CACC STEM

05/30/2024

Large coronal mass ejection yesterday. NASA’s model shows Earth (yellow circle) barely avoided any significant impact. Good chance for more Aurora in the coming weeks!

05/21/2024

Keep looking up!

Sometime between May and September, a white dwarf is expected to go thermonuclear.

05/12/2024

Multiple space weather sources are reporting a large probability of celestial activity tonight (G4-level) perhaps as far south as Alabama.

Geomagnetic storms from Saturday will continue over the weekend and into Monday, with varying intensity from severe to extreme.

05/11/2024

For those of you in the northern hemisphere who missed the aurora (apparently as far south as San Juan, PR), there’s another good chance of it occurring again. The sun gave off another HUGE coronal mass ejection (CME), this time at the higher G5 level (see below). Particles are supposed to arrive at Earth’s ionosphere around May 13. It’s currently not clear how much we’ll see, but stay tuned!

05/06/2024

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of my educator friends! Thank you for all that you do! You all make the education profession truly wonderful—leaving positive and lasting impressions on those seeking to learn—and I’m proud to call you colleagues 🙂❤️

     Teachers are the heart and soul of our Nation.  They care for our Nation’s students, pass on knowledge to rising generations, and inspire our children to dream up new possibilities for their futures.  The power of a great teacher is profound, and — on National Teacher Appreciation Day ...

04/23/2024

Watch the video below… carefully. That’s an unprecedented 4, simultaneous coronal mass ejections (CMEs), with a potential impact date of April 24-25th. Thanks to Earth’s magnetic field, no panic is necessary. But, it could disrupt satellites, radio communications, and create an aurora display in the mid-latitudes. Stay tuned!

04/19/2024

For your viewing pleasure tonight ☄️.. break out those 🔭.. binoculars work great too!

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks reaches perihelion this weekend when it will shine at its brightest, though seeing it requires a little guidance.

04/01/2024

Scientific literacy is a must.

Your total solar eclipse may be at risk if you listen to what some hotels and event organizers tell you, with fictional claims about “99% totality” that do not exist.

02/07/2024

Look who came to visit our chemistry class today!!! My good friend Madisen Cope made the trek from Auburn University to speak about their College of Agriculture programs. $1,000,000 in scholarships… learning science… solving world problems!

Yes, I have a squishy AU football in my classroom 🙂

01/19/2024

Weather delays initially kept us out of the lab, but we persevered had an EXCELLENT first day of undergraduate research in CHM250. I sense scientific discoveries are on the horizon! Stay tuned…

12/05/2023

Hello All,

Would you please click the link below and vote for your favorite PHS111 Research Project? All are welcome to view/vote!

https://forms.gle/RSbQJQ1mtU1nWgPo9.

For those unfamiliar, my Physical Science students were asked to assemble a research project video on YouTube that related to Earth and space science. We’ve had several fantastic entries so far, but we now need your help… which one do you like the most?

We’re calling this poll the “PHS111 Viewer’s Choice Award.” The winner will earn the highly prestigious and coveted Fall 2023 PHS111 Viewer’s Choice Award certificate. This Award goes perfect on any resume and can serve as a critical talking point in any job/scholarship interview.

Projects will continue to be added as they’re submitted, so feel free to check back often 🙂

Please share this post!

Thank you for taking a little time to check out some of our Physical Science 1 (PHS111) final research projects here at Central Alabama Community College! Earlier this semester, students were asked to pick a specific topic of interest to Earth & space science, and then present the topic as a researc...

10/17/2023

The poster below has over 400 views! Lots of positive feedback and some great questions from chemical education experts. The Latinx Chem conference is proving beneficial in putting CACC on the international stage! Please click the link below, give us some ❤️, and/or comment on the work!

10/16/2023

Latinx Chem update: we’re 12 hours in, 36 left, and we’ve had over 200 views of the Chem Education poster below! I’ve Al’s had 1 expert commend the work and ask a couple questions! Not bad for a medium-sized, rural 2-year college, huh?

Click the link below to give us some ❤️, comment, or ask a question

Hi (again) ! Here’s what students learned from our Lennard-Jones plot lesson. They had proper plots,

10/16/2023

We’re up and running on Twitter/X Latinx Chem. If you have a free minute, please click the link below, and give our research project some ❤️

If you’re up to it, please comment or ask a question ! I’ll be live chatting for much of today and tomorrow!

Hi ! Here's our Grob fragmentation res poster. Note: -H+ doesn’t drive rxn, C-LG length does! B3LYP/6-31G(d) TSs

10/03/2023

Physics Nobel Prize announcement in the morning…

09/21/2023

(Humanely) busted!

09/20/2023

UPDATE: our wonderful Maintenance Team (humanely) removed yesterday’s unexpected visitor. However, this morning he returned… with a friend. My organic class has elected to name the pair Brønsted and Lowry, given our current focus on equilibrium direction in proton transfer reactions.

05/07/2023

ETS’s recent decision to discontinue the Chemistry Graduate Record Examination (GRE) yielded mixed reactions among budding and established scientists. Emotions reigned from an enthusiastic “good riddance”, to an ambivalent “meh”, to a genuine “WTF”. For those unfamiliar, in some chemistry circles, the acronym “WTF” stands for “where’s the furan” and replaces the all-too-familiar and relatively crass societal interrogatory. But it means the same thing… in essence....

ETS’s recent decision to discontinue the Chemistry Graduate Record Examination (GRE) yielded mixed reactions among budding and established scientists.  Emotions reigned from an enthusiastic “g…

04/22/2023

01/07/2023

I've been using the same metric prefix document for the past several years. It was a "borrow" from a fellow educator's website. Okay, I stole it. My self-assigned penance is to give back an updated list. Fortunately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) came to the rescue by recently posting the most up-to-date list of SI metric prefixes. Their page is heavily referenced, nods toward the…...

I’ve been using the same metric prefix document for the past several years. It was a “borrow” from a fellow educator’s website. Okay, I stole it. My self-assigned penance is…

12/31/2022

In this post, I recount my attempt at creating (quite possibly) the first, ever Golden Flask Award. Inspired by Dr. Tim Snowden, this award was given to students who showed growth in their study of organic chemistry. Maybe it needs to make a comeback?

If you happen to notice masses of chemical educators awarding gold-painted flasks to their best students, I’ll take some credit for the phenomenon. Seriously… I’ll emphasize the “some”.  It’s …

11/03/2022

Spring semester registration is open! Register today! Classes start in January! Alabama Community College System

10/18/2022

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Today, the Domestic Violence Intervention Center will have an informational table set up at the Alex City campus in the Business & Science Building near the Chick-fil-A table. Please stop by to learn more about the DVIC and the services they provide.

10/18/2022

10/18/2022

Next week is College Application Week! Apply to CACC here: www.CACC.edu/admissions/apply
Alabama Community College System

10/01/2022

https://www.enewscourier.com/news/local-professor-talks-potential-of-generation-z/article_43dbf83e-40f2-11ed-aa3c-f7c39919d63e.html

We can’t wait! Already in the works !

On Wednesday and Thursday, industry leaders from around Limestone County participated in a career event by North AlabamaWorks at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville.

09/23/2022

We are getting ready to participate in this amazing project!

09/16/2022