Chemical Education

Purdue University houses one of the few groups studying the factors that affect how students learn chemistry and now best to teach chemistry. Faculty members in our Division of Chemical Education are Professors Trevor Anderson, George Bodner, Mary B. Nakhleh, March Towns, and Gabriela Weaver. These faculty and their graduate students in the division do basic research on questions such as:

• How do students learn chemistry?

• Why do students have difficulty learning chemistry?

• What can we do to facilitate the learning of chemistry?

Research

Reliable teaching methods have significant amounts of research supporting the various methodologies used in the classroom. The Chemical Education faculty have wide-ranging research interests. Focus is placed on how the changing classroom technologies effect how Chemistry is taught, as well as how students learn when using these newer technologies.

Upcoming Events in Chemical Education

The Division of Chemical Education has a weekly seminar series. Invited speakers are from Purdue University and other universities from across the nation. There may be also be speakers from outside the United States. Following are the scheduled speakers for the remainder of the Fall 2011 semester.

November 2 - Kari Clase, Purdue Unversity
November 9 - Beth Vogel Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
November 16 - George Bodner, Purdue University
November 30 - Gabriela Szteinberg, Purdue University
December 7 - Dawn Del Carlo

All seminar presentations take place at 4:30 PM in Wetherill, Room 201.