Resources to Increase Student Engagement and Improve Motivation

compiled by Laurie Starkey, Cal Poly Pomona (email)
ChemistryConnected.com for Organic Chemistry teaching resources

Inclusive Teaching in Chemistry

• Transparency in teaching describes how to frame assignments (purpose/task/criteria) for equity and success (TILT Higher Ed)
• Black Chemists You Should Know About (C&E News)
• Celebrating Pioneering Black Women in Science (AWIS)
  
• Hispanic and Latino Chemists You Should Know About (C&E News) (Spanish version)
• 10 Hispanic Scientists You Should Know
• 15 Famous Muslim (Arab & Persian) Scientists and their Inventions
• LGBTQ+ Chemists You Should Know About (C&E News)
• Women in Chemistry (Wikipedia)
  
• Women Nobel Laureates (all Nobel prizes in chemistry)
  • Stories of women who changed science
  • Match yourself with a female laureate!
  • Complete list of women laureates
• Asian and Pacific Islander inventors and scientists
  • 8 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Whose Innovations Have Changed Your Life (Really!)
  • 6 Asian and Pacific Islanders Who Made Groundbreaking Contributions to STEM
  • Asian & Pacific Islander Spotlight: More Scientists of Note
  • 21 Asian Female Scientists Who Slay
• Chemists who look like me: Meet the Talented 12 class of 2022. also links to previous years, C&E News)
• Famous Inventors (browse biographies at ThoughtCo.)
• Webinar on building community by Laurie Starkey "Are the students laughing at my jokes?  How to connect and build community in the times of COVID-19" (pdf)
  
  

Motivation & Growth Mindset Resources

• Motivating Learners Course (Mindset G.P.S.: Growth Mindset, Purpose and Relevance, Social Belonging) by Motivate Lab
  Want to learn more about MLC? Please contact Dustin Thoman (email).
• "G.P.S. Guidance for Building Community and Motivating Students" Starkey, Laurie (BCCE 2022)
  
  
• Growth Mindset for Success in Math (YouTube video by Youcubed at Stanford)
• Mindset Scholars Network (website, resources, newsletter subscription)
• The Power of belief (TED talk Carol Dweck)
• Mindset Kit (PERTS)
• Growth Mindset Survey (Starkey)
• Growing Your Mind (Khan Academy)
• Neuroplasticity (Sentis)
• Grow Your Brain Article (Carnegie)
• Why You Need to Fail (TEDx talk Derek Sivers)
• The Power of belief (TEDx talk Eduardo Briceno)
• Success through effort (John Legend)
• Famous failures "If you've never failed, you've never tried anything new"
• The Math People Myth (TEDx talk Nate Brown, 12:30)
  
  
• Exam Wrappers
  • Carnegie Mellon examples
  • Organic Chemistry example 
    Metacognition:  By taking a step back and thinking about the way you learn, you can improve your learning!  An "exam wrapper" survey will guide you through an exercise in self-reflection, with the goal of improving your performance on the next exam.  Grade-Predicting Clicker Question
    
    
• Gratitude resources/activities
  • Benefits & scientific evidence
  • PositivePsychology.com has many great ideas (here are the 13 most popular). 
  • gratitude apps
    
    

Learning-Focused Syllabus

• Organic Chemistry II syllabus and online version (Fall 2020)
• CHM 201 Syllabi - Original (Content-Focused) and Redesigned (Learning-Focused)
• Michael S. Palmer, Lindsay B. Wheeler & Itiya Aneece (2016) "Does the Document Matter? The Evolving Role of Syllabi in Higher Education" Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 48:4, 36-47, DOI: 10.1080/00091383.2016.1198186 (link)
  
  
  

Teaching with Technology (PowerPoint, handout)

Video Creation Resources

• "Teaching with Videos and Animations: Tuning in, Getting Turned on, and Building Relationships" ACS symposium book chapter
• "Video Creation for Teaching & Learning" PowerPoint (seminar handout)
• Explain Everything lecture capture app: cyclohexane tutorials
• Doceri lecture capture app: Reagent Table
• Camtasia screen capture: TLC simulator walk-through and Extraction walk-through (Camtasia tutorials: http://tiny.cc/CreatingPedagogicalVideos)
• Lightboard technology (Learning Glass): hybridization lecture (explanation of how a lightboard works)
• Adobe Express free online tool for creation of videos slides + audio: column chromatography (Express website, intro video and tutorials)
• Adobe Presenter (PowerPoint plug-in): distillation tutorial
• Finding existing videos and animations: search YouTube, Educator.com, EdX, MERLOT, PhET, CPP animations
  

Organic Chemistry Resources

• Clicker Questions & Flipped classroom worksheets (LOCAL website - Library for Organic Chemistry Active Learning)
• Laboratory Tutorials & Resources
  • TLC simulator and worksheet
  • Extraction animation and worksheet
• "Demystifying Organic Chemistry with Skills-Based Active Learning" by Laurie Starkey (Wiley webinar)
• "Teaching Online Organic Chemistry "Labs" and Lectures: Moving Beyond Survival Mode" by Laurie Starkey (Wiley webinar and presentation pdf)
  

 

Course Redesign with Technology (CSU-CRT) Projects by Laurie Starkey

• 2015-16 - Redesign of Organic Chemistry, CHM 315 (ePortfolio) The goal is to improve the D/F/W rate in the Organic Chemistry courses by increasing in-class problem-solving opportunities (clicker questions), utilizing online homework, and introducing exam wrappers.
  
  
• 2016-17 - Mind-tricks for Mastery: Redesigning an Organic Chemistry Course by Focusing on Productive Persistence (poster pdf and ePortfolio): The goal of this course redesign was to reduce the D/F/W rate by improving students' attitudes about Organic Chemistry and exploring learning theory to improve their persistence.  Lessons on having a growth mindset have been incorporated, and utilizing a learning-focused syllabus helped to build a supportive environment.  Metacognitive reflection was encouraged with exam wrappers and weekly journal prompts.  Incentives were given for students to form groups (Organic Learning Communities, OLC) outside of class, and structured activities were provided for the OLCs on a weekly basis.
  
  
• 2017-18 - Repository for Organic Chemistry Active-Learning Materials (ePortfolio) I will create a repository of active-learning materials (LOCAL) that can be used by any Organic Chemistry instructor. Each activity will directly map to one or more SLO of the course, and the collection will be organized according to the relevant topic/textbook chapter. Each week, the instructor can select suitable activities from the repository to be implemented during a face-to-face lecture period. By working on problems in class, the instructor can model problem-solving approaches and the students will gain valuable hands-on learning. With embedded and supplemental growth mindset and study strategies lessons, students will not only be learning organic chemistry, but they will be learning how to learn.
  

Last updated November 2023