August 2025 newsletter: New quizzes & features, help for Tivy High School 💙 : ChemQuiz.net

Welcome back! For everyone in North America, I hope you had a relaxing summer break. There’s lots of new stuff on ChemQuiz.net that I’m excited to share with you:

Please consider helping Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas! 💙
Two new quizzes + new Dashboard and quiz features!
First ever webinar on Monday, August 18th at 7pm ET/4pm PT 🤙🏻
Bug fixes and other improvements
Site license renewals for the 2025-2026 school year
Happy anniversary to ChemQuiz.net (and me!)! 🥳

Please consider helping Tivy High School!

Tivy High School is located in Kerrville, Texas, which is in the heart of the Hill Country that was devastated by flooding this past 4th of July. Tivy High School is also a ChemQuiz.net school, so I reached out to their Chemistry teacher and confirmed that she and her family are safe. Unfortunately, many in their community have been hit really hard, including their soccer coach and his family who were killed by the flood.

Tivy High School is going to need a lot of help to get through this disaster, so she recommended the Kerrville Public School Foundation, which is a nonprofit that gives out teaching grants and student scholarships. By giving to their foundation, you can help directly support their teachers and students.

To get an idea of what Kerrville has been going through, I found this excellent but heartwrenching article about the Tivy High School principal, who led a fleet of school buses to rescue kids from camps that were near the Guadalupe River. He also described how their school was turned into a flood rescue site almost immediately after the flooding happened.

I donated to KPSF last month and they sent me a very nice and heartfelt thank you card that I’m going to hang in my office when we go back to school in a couple weeks to help remind me of the importance of community when a disaster happens. If you can, please consider helping to get Tivy High School through this terrible tragedy – everything goes to help the teachers and kids, and even the smallest amount helps!

Two new quizzes – Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Coulomb’s Law!

If you follow ChemQuiz.net on BlueSky – and you should! – then you already know about the two new quizzes that I added back in June.

Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES) Quiz

This new quiz was a lot of fun to make! Here are some examples of the types of questions that the quiz can generate:

Thanks to Rhonda and Anna for suggesting this new quiz, and thanks also to my former student and intern Katherine for entering all the binding energy values into the database!

Coulomb’s Law Quiz

The Coulomb’s Law Quiz has been on PhysQuiz.net since that site was created two years ago, but several teachers have asked me to also make it available on ChemQuiz.net, so here it is! I also thought it would be fun to add some fancy new diagrams to the problems that are generated:

Thanks to Andrew and Don for pushing for this – I’m glad I added it to ChemQuiz.net so that I had an excuse to learn how to do gradients in scalable vector graphics!

New Dashboard & quiz features

First, if you’ve used the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard before, you may notice that the “Create an Assignment” form looks a little different now! This past school year, when I was creating assignments for my own Chemistry classes, I felt that the form had become disorganized as more features were added over the years, so I grouped similar settings together in a more logical manner. I also made the specific quiz options load dynamically so that you don’t have to go to a second page in order to modify them.

Next, I added around 130 new exemplar assignments that align with the AP® Chemistry curriculum that are numbered to match the Topics and Science Practices in the CED. I also made a curriculum crosswalk between ChemQuiz.net and AP® Chemistry. I’ve identified gaps in the AP® topics on ChemQuiz.net and I’m planning to fill as many of them as possible as the school year goes on. If you teach AP Chem, I hope you find them useful. Thanks to Drew and Diane for suggesting this! (Please note that I’m required to include the following disclaimer: “AP® is a registered trademark of College Board which is not affiliated with and does not endorse ChemQuiz.net.” I’m also required to use that ® symbol. 😆)

Finally, I’ve received a number of concerned emails from teachers who have logged in and were wondering if their assignments were all deleted over the summer. Don’t panic – they’re still there! As I detailed in the June newsletter, I archive all student accounts, assignments, quiz results, and classes that were created during the 2024-2025 school year. To restore an assignment, simply go to the Assignments page, check the box next to “Also display archived assignments”, and then click the pink “Filter” button. To restore an assignment, simply click the “restore” link at the end of the table row. If you encounter any issues with this process, or if you just want me to do it for you, contact me and I’ll be happy to restore your stuff!

Enough people emailed me about archived assignments that I added a new Dashboard Setting to allow you to opt out of the archiving process each summer. Simply go to the Settings page in the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard, click on Dashboard Settings in the top menu, then scroll to the bottom and check the box next to “Skip Summer Maintenance”, and click the pink “Update Dashboard Settings” button:

I hope this helps prevent any future panic!

Significant figures and rounding

I added an advanced option* to require students to enter their answers rounded to the correct number of significant figures (sig figs) in each of the following quizzes:

I did my best to follow the sig fig rules for all of the calculations on all of the quizzes, but nothing makes kids mad quite like enforcing sig figs, so use this feature at your own risk! 😅If you notice any answers that aren’t rounded correctly, please let me know. (Also, I skipped logs and exponents because those sig fig rules are weird.) Thanks John, Karen, Ashley, Malcolm, and Neil for requesting this feature over the past couple years – it’s finally done!

I also added an advanced option* to require specific rounding to these two quizzes:

Finally, I added an advanced option to select the +/- range of acceptable answers on the Scientific Measurement Quiz. Thanks to Susan for suggesting this!

Pop-out calculator

I was also asked over the summer if it would be possible to embed a very popular online calculator into the quizzes. I contacted the company and they were very friendly, and yes, it was possible to do that, but frankly it was going to cost more than I wanted to pay. Anyone who knows me knows how cheap I am, so I wrote a simple Javascript calculator instead:

I’m hoping this will help students who don’t have their own calculator while also allowing teachers to use the tab switch detection features. I’ve tested the calculator a lot, but I can’t possibly anticipate all the weird things kids will do, so if it misbehaves (the calculator, not the kids), please submit a bug report! Thanks again to Drew for giving me this idea!

Mass spectrometry graphs

Finally, I added mass spectrometry graphs to the Average Atomic Masses Quiz:

Thanks again to Anna for this great suggestion!

What didn’t get done

At the beginning of July, I was hired by Kaplan Publishing to revise the Barron’s AP Computer Science A study guide. The whole thing came out of nowhere – I still don’t know how they found me. I finished the book about two weeks ago and the revised 13th edition will come out in March. I’m really happy with how it turned out (they even put my name on the cover! 🤣), but working on the book took away time from the new features I had planned on adding to ChemQuiz.net over the summer. Since I listed these in the last newsletter and I believe in full transparency, here’s a list of what I wasn’t able to finish before sending out this newsletter:

Standards-based scoring of student results – Based on feedback that I received from teachers on the survey in June, I prioritized finishing the sig figs feature over implementing standards-based scoring, but I’ve already put all the NGSS and AP® standards into the database, so I’m hoping to have this implemented soon.
LMS integration – I spent a full day in June focusing only on implementing Canvas integration and basically got nowhere. I also set up a demo account with a third-party company that handles LMS integrations, but it’s very expensive (several times more than the entire cost of hosting ChemQuiz.net), so unfortunately LMS integration is on hold for now. I know that this feature has been requested by a lot of teachers and would make life much easier for everyone, so I’m sorry that I couldn’t get this done.
Flashcard mode – I absolutely want to implement this feature so I can use in my own classes this year now that my own district has blocked a very popular flashcard site because of student privacy concerns, so this is a high priority for me.
Mobile device compatibility – The site still looks ugly on phones, but last week I had lunch with a former student of mine who’s now a lead software developer for a nationwide retailer, and he explained CSS grids in a way that makes so much more sense than anything else I’ve read so far, so it feels much more achievable now.

I’m sorry that I couldn’t get these new features added over the summer, but the book opportunity was too good to pass up, and I learned a lot from that whole process. Don’t worry, though – I’ll continue to improve the site and add new features and quizzes throughout the upcoming school year and beyond!

* advanced options are only available to teachers with an active site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard

Webinar Monday, Aug. 18 @ 7pm ET/4pm PT

For the first time ever, I’ll be hosting a free ChemQuiz.net webinar on Monday, August 18th at 7pm Eastern Time/4pm Pacific Time on Zoom! I’m going to go through some of the basics of how to use the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard – setting up classes and student accounts, creating assignments, looking at results – and then I’ll share some tips and tricks that have worked for me with my students. Finally, I’ll wrap up with a Q&A session, which would be a great opportunity to heckle me if you’re so inclined 😂. Please use this link to register in advance:

https://us05web.zoom.us/meeting/register/7lunGI-nSwGYQC6nH0ZoGQ

After registering, you should receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. If it all goes well and everyone thinks it’s helpful, I’d be happy to do more webinars in the future!

Bug fixes & other improvements

In addition to the new features listed above, I added following improvements and bug fixes across ChemQuiz.net:

Dashboard

new feature: added exemplar assignments that align with the AP® Chemistry curriculum (thanks, Drew & Diane!)
new feature: added a “skip summer maintenance” option to Dashboard Settings
enhancement: updated “Create Assignment” form so that it dynamically loads options based on which quiz is selected so that it’s all on one page
enhancement: added exemplar assignments for Lewis structures
enhancement: added vocabulary assignments from LibreTexts question banks for Independent Students
bug fix: hidden assignments weren’t being displayed on the “All Assignments” page for Independent Students, so they couldn’t unhide them (thanks, Tara!)
bug fix: exemplar assignments weren’t sorted in the dropdown list for Exam sections (thanks, Lance!)
bug fix: the Dashboard would crash if tags were entered but a quiz wasn’t selected on the Assignment creation form
bug fix: tags were being wiped out when exam sessions were added or modified

Question Banks

bug fix: the “create an assignment” link from a question bank was crashing the page
bug fix: multiple choice answers with apostrophes (e.g., “Hess’s Law”) weren’t being scored correctly (thanks, Adrian!)

All quizzes

bug fix: the resources message was being displayed at the bottom of assignments for Independent Students even if there were no resources

Most quizzes

new feature: added an advanced option* to require correct significant figures in answers to relevant quizzes (thanks John, Karen, Ashley, Malcolm & Neil!)
new feature: added a pop-out calculator to relevant quizzes (thanks, Drew & Heidi!)

Average Atomic Masses Quiz

new feature: added an option for dynamically generated mass spectrometry graphs (thanks, Anna!)

Balancing, Identifying & Predicting Chemical Equations Quiz

bug fix: entering a space in front of a correct coefficient would cause it to be marked as incorrect (thanks, Dorothy!)

Bond Polarity & Electronegativity Quiz

bug fix: “Load More Problems” shows more problems but won’t grade them or show the key

Calorimetry Quiz

bug fix: for “Challenging” problems solving for c, the answer was inadvertently being converted to J/g•°C when the problem was originally in cal/g•°C (thanks, Elaine!)

Coulomb’s Law Quiz

new feature: added dynamically generated diagrams

Chemical Equilibrium Quiz

bug fix: solution setups were incorrect for quantity problems solving for mass

Chemical Thermodynamics Quiz

bug fix: word problems for nonstandard conditions involving Q weren’t converting °C to K correctly (thanks, Mary Ann!)

Concentrations & Colligative Properties of Solutions Quiz

bug fix: solution setup for some freezing point depression problems had molality value shown in an equation twice

Electrochemistry Quiz

bug fix: quiz would crash when generating electrolysis reactions if no mass or time options were selected (thanks, Jaime!)

Enthalpy Quiz

new feature: added an option for greater control over the types of questions generated
new feature: added heat of solidification and condensation problems
enhancement: improved problem generation (e.g., random sig figs, better wording in list view)
bug fix: removed trimethylammonium chloride because it was crashing the quiz

Hess’s Law Quiz

enhancement: improved quality of multiple choice options

Kinetics & Rate Laws Quiz

enhancement: improved quality of given values

Light & Energy Quiz

enhancement: improved quality of given values

Mass Ratios, Percent Composition & Empirical Formulas Quiz

new feature: added an advanced option* to require answers to be rounded to a specific place (thanks, Malcolm!)

Molar Conversions Quiz

new feature: added an option to select the new standard for molar volume (22.7 L/mol at STP) or old standard (22.4 L/mol) (thanks, Matthew A.!)

Molecular Geometry & VSEPR Quiz

bug fix: multiple choice options were not showing up in printable mode

Naming Compounds & Calculating Molar Masses Quiz

new feature: added an advanced option to require answers to be rounded to a specific place (thanks again, Malcolm!)

Nuclear Chemistry Quiz

bug fix: units were incorrect for “final amount” questions

Redox Reactions & Net Ionic Equations Quiz

correction: two net ionic equations were incorrect and another had unreduced coefficients (thanks, Nick!)

Scientific Measurements Quiz

new feature: added an advanced option* to select the range of acceptable answers (thanks, Susan!)

Stoichiometry & Limiting Reagents Quiz

new feature: added an option to select the new standard for molar volume (22.7 L/mol at STP) or old standard (22.4 L/mol) (thanks, Matthew A.!)
bug fix: answers for regular stoichiometry problems were not being calculated correctly (thanks, Rhonda!)
bug fix: percent yield problems that needed to calculate the amount of reactant first were calculating something else entirely (thanks, Zack & Matthew E.!)

* advanced options are only available to teachers with an active site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard

Thanks again to everyone who has sent in a suggestion or reported a bug! If you come across any problems or issues while using ChemQuiz.net, please fill out this short Contact form so I can do my best to fix it as soon as possible.

Site licenses for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard

Thank you to everyone who renewed their school’s site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard for the 2025-2026 school year! Site licenses are how I pay for the web hosting and the software I use to write the quizzes, and it keeps the website ad-free. I already sent out renewal invoices to everyone with a site license that’s expiring soon, but if you didn’t receive one, please let me know.

If you’re considering purchasing a site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard, now’s a great time to do it! With an active site license, you can:

create assignments for your students using the quizzes on the site
select the options you want that best match your students’ needs, including advanced options such as requiring correct sig figs in answers
allow your students to save their progress
build exams from multiple assignments
create custom question banks with your own questions and images or use questions shared by the ChemQuiz.net educator community
use the “tab switch detection” anti-cheating feature
review results with your students so they can correct misconceptions and grasp concepts more quickly
track your students’ progress and download results for data analysis
create custom rubrics to score assignments

If you’d like to purchase a 12-month site license for just US$70, you can do so in any of the following ways:

credit card through Square (the most popular option)
school purchase order (contact me for a sales quote!)
CashApp, PayPal, or Venmo at chris@chemquiz.net or @ChemQuizDotNet

Additional schools in the same district can purchase an add-on license for 50% off at just US$35 per school.

If your school offers physics, you can also bundle a site license for the PhysQuiz.net Dashboard for just US$35 more!

Site licenses also make it possible for me to make the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard free for nearly 200 U.S. public schools whose students are economically disadvantaged. If you teach in a high poverty public school in the United States (at least 50% of your students on free/reduced lunch or designated “economically disadvantaged”), just send me a link to the supporting documentation and you’ll get a free site license for the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard forever – PhysQuiz.net, too!

Help me share ChemQuiz.net with the world!

If you like using ChemQuiz.net, there are three quick and easy things that you can do to help me promote the site!

Add your school to the list of supporters on the About page! Simply go to the ChemQuiz.net Dashboard, click on “Your Info” in the top menu bar, activate the box next to “Display School on ChemQuiz.net“, and click the “Update Your Info” button.
Tell another Chemistry teacher about ChemQuiz.net and encourage them to try out the Dashboard!
Follow @ChemQuizDotNet on BlueSky 🦋 and share my updates with your fellow Chemistry teachers!

Happy anniversary to ChemQuiz.net – and me!

This summer marks the 5th anniversary for ChemQuiz.net, which is hard for me to believe, because it feels like yesterday when I was sitting on my deck coding the site into existence during the “lockdown”. The entire experience of building, running, and improving this website has been incredibly positive and supportive – easily one of the best experiences of my entire teaching career. Thank you all so much for supporting ChemQuiz.net over the past five years and helping me to make it a better resource for everyone!

Tomorrow is also my 22nd anniversary with my wife, Tara, who has supported me through this entire experiment and has served as the voice of reason whenever I’ve been unsure about what I should do. To celebrate, we’re heading to Pittsburgh on Saturday to see The Flaming Lips, who we first saw together a week before we got married back in 2003. I’m hoping they play some songs from “The Soft Bulletin“, which is one of my favorite albums of all time, but I’m just glad I get to go with my best friend!

Thanks for supporting ChemQuiz.net! Please feel free to contact me any time using the Contact form or by emailing me at chris@chemquiz.net if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Good luck with this upcoming school year – I have a feeling we’re all going to need as much luck as we can get! 🍀