[Since many high school physics teachers also teach chemistry, I post
this here. I quote from the press release. -- Jane J]
American Association of Chemistry Teachers has launched; first of its
kind in the US
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2014 - The American Chemical Society (ACS), the
world's largest scientific society, has launched the American
Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT), the first organization of
its kind in the U.S. The association is dedicated to improving
chemistry education and providing specialized resources to more than
1 million K-12 chemistry and physical science teachers nationwide.
The AACT website, http://www.teachchemistry.org, is live, and
interested teachers may sign up to become charter members or to
receive email updates about the new organization.
Until now, chemistry has been the only scientific field without a
national discipline-specific teachers' association. AACT will provide
the resources necessary to motivate and empower K-12 chemistry
teachers as they seek to inspire the scientists and scientifically
literate citizens of tomorrow.
Membership in the new organization is open to all who are interested
in chemistry education. AACT has three goals: to serve as a trusted
source of curricular and pedagogical resources for K-12 chemistry
instruction, to provide opportunities for chemistry teachers to
network with each other and the broader ACS community, and to
disseminate effective teaching and learning practices at the K-12
levels.
The establishment of AACT comes at a critical time, as enrollment in
high school chemistry classes is on the rise. And yet, only 35
percent of high school chemistry teachers have both a bachelor's
degree in chemistry and a certification in chemistry.
To help these teachers be better prepared for the challenges they
face in the scientific classroom, AACT offers a slew of resources
developed by ACS. These include an online periodical, lesson plans,
webinars and workshops with Continuing Education units, and videos
and other multimedia that will help teach chemistry concepts.