About Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie

Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie

Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie — short: Unterricht Chemie, NiU-Chemie — is the German specialist journal for chemistry teaching at secondary levels I and II. Published by the Friedrich Verlag in Seelze (Lower Saxony), it appears six times a year — every two months — each issue dedicated to a specific topic of chemistry didactics. With the ISSN 0946-2139 and its first issue in 1990, the journal is the chemistry teachers' professional journal: it aims to give a current overview of didactic and methodological developments in the school subject chemistry. Under the editors Ilka Parchmann, Markus Rehm, Katrin Sommer, Sabine Venke, and Petra Wlotzka, the journal publishes specialist information and tested teaching models — the experiment instructions and materials for which exemplary teaching methods are worked through. The author circle ranges from didactics researchers, subject leaders, and teacher trainers to experienced teachers. Issue 215/2026 — "Mit KI Unterricht gestalten" (designing lessons with AI) — shows the journal's current program: the digital learning environments, the AI, the social media, the sustainability, and the classic chemistry topics. In the German education press, Unterricht Chemie is the chemistry didactics journal: the Seelze bimonthly of the chemistry teachers.

Overview

The journal presents itself as the specialist journal for chemistry teaching at secondary levels I and II — the medium that wants to inform chemistry teachers about current developments in their subject. Its editorial program covers the chemistry didactics' full spectrum: the specialist articles — the didactic concepts, the subject knowledge, the research results; the teaching practice — the tested teaching models, the experiment instructions, the materials; the methods — the exemplary worked-through teaching methods for each topic; and the current developments — the digitalization, the AI, the sustainability, the inclusion.

The readership is the German chemistry teachers: the secondary-school teachers, the subject leaders, the teacher trainers, and the didactics researchers — the professionals who teach chemistry at the Gymnasium, the Realschule, and the vocational schools. The journal's authority rests on its editorial board — the chemistry didactics professors (Ilka Parchmann, Katrin Sommer) and the experienced practitioners (Sabine Venke, Petra Wlotzka, Markus Rehm) — and on the Friedrich Verlag's education program: the Seelze specialist publisher for the school pedagogy with the journals for all subjects and school types.

The bimonthly rhythm — six issues a year, each on one didactic topic — provides the teachers' regular professional development: the issues "Mit KI Unterricht gestalten" (215/2026), "Social Media" (214/2026), "Stolpersteine im Chemieunterricht" (213/2026), "Lernprozesse unterstützen" (212/2026), "Chemie & Medizin" (211/2026), "Chemischer Advent" (210/2025) — the current program from the AI to the Christmas chemistry.

History

Unterricht Chemie's history begins in 1990: the first issue of Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie appeared in the Erhard Friedrich Verlag in cooperation with the chemistry didactics researchers Bernd Lutz, Peter Pfeifer, and Heinz Schmidkunz. The journal continued a long tradition: its predecessors were Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Physik/Chemie (1985–1990), Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht: Physik, Chemie, Biologie (1970–1976), Zeitschrift für Naturlehre und Naturkunde (1958–1969), and Naturlehre: Zeitschrift für die lebensnahe Gestaltung des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts an Volksschulen (1953–1957) — the chemistry teaching journal's lineage reaching back to 1953.

The journal's editorial history includes the long-serving editors — Heinz Schmidkunz, Peter Pfeifer, Lutz Stäudel, Sabine Venke — and the current editorial team: Ilka Parchmann, Markus Rehm, Katrin Sommer, Sabine Venke, and Petra Wlotzka. The author circle — from the didactics researchers to the experienced teachers — has carried the journal's program: the specialist information and the tested teaching models.

The journal's recent history reflects the chemistry teaching's developments: the digital learning environments (202/203 2024), the AI in teaching (215/2026), the sustainability (205/2025), the climate education (191/2022), the inclusion (162/2017) — each covered with the didactic concepts and the practical materials. The 1998 annual register — the 9th year (simultaneously the 46th year of Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht – Physik/Chemie) — documents the journal's continuity: the annual indexes that the Friedrich Verlag publishes for each volume.

Coverage and Content

The journal's coverage follows the chemistry teacher's world. Didactics forms the core: the teaching concepts — the context-based chemistry (Chemie im Kontext), the nature of science, the assessment competence; the methods — the lesson entries (Unterrichtseinstiege), the differentiation, the intelligent practicing; and the research — the current chemistry-didactics findings. Teaching practice provides the materials: the experiment instructions — the tested experiments with the safety notes; the teaching models — the complete lesson sequences; and the downloads — the worksheets and materials for the classroom.

Current developments address the subject's transformation: the digitalization — the digital learning environments, the digital quiz walls, the smartphone rallies; the AI — "Mit KI Unterricht gestalten" (215/2026); the sustainability — the education for sustainable development, the climate education, the critical metals; and the society — the social media, the nutrition trends, the chemistry and medicine.

The journal's issue program — the 215 issues from 1990 to 2026 — documents the chemistry didactics' history: the classic topics (chemical equilibrium, the periodic table, the fats/proteins/carbohydrates) and the new topics (nanochemistry, microplastics, escape rooms) — the bimonthly record of the German chemistry teaching.

Organization and Ownership

Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie is published by the Friedrich Verlag in Seelze (Lower Saxony) — the specialist publisher for the school pedagogy. The publisher (Verlag): Friedrich Verlag (formerly Erhard Friedrich Verlag), Seelze, in cooperation with Klett. The editors (Herausgeber): Ilka Parchmann, Markus Rehm, Katrin Sommer, Sabine Venke, Petra Wlotzka. The journal's ISSN 0946-2139 and its six-issues-a-year rhythm document its established position.

The commercial model is that of an education specialist journal: subscriptions to the chemistry teachers, the schools, and the teacher-training institutions; the single issues (Bestellnummern, 48–96 pages) — and the Friedrich Verlag's digital editions (friedrichverlag.de/digital) and the annual registers.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is the Friedrich Verlag's shop and portal at friedrich-verlag.de, where the bimonthly print journal's program extends into the online teacher information. The portal offers the journal's presentation, the previously published issues (the complete 215-issue list from 1990 to 2026), the product details (publication dates, school levels, page counts), the downloads (the worksheets and materials), and the shop (the single issues and subscriptions). The digital editions (friedrichverlag.de/digital) provide the online access: "So erhalten Sie Zugang zur digitalen Ausgabe."

The chemistry teachers' networks — the didactics associations, the teacher-training institutions, the schools — form the ecosystem in which the journal's content circulates. For 36 years — from the 1990 first issue to the 215th issue in 2026 — Naturwissenschaften im Unterricht Chemie has been the chemistry teachers' journal: the Seelze bimonthly of the chemistry didactics, in print and digital, for every chemistry teacher in Germany, from the first issue to the 215th, in the classroom and in the didactics research, for 36 years, from 1990 to today, without interruption — the chemistry teachers' journal, from Seelze to every German classroom, six times a year, for 36 years and counting, since 1990, and still going strong.

The Journal's Didactic Program

The journal's didactic program — the specialist information and the tested teaching models — follows the chemistry teaching's core principle: the subject lives from the experiment. Each issue's experiment instructions — the tested experiments with the safety notes, the materials, and the exemplary worked-through teaching methods — give the teachers the ready-to-use classroom practice: the didactic theory translated into the lesson, ready for the next school day. The annual registers — the author and subject indexes for each volume — make the 215 issues' content accessible: the reference work that the teachers consult for the lesson planning, year after year, from 1990 to today.