CHEMISTRY IN ACTION

Welcome to the Chemistry in Action site.

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This web site hosts the archive of Chemistry in Action! magazine, first published in May 1980, together with other activities and publications of the Chemistry Education Research Group (CERG), based at the University of Limerick, which has been in existence since 2008. Chemistry in Action! magazine was started in 1980 by Dr Peter Childs, initially at Thomond College of Education, and then after 1990 at the University of Limerick. It has been supported down the years by donations from chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and other bodies. This allowed it to be produced and sent free-of-charge to Irish chemistry teachers. The rising cost of postage has forced it to move to a mainly electronic format from issue 109, allowing more people to access it free-of-charge from this website and other sites. (A limited number of hard copies are still produced and will be available at science teacher conferences in Ireland).

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The Chemistry Education Research Group (CERG) was launched to bring together the various chemical education activities centred around Dr Peter Childs and his research students. Several people have finished PhDs or Masters in science/chemical education since its start and details of these can be found on this site, with links to their theses and teaching materials, and various publications from group members.

In 2003 Dr Childs started working with final year science education students at the University of Limerick to produce TY Science modules, providing resource materials for science teachers for the Transition Year Option. Many printed copies of these have been sold in the past and have been well received by Irish teachers. The increased costs of printing and postage have made this method of distribution uneconomic and so these TY Science modules are being made available on this site for free download. Each consists of a teacher’s guide and student’s guide/workbook, covering usually 8 weeks’ work.

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Members of CERG have also been involved in several EU-funded science education projects and details of these and associated resources are also given on this site.

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Other materials will be added to the site as they become available and we hope they will be a useful resource for teachers in Ireland and outside.

 

Peter E. Childs

Director, CERG

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