I hope you are having a good first six weeks. Summer ended on an extremely busy note for me. I attended the POGIL conference at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. POGIL is truly a unique way to approach chemistry. I encourage each of you to go to the POGIL website and download some of the high school worksheets. The idea in a nut shell is to have a model that teaches the concept so the students can figure it out more on their own. On the ChemEd 09 website there are some downloads that help implement POGIL. I have tried two activities in my AP classes and will implement the atomic worksheet in my regular classes soon. I think POGIL is a wonderful addition to my bag of teaching tools. ChemEd 09 had some fabulous speakers. John Werner gave a moving talk on how we need to train chemists to make products safer, cheaper and easier. He has a website for teachers named Beyond Benign (http:// www.beyondbenign.org/) Check out the curriculum materials. Dr. Joe Schwarcz was the Reg Friesen Lecturer. He was great. He has written numerous books that demystify chemistry. Check out his website at http://oss.mcgill.ca/schwarcz.php Terrific Science gave everyone who came by the booth a copy of Toys that Teach Chemistry for their 25th anniversary. Vernierâs workshop on using the new Investigating Chemistry through Inquiry was great. The lab manual is written with minimal directions for the students, but maximum information for the teacher on the lab results based on the researchable question the students pick. This lab manual is a must have. Finally I would encourage you to check out ChemEd DL at www.ChemEdDL.org. You will find the periodic table live, molecules 360, JCE classroom activities, courses, virtual laboratories, science for kids. Hope to see you at CAST Meg Young