Chemistry professors receive funding to transform course

Chemistry professors Jenn Stockdill and Mary Kay Pflum have received a grant from the university's WIDER committee to transform WSU's introductory organic chemistry course, CHM 1240.

The grant is part of the "Student Success Through Evidence-based Pedagogies (SSTEP) program aimed at incorporating innovative teaching approaches in STEM courses across campus.

Stockdill says the technological resources provided by the funding will allow the professors to create videos to help students with the more complex course content. The funding will also be used to develop online resources for the students, in a manner consistent with survey results and grade outcomes from the course so far.

According to Stockdill, they are aiming to better employ evidence-based teaching methods. "By doing so, we will be able to more effectively teach our students how to critically analyze and successfully solve problems in Organic Chemistry."

Throughout the process, the Office of Teaching and Learning will provide advice and assistance, for both content development and assessment. "Perhaps most importantly," says Stockdill, "because we are a part of the WIDER/SSTEPS program, we have regular interactions with experts from the Office of Teaching and Learning that have already proven to be quite enlightening."

The goals of the project include increasing student engagement, enjoyment and success in the course, as well as interest in, and appreciation for, the sciences in general.

"We hope that the problem-solving skills we teach in this course will help our students to excel in the rest of their undergraduate courses and throughout their lives," says Stockdill.