The Teaching Center’s Annual Recognition Ceremony was held on May 3. The event honors those graduate students and postdocs who have completed the professional-development programs, including the Teaching Citation, WU-CIRTL, or the Preparation in Pedagogy program. It also honors those who have served as Liberman Fellows or on the Teaching Center’s Advisory Group.
This year, several Chemistry students were recognized:
Barrie Cascella, Chemistry PhD 2014, completed the requirements for Community Member and Associate in the WU-CIRTL program for future faculty in STEM.
Justin Lyle, Chemistry PhD candidate, completed the requirements for Community Member, Associate, and Practitioner in the WU-CIRTL program for future faculty in STEM. Justin also presented a poster “Effectiveness of an Online Discussion Forum as a Study Tool” in the poster session. The abstract from the poster:
"This study aims to gauge the effectiveness of an online discussion forum as a study tool for a large undergraduate lecture course. Students will have the ability to post questions and answers to each other through Piazza throughout the course. Average quiz scores for two recitation sections will be compared to a third control group recitation section throughout the course, giving a direct comparison of improvements made by the students."
Brian Wieliczka, Chemistry PhD candidate was a WU-STAR intern and completed the requirements for Community Member in the WU-CIRTL program for future faculty in STEM. Brian presented a poster “Studying the Impact of the January Intensive Program”, which won the top prize in the poster session. The abstract from the poster:
"The January Intensive Program (JIP) is a week-long class intended for students who feel under-prepared for the second semester General Chemistry (Chem 112). Taking place the week before second semester begins, JIP consists of 15 hours of instruction, 16 hours of homework and peer-led team-learning sessions, and 6 optional office hours. While pre-JIP and post-JIP exams demonstrate dramatic improvements in performance on Chem 112 material, we do not understand how this intensive program affects student performance in Chem 112. We have investigated that impact by matching students with comparable backgrounds and through a regression analysis for the significance of the January Intensive Program"
