chemistry within super glue, without putting any fingers or other body parts at risk! Let's do this.

 

References from this episode

Introduction to Polymers R.J. Young and P. A. Lovell

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/superglue/superglueh.htm

https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/cyanoacrylate/6261.article

https://pubsapp.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/86/8624sci5.html

https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/students/highschool/chemistryclubs/March_ChemClubCal.pdf

https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/articlesbytopic/bonding/chemmatters-dec2006-glue.pdf

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife.
Email us at chemforyourlife@gmail.com
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AI is everywhere in education right now, but is that the only technology chemistry educators should be thinking about?

In this bonus BCCE preview episode, Melissa talks with Resa Kelly about technology in chemistry education, from visualizations and videos to flipped classrooms and AI. What do we actually want students to be able to do in a technology-rich world? How should that shape our teaching? And how can educators stay curious without feeling pressured to adopt every new tool that comes along?

 
Important Links

bcce.divched.org/2026

YouTube.com/@chemforyourlife

chemforyourlife.com

 
Time Stamps

0:00 – Introducing the Community Conversation on technology

1:11 – Resa Kelly’s journey into chemistry education research

2:20 – How visualizations and animations help students learn chemistry

3:31 – Why this conversation is about more than just AI

5:50 – Technology already shaping chemistry classrooms

7:20 – Staying curious even if you’re skeptical of new technology

9:10 – Time constraints and practical barriers for teachers

10:00 – Creative ways educators are using AI

14:15 – Teaching students to evaluate trustworthy information

17:13 – The central question: What should students be able to do in a technology-rich environment?

18:20 – Is technology helping students learn or just complete tasks?

19:00 – If AI gives answers, what are we really teaching?

24:00 – Why these conversations matter beyond BCCE

28:15 – Assumptions, AI, and trusting students

30:05 – Final thoughts and invitation to the conference conversation

Support this podcast on Patreon 
Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

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