Chemistry Active

Mengqi ‘Veronica’ Zhang

Mengqi (Veronica) Zhang is an organic chemistry laboratory coordinator in Chemistry Department. She received her bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and Business Management from Nankai University, China. She then earned a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Georgia with specialization in chemical education. Her research interest focuses on curriculum development, instructional laboratory experiment design, green chemistry, and microwave chemistry

Johanna Herman

Johanna Herman is an academic teaching specialist in the Department of chemistry at Michigan State University, overseeing and coordinating the General Chemistry Laboratory program. In her current position, she implements Cooperative Chemistry Laboratory curriculum—focusing on providing students opportunities to engage in common scientific practices while working as part of a team. Before joining MSU, Johanna earned a Doctorate Degree of Chemistry from the University of Delaware in 2020 studying the photodegradation of singlet oxygen sensors using spectroscopic methods. While enrolled as a graduate student, she severed as a teaching assistant and preceptor to various General Chemistry laboratory programs, including an integrated general biology–chemistry program. Before then, she attended Delaware Valley University, earning dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Chemistry and Secondary Education. Outside of work, Johanna has a passion for helping felines…

Brittany Busby

Brittany Busby serves as a Laboratory Coordinator at MSU. She is a co-coordinator for the Survey of Organic Chemistry lab and a co-coordinator for both semesters of general chemistry lab. These are large-scale courses that serve about 2000 students each semester. She is interested in developing labs that are more relevant to students’ lives and majors. Additionally, she hopes to continue improving the training for teaching assistants, providing them with the tools to be successful helping students. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Montana–Missoula under the guidance of Mark Cracolice and Chris Palmer, where her chemistry education research focused on graphing skill transfer between math and chemistry. During this time, she also had the opportunity to restructure a pre-nursing lab course, creating a data-to-concepts curriculum. She…

Alexandria Roach

Alexandria Roach is currently working on her Ph.D. in Chemistry with a Chemical Education Track under the supervision of Dr. Sonia Underwood at Florida International University (FIU). Alex earned her BS in Chemistry with a specialization in biochemistry and minor in biology from Barry University. Her research interests include investigating faculty’s perceptions and undergraduate students’ understanding of chemistry core ideas.

Debbie Herrington

Research and Background Deborah Herrington (PI) is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Integrated Science Program at Grand Valley State University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry Education from Purdue University. Her research interests focus on improving the teaching and learning of chemistry from middle school through college. Active research projects include development and evaluation of effective professional development for grades 6-12 science teachers, examining student use of simulations and screencasts to construct understanding of core chemistry concepts outside the classroom, development of assessment items to measure students abilities to use science practices, and using text messaging to encourage student self-assessment and provide formative assessment data to guide instruction. She will coordinate the collection of data and facilitate the faculty cohort at GVSU. Contact Email: herringd@gvsu.edu Website:…

Sonia Underwood

Research and Background Sonia Underwood (PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the STEM Transformation institute at Florida International University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus on Chemistry Education Research at Clemson University. Her research interests are developing assessment measures to determine impact of curriculum transformations, investigating the ways in which students use a chemical structure to predict a compound’s macroscopic properties, and exploring the connections students make between their chemistry, biology, and physics content knowledge. Contact Email: sunderwo@fiu.edu Chemistry Education at FIU: http://chemed.fiu.edu Underwood Research Group: http://myweb.fiu.edu/sunderwo

Justin Carmel

Research and Background Justin Carmel (co-PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the STEM Transformation institute at Florida International University. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry Education Research at Miami University. His research interests include developing assessment items to measure students ability to use scientific practices (analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and arguments), investigating how students’ identities as a scientist affects their success in their chemistry courses/major/degree program, and determining the relationship between laboratory curriculum and students’ identities as a scientist. Contact Email: jcarmel@fiu.edu Chemistry Education at FIU: http://chemed.fiu.edu Carmel Research Group: http://myweb.fiu.edu/jcarmel

Ryan Sweeder

Research and Background Ryan Sweeder is an professor for Chemistry in Lyman Briggs College and director of the Lyman Briggs’ NSF SPRING Scholars program. He received his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry and Chemistry Education at University of Michigan. He and his research group explore gender inequity in science education, strategies to retain students in the sciences, and the impact of curricular interventions on student learning. His current research projects include examining student use of simulations and screencasts to construct understanding of core chemistry concepts outside the classroom, using text messaging to encourage student self-assessment and provide formative assessment data to guide instruction, and assessing the success of a Lyman Briggs program designed to support students with low incoming mathematics skills. Contact Email: sweeder@msu.edu Website: http://sweeder.msu.domains/

Lynmarie Posey

Research and Background Lynmarie Posey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and CREATE for STEM Institute. She earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University. Her current research is centered around studying approaches to support students with low mathematical placements in successfully transitioning to general chemistry through a chemistry bridge course organized around core ideas and scientific practices. She has an ongoing collaboration with mathematics education researcher Kristen Bieda which has led to development of mathematics interventions for the chemistry bridge course; recently they have initiated a project to explore the nature of mathematical knowledge for teaching in the context of chemistry (MKT-C). She is also interested in the nature of social networks in cohort programs and how they may promote student success. Contact Email: posey@chemistry.msu.edu

Ryan Stowe

Research and Background Ryan Stowe began working with the 3DL4US team as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at Michigan State University. His work as a research associate mentored by Prof. Melanie Cooper focused on supporting molecular-level sense-making in high school chemistry students, and engaging undergraduates in scientific practices in the context of organic chemistry. Ryan is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ryan earned his B.A. in chemistry at Albion College (2010) and Ph.D. in organic chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute (2016). His doctoral studies, conducted under the guidance of Prof. William Roush, focused on the design and synthesis of histone deacetylase inhibitors and the development of methods useful in natural products synthesis. Contact Email: rstowe@chem.wisc.edu…

Category: Chemistry Active