Due to the small size of our chemistry department, I teach both introductory and upper level chemistry courses. The courses I teach include College Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physical Chemistry, Junior Seminar and Senior Research.  

 

Research specialization in chemistry is quite an impossible task in a teaching-intensive small college due to obvious reasons stemming from prioritizing teaching over research. Consequently, my initial research specialization in physical chemistry has evolved to accommodate diverse areas over the years due to teaching a wide variety of courses in different disciplines of chemistry. Supervising senior research projects in all possible fields of chemistry gave me an appreciation of different issues in food chemistry, forensic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry. On the other hand, my major interest still lies in the realm of physical chemistry, particularly, in the determination of molecular energy levels using laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy even though I cannot actively pursue it. My next research-related goal is establishing an undergraduate chemistry/physics research program that can be carried out during the summer. I want to encourage my students to present their work in conferences for undergraduate research and possibly have a chance to publish research papers in chemical journals.

 

A lecturer’s passion for his/her field of study is the number one factor leading to success in the classroom. The teacher’s excitement is contagious and makes the delivery of even the hardest subject matter to the students fluent. The second factor that leads to successful teaching is the experience built over years through intellectual and personal interactions with students and use of different teaching strategies and methods. Traditional teaching style in Chemistry is straight-through lecturing in the classroom. There is either no or very limited interaction between the instructor and the students. In such an atmosphere, there is no possible way to assess the understanding of the students during the course of lecture and usually, students gain no solid knowledge that they can remember afterwards by analogy to a real-life experience. Students prepare for exams the day before by remote memorization of the required sections in the textbook or the notes which does not allow for the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. I found that strategies encouraging student participation in the classroom allow the students to develop the needed skills naturally and easily. Student interaction with the teacher and the peers also helps the less motivated ones achieve their full potential. Chemistry is hard to understand due to its abstract nature and multi-level representations (macroscopic, molecular, and symbolic). I use multimedia instructional methods that combine text, sound, video, computer graphics, and Web content, because I believe that different modes of communication convey the meaning of complicated concepts to students with ease.