Current Activities

As a First Year Program lecturer, I teach CHEM 101 and CHEM 102.  In order to help with overall student retention and success, I along with other FYP lecturers developed and created a Reinforcement Module with four goals:

1. To accurately assess each student's critical thinking skills and pre-existing knowledge on topics presented in high school as they relate to general chemistry in order to identify those at risk of failure and in need of reinforcement.
2. To help students improve their problem solving skills by moving above the lowest "remembering" level on Bloom's taxonomy into the regimes of "understanding" and "applying" what they are taught.
3. To efficiently increase the knowledge base of at-risk students through instructional videos that concisely explain theories and concepts, while providing sample questions and problem-solving strategies on fundamental topics in an included workbook.
4. To ensure students' mastery of fundamental topics through assignments that continually assess overall student retention.

As the Departmental Outreach Coordinator, I organize and supervise various outreach activities on behalf of the Chemistry Department.  Annual events include departmental participation in the spring Physics and Engineering Festival, providing volunteers to help with the running of the Texas State Science Olympiad Tournament, and host the Chemistry Open House and Science Exploration event. 

The Chemistry Open House has become an annual outreach activity for the faculty, graduate students, and staff members of the Department of Chemistry to give back to local community and encourage science education.  Over the years the Chemistry Open House grew to include the popular Chemistry Road Show (originally developed by Dr. Larry Peck and Dr. John Hogg and now headed by Dr. James Pennington), guided tours of active research laboratories, public talks from leading research scientists, and hands-on and computer activities relating to chemistry and other sciences.  We also host activities and demonstrations from other departments (Biology, Physics, Entomology) as well as outside the university (Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, Texas Department of Public Safety).

As the faculty advisor for the American Chemical Society Student Group, I provide support and guidance to officers and members of the organization.  I suggest ideas for activities and socials, shares insights on speakers and events, and encourage organization members as they progress through their academic career.

As a member of the American Chemical Society, I am the Chemistry Olympiad Coordinator as well as the National Chemistry Week Coordinator for the Texas A&M local section.