Amh Chem
Amherst science faculty are always looking for new and innovating ways to incorporate technological tools in the classroom and laboratories to facilitate deeper understanding of science, and engage the wide interest and abilities of a liberal arts student. Amh Chem is an initiative where I am testing new projects and assignments in the coursework to develop new strategies to engage students in written, oral, and visual scientific communications through the latest technologies. Many of these projects will involve developing an online resource for undergraduate students to learn about theory, concepts, and laboratory techniques directly from their peers through multimedia.
I am joining a long list of faculty members who are constantly innovating at the frontiers of learning and technology. The following are links to excellent demonstrations and lectures of Amherst faculty. Please explore the links below.
Amherst science faculty are always looking for new and innovating ways to incorporate technological tools in the classroom and laboratories to facilitate deeper understanding of science, and engage the wide interest and abilities of a liberal arts student. Amh Chem is an initiative where I am testing new projects and assignments in the coursework to develop new strategies to engage students in written, oral, and visual scientific communications through the latest technologies. Many of these projects will involve developing an online resource for undergraduate students to learn about theory, concepts, and laboratory techniques directly from their peers through multimedia.
I am joining a long list of faculty members who are constantly innovating at the frontiers of learning and technology. The following are links to excellent demonstrations and lectures of Amherst faculty. Please explore the links below.
Science and the Liberal Arts: CHEM 371 Mini-review - As scientists, most of our training in scientific writing does not occur until graduate school; however, the ability to effectively write about our work is an essential skill. At Amherst College, a large portion of our students participate in a senior honors thesis. However for some, the thesis is their first experience in scientific writing.
As an ongoing effort to introduce scientific writing into the Chemistry curriculum at Amherst, I developed a mini-review project for my upper lever Inorganic Chemistry course (CHEM 371). The assignment was to choose any paper of interest as long as it was related to inorganic chemistry and write a mini-review (max 4-pages). Their audience was a future CHEM 371 student (junior or senior). Their mini-review must include an inorganic concept covered in the course that can help explain the key chemical concepts in the paper. The goal was for the students to write a mini-review that provided the scientific concepts and presented the important data needed for the reader to better understand the research paper. Key to this process was to introduce peer-review as an assessment tool. The link below are some very good examples of the final product. Please feel free to explore and learn more about some very interesting chemistry!
As an ongoing effort to introduce scientific writing into the Chemistry curriculum at Amherst, I developed a mini-review project for my upper lever Inorganic Chemistry course (CHEM 371). The assignment was to choose any paper of interest as long as it was related to inorganic chemistry and write a mini-review (max 4-pages). Their audience was a future CHEM 371 student (junior or senior). Their mini-review must include an inorganic concept covered in the course that can help explain the key chemical concepts in the paper. The goal was for the students to write a mini-review that provided the scientific concepts and presented the important data needed for the reader to better understand the research paper. Key to this process was to introduce peer-review as an assessment tool. The link below are some very good examples of the final product. Please feel free to explore and learn more about some very interesting chemistry!
There's an App for That: Creative uses of iPads for Teaching and Research - Profs. Joe Trapani (Biology) and Sheila Jaswal (Chemistry).