Resource: Everyday Exploration of Chemical Compounds InfoGraph Cards

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A resource blog, developed by a UK-based Newly Qualified Teacher, is gaining respectable notoriety with teachers and parents alike due to the accessibility of resource/revision cards (or can be printed out as posters) designed to help develop understanding of chemistry and chemical processes.

Speaking to UKEdChat, the author of the resource said,

“The site started off the back of a series of posters I made for my classroom to showcase the different groups of elements in the Periodic Table. A few people mentioned that they’d like copies, so I created the site in order to share the files for free. It pretty much escalated from there – a lot of people on twitter downloaded the files and used them in their own classrooms, and I also created a set of teaching versions of the elements graphics, with information missing, to be used in research tasks.”

The Compound Interest website offers chemical explanations to a variety of different puzzles of interest, such as: The Chemistry of Cloves; Body Odours – Sweat, Halitosis, Flatulence & Cheesy Feet; The Metals in UK Coins; The Chemistry of Paint; Why Can Beetroot Turn Urine Red? – The Chemistry of Beetroot; Chemical Structures of Neurotransmitters; and so on.

Since they proved popular, I continued making graphics on different facets of chemistry, as it’s a process I really enjoy anyway. Even in my PGCE year, I always spent loads of time making resources I used in class look good, as I think the better their appearance, the more likely the pupils are to engage with them – a fact I think is overlooked in a lot of shared resources. My other motivation for making them is that pupils seeing the relevance of the subject to a variety of everyday substances or items is, I think, a really good way to fuel their interest in the subject – for example, my classes have particularly enjoyed finding out about the silver fulminate in Christmas crackers, and the compounds that make asparagus make urine smell funny!

The site’s developed over the past four months, and I’m now offering larger versions than are printable in most schools for sale, as well as the chemical compound herb & spice jar labels, which are proving popular. As far as the resources go though, I’m planning to continue offering them for free download as the site develops, because I think that good quality science resources should be available to anyone they’re useful to. I’ve already had some great feedback on some resources from A Level students, who’ve found the organic reaction maps particularly helpful.

The author asked us to keep his details anonymous, but teaches Chemistry from KS3 through to A Level in a school in England. We have included a few of the cards below (click each image to enlarge), but for more (including an offering of larger versions than are printable in most schools for sale, as well as the chemical compound herb & spice jar labels), visit the Compound Interest website by clicking here.