Royal Society of Chemistry Ireland Region Dr. John O’Donoghue Chemistry Education Coordinator, Republic of Ireland

The Learn Chemistry Website Learn Chemistry is the home of chemistry education online. Our education hub was launched in January 2012. It is used internationally by both teachers and students and has been nominated for (BETT Awards in 2013 and 2014) and won (ERA 2013) awards. It currently contains over 3700 resources and new resources are added almost every day! The Royal Society of Chemistry’s vision for Learn Chemistry is for it to provide the best global online resource to support the teaching, learning and promotion of the chemical sciences. Things in development include institution access, teacher login to allow you to save resources, and inclusion of more 3rd party resources (e.g. Nuffield Practical Chemistry resources) The largest education resource website for chemistry in the world, It’s like the “Google” of Chemistry! There are Experiments, Lesson plans, videos, Virtual Experiments, Handouts, Presentations, Themes It’s not curriculum specific. It is not tied to any one country. It is designed to supplement your teaching and help you find additional material. www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry

The Interactive Periodic Table Explore our periodic table by trends, application, history or alchemy of the elements. Learn the stories behind each element via podcasts and learn more by watching the ‘Visual Elements’ videos by Murray Robertson who designed the stunning Visual Elements periodic table. This is a very versatile resource. View videos from the University of Nottingham’s Periodic Videos library, starring the eccentric Martin Poliakoff. Each element is linked to available resources from Learn Chemistry to allow you and your students to find out more about the elements Great for all levels of Science, includes ionisation energy, atomic size, history. Great for Junior Cycle projects, Leaving Cert Chemistry, SciFest, BTYSTE. Free App on android and Apple, all videos included in the app www.rsc.org/periodic-table

Virtual Experiments Divided into four levels Level 1 and 2 are good as a pre-lab exercise Levels 3 and 4 are good as post-lab and pre-purification exercises Teacher notes are available to give more guidance. Students and teachers can see areas of misconception and deal with them before they do the practical part of the experiment. Individual logins for students, they have to progress though the experiment in the correct order, no skipping. They are designed to be used as student homework, revision or pre-lab learning HOW TO FIND: search for “screen experiment” in the Learn Chemistry search bar

Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) A FREE hands-on spectroscopy outreach activity delivered in schools by university ambassadors for TY & Leaving Cert. Real life scenarios with forensics scenarios. Portable, table-top IR, UV-Vis Instruments and NMR machines. Run nationally in partnership with TCD, UCD, CIT, UCC and UL Gives students (and teachers) hands on experience of making up samples and running their own spectra. Schools can request specific workshops with their university provider. This can include students testing the purity of samples that they have synthesised against known samples Book online via the Spectra School microsite on Learn Chemistry 2016 141 school visits rsc.li/SIAS

RSC Education Coordinators Our 18 Education Coordinators work with Higher Level Institutions across the UK & Ireland. Education Coordinators for Ireland: John O’Donoghue (ROI) – Trinity College Dublin Email: john.odonoghue@tcd.ie Phone: 00353 87 183 2911 Declan McGeown (NI) – Queen’s University Belfast Email: d.mcgeown@qub.ac.uk, Phone: 0044 79 1277 8451 Main Twitter: @RoySocChem Personal Twitter: @Johndhodonoghue