Karen Brewer, the Silas D. Childs Professor in Agricultural Chemistry, was recently named a VIPEr (Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource) Fellow. She was selected to be one of 40 faculty participating in an innovative study to develop, test, and refine a flexible, foundation-level inorganic chemistry course. The study, “Improving Inorganic Chemistry Education,” is led by the Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists and is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program.
Along with other inorganic chemists from across the country, the VIPEr Fellows will implement evidence-based practices in their courses with the goal of improving student engagement and learning. According to a press release, “the project will use classroom observations, analysis of student work, student surveys, and faculty interviews to study how changes in the classroom affect student learning, interest, and motivation.”
Brewer will focus on the expansion of active learning in Inorganic Chemistry 265 and on expanding the topics of the course to connect foundational concepts to current research in inorganic chemistry.
Brewer, the Chemistry Department chair, came to Hamilton College in 1989 and teaches undergraduate courses in advanced and intermediate inorganic chemistry and general chemistry. She earned a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
