Education

“I have no question that students who learn, not professors who perform, is what teaching is all about: students who learn are the finest fruit of teachers who teach. . . . I am also clear that in lecture halls, seminar rooms, field settings, labs, and even electronic classrooms – the places where most people receive most of their formal education – teachers possess the power to create conditions that can help students learn a great deal – or keep them from learning much at all.”

Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, Jossey-Bass (1997)

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

"In general, the scholarship of teaching and learning shows great promise for enriching and supporting chemistry education because it seeks to make systematic, scholarly thinking about teaching and learning a part of every faculty member’s life, rather than just those who have claimed its specialization. It relies on examining learning outcomes and on developing and creatively adapting investigative methods for assessing student learning across the chemistry curriculum."

Brian P. Coppola and Dennis C. Jacobs, Is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning New to Chemistry? in Disciplinary Styles in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A Conversation, edited by M. Huber and S. Morreale, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2002) 197-216.

Promoting Active Learning in a Large Introductory Science Course

At Notre Dame, General Chemistry is traditionally taught in four large lecture sections - each with approximately 250 students. Unfortunately, many students struggle to learn in the large-lecture environment, because they don't become actively engaged in the processes of inquiry and synthesizing knowledge. In the Fall of 1997, I introduced CHEM 113/114, an alternative approach to teaching General Chemistry. The redesigned course features regular occasions where students gather in small groups to collaboratively answer conceptual questions or solve complex problems. In these structured peer discussions, students are exposed to multiple perspectives and are challenged to defend their own ideas.

As a Carnegie Scholar, supported by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Pew Charitable Trusts, I have investigated the impact that cooperative learning activities have on the conceptual understanding, problem-solving ability, and self-confidence developed by students enrolled in the alternative section of General Chemistry. This Carnegie project is described in three publications:

An Alternative Approach to Teaching General Chemistry
The Knowledge Media Lab at the Carnegie Foundation supports the development of the scholarship of teaching by creating online workspaces for scholars to share their findings. One such online workspace documents the pedagogical intervention introduced at Notre Dame and describes the impact it had on students.
Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Edited by Pat Hutchings. Introduction by Pat Hutchings, with essays by eight scholars including Dennis Jacobs, and a conclusion by Lee S. Shulman. (2000). Includes a CD-ROM with valuable resources and supplemental information. Available through Carnegie Publications, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 555 Middlefield Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025. Phone: 50/ 566-5128, Fax: 650/326-0279 or E-mail: publications@carnegiefoundation.org
Chronicle of Higher Education
The May 25, 2001 issue of the weekly periodical, the Chronicle of Higher Education, featured an article on Notre Dame's alternative approach to teaching General Chemistry.

TextRev: A Window into How Chemistry Students Use Textbook Resources

In the sciences among other disciplines, publishers often provide a plethora of resources (e.g., study guides, solution manuals, CD-ROMs, and companion websites) to accompany textbooks. Instructors are rarely able to accurately assess whether these added features truly help student learning. In the Fall of 2000, Profs. Bradley Smith and Dennis Jacobs from Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry began to survey how students utilize textbook resources in college courses. With the goal of helping higher-education professionals better serve students, TextRev LLC was founded in 2001. TextRev aims to address the following questions:

How extensively are textbook resources (e.g., study guides, solution manuals, CD-ROMs, and companion websites) being utilized by students?
In what ways do students report that their learning is enhanced by animations, simulations, real-world applications, etc.?
How does a student’s assessment of a given textbook resource relate to whether his/her instructor has recommended, assigned, or graded work that draws explicitly from that resource?
What implications do these survey results have on the way we should select and utilize textbook resources in our courses?

TextRev(www.textrev.com) is a free web-based resource that offers instructors a painless way to survey their own students. The data is analyzed and returned to the instructor along with national averages from peer institutions. In addition, TextRev data is compiled in a form that can help facilitate the adoption process as instructors search for textbooks that have proven effective for analogous institutions serving similar student populations. Over 150 instructors and 7000 students have completed a TextRev survey as of December, 2002.

"Chemistry in Service of the Community"

Approximately 900,000 U.S. children under the age of 5 years have blood lead levels greater than the CDC action level of 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Lead poisoning research suggests that the primary sources of lead exposure for most children are:
     - deteriorating lead-based paint,
     - lead contaminated dust, and
     - lead contaminated residential soil.
Lead poisoning is entirely preventable if one identifies and reduces the sources of lead in a child's environment.

Through a collaboration of local partners:
     - Memorial Hospital,
     - the City of Mishawaka,
     - Greentree Environmental,
     - and the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame,
junior and senior students enrolled in CHEM 331 collect field samples from homes in the surrounding community and test the samples for elevated lead levels. Participating students gain invaluable experience applying their chemical knowledge and skill to address a real problem facing members of our community. Reports on the project have appeared in the South Bend Tribune (4/15/02, 11/21/02, and 1/5/03). More details on the course can be found at the following link.