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Friday: September 27, 2024
Friday: September 27, 2024
12:00 pm Registration Table Open
1:00 pm Welcome
1:10 pm Keynote #1: Engaging and Inspiring Students with Green & Sustainable Chemistry Curriculum, Dr. Jane Wissinger
New to the 2023 ACS Guidelines for Bachelor’s Degree Programs are the inclusion of green chemistry and sustainability into curriculum learning outcomes. This emphasizes the national ACS’s mission to “work with educators, students, researchers, and industry to modernize the chemistry curriculum to include sustainable development, circularity, green chemistry, and life cycle thinking.” This presentation will share how green and sustainable chemistry can be integrated and scaffolded across courses from foundational to upper division levels while meeting learning outcomes. Tying chemistry concepts with socio-environmental and -societal problems engages students and prepares them for future careers in the chemical enterprise. Strategies and resources will be shared to enable chemistry faculty to feel confident and supported in modifying their curriculum to meet and/or exceed these expectations.
2:15 pm State Caucus Gathering
Meet with others from your state to reconnect. This will also be a time to designate a State Representative for the MACTLAC Board.
2:45 pm Breakout Session #1
Enjoy an opportunity to meet and talk with Dr. Jane Wissinger.
Nobel Building Tour
Join us for a tour of our renovated space that opened during 2019 & 2020. Features a special peek into our Chemistry Stockroom and Prep Spaces.
In this session led by our Campus Health & Lab Safety Officer, hear about what others are doing to make the lab experience equitable for all students, including a focus on accommodations surrounding physical limitations and service animals.
Designing & Assessing Scaffolded Writing Assignments
Do you want to build your writing assignments for gains not pains? See what others are doing to empower students to take feedback and improve their writing and get ideas for your classes.
Students as Agents of Inclusion
In this session led by members of our HHMI leadership team, hear about what others are doing to empower students to help make classrooms and labs more inclusive for all.
Marketing your Program to Alumni
Interested in increasing alumni engagement with your department. Join this discussion to learn about strategies to re-connect with alumni and solicit gifts to establish endowments to support departmental goals.
Resources for Chromatography Teaching and Learning
In this session, join Drs. Dwight Stoll (Gustavus) and Mark Whittaker (Minnesota Chromatography Forum) to discuss resources and opportunities for teaching and learning about chromatography, both in traditional classroom settings, and through regional symposia. For traditional settings, we will demonstrate and discuss two free, web-based simulators for liquid chromatography - one for entry-level users, and one for more advanced users. The entry level simulator has been used by educators for many years, and homework assignments have been developed and are freely available. The advanced simulator is new, and we are interested in engaging instructors to develop resources around this tool. Secondly, we will discuss opportunities to share research and learn from others about what is new in chromatography at the regional Minnesota Chromatography Forum Spring Symposium. We will describe what happens at these annual symposia, and will be interested to hear instructor perspectives on ways we might be able to drive undergraduate engagement with this rich event.
3:45 pm Break
4:15 pm Breakout Session #2 [Traditional Divisional Discussions]
5:15 pm Break
5:30 pm Keynote #2: Building Community Partnerships, a panel with Ted Hinchcliffe (Hormel) and Steve Bennett & Jeff Dahlseid (GAC)
Gustavus has established a new strategic partnership with The Hormel Institute, a world class biomedical research facility in Austin, MN. The partnership will provide research internships every summer for multiple Gustavus students through the Hormel Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. Additionally, faculty from both institutions are working to find points of collaboration to enhance the research capacity of each institution.
6:30 pm Dinner
Dinner will be a pasta buffet with assorted noodles, sauces, and toppings to choose from, in addition to salad, bread, and fruit. On the registration form you will have a space to let us know of dietary restrictions you may have so that we can accommodate your needs.
7:30 pm Poster Session & Vendor Expo
See what others are up to in their classroom activities and research pursuits. Everyone is welcome to present (no abstract submission needed). During this time, many of our presenting sponsors will be exhibiting at tables. Please visit them!
8:30 pm Evening Social Game Night
Partake in some fall fun with a bonfire and yard games, as well as some indoor board games and a puzzle challenge. Join us for a fun evening!
Saturday: September 28, 2024
Saturday: September 28, 2024
8:15 am Welcome
Kick off the morning with some coffee before heading into the final Keynote Session. A full breakfast will not be served so please utilize your hotel’s breakfast or seek out an area coffee shop or restaurant.
8:30 am Keynote #3: Recommendations for Improving Programming Education in Chemistry Courses, Dr. Ashley McDonald
Programming, data, and computation are becoming more important in almost all STEM disciplines, including many which did not previously emphasize these skills. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, we have integrated programming instruction in our physical chemistry curriculum for over a decade. While integrated programming lessons can benefit students by increasing their motivation and interest in programming, contextualized programming instruction can lead to challenges with transfer, where students can not apply their programming knowledge in contexts other than the one they were initially taught. We conducted a longitudinal study, including surveying and think-aloud interviews, with physical chemistry students at Cal Poly to assess the level of transferable programming skills they developed from the integrated programming lessons in the physical chemistry courses. We identified several successful strategies as well as common challenges and misconceptions that hindered students programming knowledge and skills. Based on the results of our study, we present recommendation for improving programming education in chemistry courses.
9:30 am Business Meeting
This annual all-member open meeting will provide an update on the MACTLAC organization. Your attendance is appreciated so that we can have productive conversations.
10:15 am Break
10:45 am Breakout Session #3
Enjoy an opportunity to meet and talk with Dr. Ashley McDonald.
Thinking about starting up or overhauling a Course-Based Research Experience? See what others are doing and get some ideas to launch your program.
Journals are getting harder to access as subscription costs skyrocket. Join a discussion on what peer institutions are doing to overcome this barrier.
Marketing your Program to Prospective Students
In this session led by a member of our Admissions Office, learn about strategies to recruit and retain students who are interested in a Chemistry (or Biochemistry) major.
Interested in having students engage matters and questions of identity, meaning and purpose, and consider how they, as scientists and as whole persons, are situated within the broader context of the world and its needs? Learn about how Dr. Jeff Dahlseid does this in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology capstone course.
In this session led by an interdisciplinary team from Communication Studies and Chemistry, learn about bringing dialogue into the chemistry laboratory as a tool to tackle issues at the intersection of science and society.
11:45 am Lunch & Depart
Grab lunch from the sandwich bar and head home.
12:45 - 3:45 pm optional Workshop:
Machine Learning in Chemistry with Dr. Ashley McDonald
In this workshop, participants will construct a chemical data set and use it to build a machine learning model to predict solubility using python in the jupyter notebook environment. Participants will learn to use scientific python libraries such as numpy, RDKit, and scikitlearn to apply python to chemical information problems. The lessons will be presented as interactive jupyter notebooks where participants without prior python experience can learn fundamental concepts in cheminformatics and machine learning, and participants with more advanced programming skills can complete addition coding exercises to learn more. Participants should bring their own laptop to the workshop. We will use a cloud computing environment, so that participants do not need to install any software or files on their computers to participate.
1:00 - 2:00 pm optional Session:
Methylene Chloride in Laboratories–Managing Requirements of the TSCA Final Rule with Laboratory Safety Institute
This LIVE webinar will discuss managing the requirements of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Final Rule for methylene chloride in laboratories. We will cover the essential uses and hazards associated with methylene chloride, providing a foundational understanding of its risks and applications in laboratory settings. The webinar focus will be on meeting requirements for exposure assessment and establishing a Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP). Key concepts addressed in the webinar will include: Establishing a sampling plan and identifying similar exposure groups (SEGs), Sampling and analytical methods, Required content for a WCPP and Suggestions for using a Chemical Hygiene Plan or Standard Operating Procedure to meet WCPP requirements. Bring your questions!
2:15 - 4:00 pm optional Workshop:
Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry into the Laboratory Curriculum with Dr. Jane Wissinger
In this workshop, participants will learn a range of strategies effective in modernizing their laboratory curriculum though the application of green chemistry principles. This will include methods to adapt from the wealth of published green educational experiments to engaging undergraduate students in green/sustainable chemistry curriculum development and course-based research experiences (CURE). Green chemistry offers the advantages of creating safer labs that produce less waste while maintain a high level of rigor in developing techniques and critical thinking skills at the bench. Specific examples of “greener” labs from general, organic, life sciences, and polymer experiments will be shared that place green chemistry in context of the essential role chemistry will plan in addressing sustainability topics. Resources for all laboratory curriculum will be shared and time will be allotted for individual and group work activities for developing a customized implementation plan for your home institution. I hope you will join me.
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