News

Kat and Ryan after graduation

Congrats to Kat and Ryan on their graduation!

Friday, May 21, 2021
Kat graduated with her Ph.D. in Chemistry, and Ryan graduated with his Master of Arts in Teaching.
Vinay standing next to Chemistry Building sign

Welcome, Vinay!

Friday, May 21, 2021
Vinay Bapu Ramesh is our newest Ph.D. student.
Leah standing outside Chemistry Building

Congratulations, Leah!

Friday, May 21, 2021
Leah recently earned the departmental Teaching Assistant Appreciation Award.
Kat and dogs

Congrats to Kat on winning the A Lynn Anderson departmental research award!!

Friday, May 21, 2021
The Department of Chemistry recognizes outstanding graduate research with the A. Lynn Anderson Award. This award specifically recognizes the productivity, creativity, collaborative efforts, and output of our graduating graduate students for what they have done in a research laboratory.
Kevin earned Post-Comprehensive Fellowship

Congrats to Kevin on earning the UI Graduate College Post-Comprehensive Fellowship!

Friday, May 21, 2021
Congrats to Kevin who earned the UI Graduate College Post-Comprehensive Fellowship! He plans to continue his work on investigating students' thinking about reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry.
Leah celebrating after passing her comprehensive exam

Congratulations, Leah!

Friday, March 12, 2021
Congrats to Leah who passed her comprehensive exam and is officially a Ph.D. Candidate!
Zoom celebrating Kat defending her doctoral work

Introducing Dr. Kat Lazenby!

Sunday, February 14, 2021
Congratulations to Kat for defending her doctoral work! Kat gave a beautiful defense titled: “Assessment of undergraduate chemistry students’ understanding of the nature and purpose of scientific models and modeling.”

New Paper! Making Sense of Sensemaking: Using the Sensemaking Epistemic Game to Investigate Student Discourse during a Collaborative Gas Law Activity

Saturday, January 9, 2021
Beyond students’ ability to manipulate variables and solve problems, chemistry instructors are also interested in students developing a deeper conceptual understanding of chemistry, that is, engaging in the process of sensemaking. The concept of sensemaking transcends problem-solving and focuses on students recognizing a gap in knowledge and working to construct an explanation that resolves this gap, leading them to “make sense” of a concept.

New Paper! From Ideas to Items: A Primer on the Development of Ordered Multiple-Choice Items for Investigating the Progression of Learning in Higher Education STEM

Saturday, January 9, 2021
Identifying effective methods of assessment and developing robust assessments are key areas of research in chemistry education. This research is needed to evaluate instructional innovations and curricular reform. In this primer, we advocate for the use of a type of assessment, ordered multiple-choice (OMC), across postsecondary chemistry.
Kevin Hunter

Congrats to Kevin who passed his comprehensive exam and is officially a Ph.D. Candidate!!

Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Kevin successfully passed his comprehensive exam and is officially a PhD Candidate.