What's UR Rxn? Putting it together

Since the beginning of this blog project, I have had students make decisions in the development and design of the assignment. The final step of the process was to create the actual blog page. We put together a rough outline of the layout on Blogger and then played with the template designer  for a few days to create the look we liked. I had some fun with my document camera and my graphite model, so originally I placed this rather busy image behind the blog.

I was quickly overruled by my students, and this much calmer white-on-white image of glassware was composed and substituted.

While one group worked on the layout, others brainstormed the tagline and the description of the blog. Helena designed our Chem Bee from our school's logo. Neha wrote the introductory post and Vivek edited it for her. So our Chem Blog was ready for the world!  

Here is the link to the student's blog:  http://whatsurrxn.blogspot.com/

We also have a Twitter account for the blog:  @Whats_UR_rxn

Each student and I work together to design each blog post. These posts will be added to the blog at a rate of 2-3 per week. The whole concept of publishing their work to a global audience is enthralling to say the least. Please stop by, read and comment! (And thanks to Lowell Thomson in Bucharest, Romania, my students have had comments posted from the other side of the Atlantic. Check out his chemistry students' blog, too.)

Here are the links to my posts in succession for ideas on how to incorporate blogging into a science classroom. I will be presenting this idea at the Biennial Conference for Chemical Educators 2014 at Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan in August. (West Michigan is a beautiful place--especially the Lake Michigan beach.)

Part 1: Designing the assignment

Part 2: Composing and peer-editing the posts

Part 3: Assessing the writing

What's UR Rxn?