Pedagogical Content Courses
for High School Chemistry Teachers

Teaching content courses in high school requires pedagogical content knowledge: knowledge of the subject matter, and knowledge of issues related to teaching that subject matter successfully. These graduate courses are available for certified teachers. (The courses are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI-9819377. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these courses are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.)

In order to enroll in one of these courses, you must be admitted to Graduate Studies at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. (Access UNL Graduate Admissions Forms.) All of these courses are available for credit either in Teaching, Learning, & Teacher Education (TEAC 869) or Chemistry (CHEM 869). Credit from these courses may be included in an approved memorandum of courses for masters degrees in education. However, these courses do not apply towards a masters degree in chemistry. Credit for three of the courses may be taken in Biochemistry (BIOC 869) or Biological Sciences (BIOS 883).

The content of these courses follows NAS guidelines and stresses the integration of chemistry with other disciplines. In addition to content topics, most courses contain information on these integrative topics: practical applications, relation to other sciences and mathematics, home labs, graphing calculators, probes; industrial applications, simulations, inquiry, safety culture, misconceptions, environmental issues, historical perspectives, demonstrations, experiments, and special resources.

Once you have been admitted to Graduate Studies, you may enroll for these courses through Extended Education & Outreach by contacting customer service at phone (402) 472-2175, fax (402) 472-1901, extservice@unl.edu, or http://extended.unl.edu.

In addition to tuition, these courses are subject to handling and technology use fees.

Charges for Courses through UNL Extended Education and Outreach

Tuition
$238.25
Distance Education (non-refundable)
$75.00
Total
$313.25

After enrolling in one of these courses, you will receive e-mail from the course instructor. All of the materials are on-line, and all of the testing is on-line. The e-mail letter will set course deadlines and procedures. The essay items in the course are hand graded, but other items are graded automatically. Whenever you submit a response for grading, you will receive immediate feedback about your performance. Although essay items require hand-grading, you will receive 'model' essay responses.

These courses are entirely self-paced. While some students with high knowledge levels finish them in days, others take several months. The average time is 43 days. The minimum time for an active registration is five weeks, meaning that no credit will be issued in less than five weeks regardless of the extent of completion. Instructors routinely require that successfully passed items be recycled in 180 days, which effectively puts a 6 month time limit on these courses.

Contact Dr. David Brooks for more information about these courses.

TEAC 869A. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869A) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure and Properties of Matter: Water and Solutions
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Liquids, vapor pressure, phase diagrams, unique physical and chemical properties, solution formation, concentration, solubility rules, colligative properties, water purification, water and sewage treatment plants. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869B. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869B) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure and Properties of Matter: Periodicity.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Structure of the atom, spectra and the electron, quantum mechanics for chemistry, electron configuration, trends in the table, groups (families). {Try this course.}

TEAC 869D. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869D) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure and Properties of Matter: Bonding and Structure.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Types of chemical bonds, dot structures, valence bond theory, molecular orbital theory, coordination chemistry, structure determination, band theory. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869E. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869E) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure and Properties of Matter: Carbon Chemistry and Polymers
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Allotropes, inorganic carbon compounds, nomenclature, hybridization, aromaticity, functional groups, isomers, polyfunctional compounds, polymers, intermolecular interactions, reaction mechanisms, organic synthesis, graph theory. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869J. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869J) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure and Properties of Matter: Gases and the Atmosphere
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Kinetic molecular theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann, gas laws, ideal vs. non-ideal gases, supercritical fluids, gases in Earth's atmosphere, greenhouse effect. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869K. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869K; BIOC 869K; BIOS 883K) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Chemistry of Life Processes: Biomolecules.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college organic chemistry or TEAC 869E recommended.
Amino acids, proteins, enzymes, lipids, carbohydrates, nucleotides, steroids. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869M. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869M) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Interactions of Matter and Energy.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Molecular motion, electromagnetic radiation, spectroscopy, photosynthesis. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869N. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869N; BIOC 869N; BIOS 883N) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Chemistry of Life Processes: DNA.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college organic chemistry or TEAC 869K recommended.
Gene locus, biochemical genetics, DNA structure, cloning, transformation, DNA sequencing, DNA replication, transcription, protein synthesis. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869P. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869P; BIOC 869P; BIOS 883P) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Chemistry of Life Processes: Energy and Metabolism.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college organic chemistry or TEAC 869K recommended.
Biochemical reactions and energetics, glycolysis, TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis, alternate lifestyles in biochemistry, enzyme kinetics. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869R. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869R) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Chemical Reactions: Acids and Bases.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Acid-base theory, pH, Ka, pKa, polyprotism, acid rain. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869T. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869T) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Kinetics: Unifying Theme.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Rates of chemical reactions; reaction mechanisms; catalysis. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869U. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869U) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Chemical Reactions: Oxidation, Reduction, and Electrochemistry.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Determining oxidation numbers, redox reactions, half-reactions, electrochemistry, standard potentials Eo, Nernst equation, equilibrium constants, Faraday's law, practical electrolysis, corrosion, fuel cells, electric cars, explosions. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869V. Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869V) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Equilibrium: Unifying Theme.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Physical equilibrium, chemical equilibrium, mass action expression, chemical activity, equilibrium through thermodynamics, Le Chatelier's principle, blood buffers, soil chemistry. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869W Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869W) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Conservation of Energy and the Increase in Disorder: Thermodynamics.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Equations of state, first law, enthalpy, entropy, second law, third law, non-standard conditions, colligative properties. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869Y Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869Y) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Inquiry and the Nature of Science: Analysis and Instrumentation.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Recording data and methods, standardization, spectrometry (UV/VIS, AA, emission, IR), chromatography, electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, NMR. molecular modeling, LIMS, scanning tunneling microscope, atomic force microscopy. {Try this course.}

TEAC 869Z Tuition $200.00. (CHEM 869Z) • 1 credit
Chemistry for Secondary School Classrooms. Structure of Atoms; Nuclear Chemistry.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, prior college general chemistry.
Nuclear models, stability of nuclei, transformations, radioactivity, power, decay rates, carbon dating. {Try this course.}