I've created this line of worksheets called "Color & Learn." I tried to take ideas in chemistry and a few in math and make them more simple by color coding topics in chemistry. All cations are yellow, anions are blue, metals are gray, nonmetals are red, polyatomic ions are also blue because they behave the same as anions...etc. Check out my ideas below. 

Students understand the idea of cations and anions right away, but somehow the idea seeps out of their brains while they sleep and they've completely forgotten where we look to figure out where cations and anions are. (Hint: Is the element on the right or left side of the periodic table?)I like this worksheet because you can just look at it to grade it and you can spot an error really quickly. Who doesn't like easy to grade homework?

If your son or daughter is going off to college for the first time, I have no doubt they will tell you all about the laptop, iPad, and smart phone that they absolutely need. While they do need some of those things, this is a list of smaller, very helpful, 100% academic things that help my students.

I am not affiliated with any of these companies or products. I just like what they do.

If your first time college student is going to be taking precalculus, calculus, or beyond, check out Wolfram Alpha. I would purchase their pro for students for $4.75 a month. What is great about it is that it breaks problems down step by step so they can get help even when the tutoring center is closed.

If you don't purchase the pro version, still go check it out because it can help you in Biology 1107K by helping you compute homozygote frequency using the Hardy-Weinburg equation. 

​Still not impressed? They can also help you write electron configurations for your Chemistry 1211. Yes! Seriously.

​That is all in addition to the math help they can offer you. It's a really great tool to have in your back pocket!