Teacher Gets Reaction From Chemistry Class

Margaret Carlberg uses a little cooking and a lot of gardening to hook her students on chemistry.

Soft scents linger over the 40 or so student gardens on Cornelia Connelly School’s campus, which Carlberg uses as an outdoor chemistry lab each week.

And at her Huntington Beach home, Carlberg remodeled her kitchen to accommodate 12 cooks at a time, so her students can explore the chemistry of cooking.

For her unusual approach to a class normally taught with beakers and burners, Carlberg recently won California’s High School Teacher of the Year honor by the California Science Teachers Assn. She was selected for her development of creative activities for students and her extracurricular projects.

Carlberg, 62, said she has always looked for new ways to show the connection between chemistry and “real life” during her 17 years at the Anaheim Catholic high school for girls.

“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘What in the world isn’t chemistry?’ ” Carlberg said, pointing to a bumper sticker tacked on her classroom wall.

Once a year, she invites her advanced placement chemistry class over to cook dinner for their parents. The students make everything from scratch and start off the dinner conversation by discussing the chemistry of the ingredients.

Making chocolate syrup from scratch was Adams’ favorite part of chemistry lab this year.

“I mean, I used unsweetened chocolate and sugar--no Hershey’s,” said Julia, 16, of Villa Park. “Then we talked about why bread rises and how the dry ice carbonated the punch.”

Kaveena Singh, 18, of Orange was impressed with all the “gadgets” Carlberg has in her kitchen, like an ice cracker that uses body heat and kinetic energy to break ice.

Carlberg’s other project--the Garden Guardian Club, which takes care of the school’s gardens all year--is open to all Cornelia students. Before putting shovel to soil, students learn basic gardening chemistry, like how to test the soil’s acidity.

Julia said her mom considers her a master gardener after bringing home scientific gardening tips.

“Mrs. Carlberg has her special way of making things last,” Julia said. “I used to just throw some dirt around. Now I tell my mom to test the soil if she’s planting something in the wrong place.”

But Carlberg isn’t above using the classic bubbling concoctions to get her students’ attention.

“A little explosion, color changes and temperature changes just make chemistry more real,” Carlberg said with a sly smile.

“It’s important to get them active in their learning,” Carlberg said. “I get them involved with real-world chemistry to make it memorable.”