1. General – Creating Pages

a.         Abstracts

In a world where time is precious and professionals have a heavy pack of responsibilities, there is a need for educational resources to be provided with simple accessibility; resources must be made available in a compact and unified Internet package. Research was collected in subject matter and varying levels of education and curricula. Demonstrations were sought, tested, and adjusted to be more effective. The content was combined in a custom web site, using the Joomla! content management system as a framework. The resources contained within ChemTeacher are available for teachers in secondary chemistry and are best suited for less-experienced teachers, including substitute teachers. The content can be adjusted for several levels of study, ranging from general science to Advanced Placement. Demonstrations cross several different budget and experience limits, ranging from household materials to stockroom chemicals. This project should facilitate the access of teachers to quality resources to positively enhance a students learning experience and the general instruction of chemistry.

ChemTeacher is a compact, unified internet package that links to online teaching and learning materials for specific topics in the high school chemistry curriculum. Resources have been vetted to be scientifically accurate, pedagogically defensible, and easily accessible, usually at the click of a single button.  Whether a new teacher, substitute teacher, or long-seasoned teacher in new circumstances, any educator will be able to use ChemTeacher to strip time away from search engines and resource codices and reinvest that time for efficient lesson planning, effective instruction, and meaningful assessment.  A teacher can select the level appropriate for a class, and the resources provided can be implemented in whatever way the instructor chooses.

b.         Creating Pages

All topics are saved in “articles,” which are part of the “Content” program in ChemTeacher.

To add a new topic/article:

1. Log in to the Administrator section of ChemTeacher.
2. Go to Content -> Article Manager.
3. Click New.
4. Select the Section and Category for your article. (You may have to create or enable the section or category as well, which you can also do from the Content menu.)
5. Choose a Title.
6. Most pages will follow the standard format of ChemTeacher (history, definition, videos, demonstrations, etc.). To open an article with the standard format, type “{model}” (curly braces around “model”) into your new article.
7. Apply. Now you should see the article with the appropriate boxes for all of the content.

Whenever you finish adding content, add each paragraph to the GoogleDocs page for editing, along with your name and date.