Research

Lab Development

If you've ever taken a chemistry lab and wondered how the experiments came to be, we can show you! Developing chemistry labs to use in an academic setting requires a careful balance of safety, timing, and content. In our group, we have researchers developing and testing new lab experiments for general and inorganic chemistry students. 

Improving Outcomes in General Chemistry 

Work on this project has included building review modules for general chemistry students, developing lewisstructures.net, and assisting with recitation worksheet development. Current work is aimed at starting an undergraduate learning assistant program to support students in CHM 111/112 and CHM 125/126. 

Teaching Assistant Training

Dr. Starr directs the undergraduate TA program for the Chemistry Department. Researchers in the group are working to develop new training materials to improve the undergraduate TA experience. 

Outreach

Researchers in the group assist students in CHM 12600 completing honors contracts. Students take general chemistry topics and build lesson plans for elementary and middle school students. These lessons are compiled and shared with interested teachers. Additional outreach work has included working with the College of Science outreach team to compile Lewis structure lessons and quizzes into a learning certificate.