Teaching
One of Jon's major teaching goals is in showing the interdisciplinary nature of chemistry. Chemistry is often considered the 'central science' due to its ability to act as a bridge between the physical sciences and the life sciences. As a result, the techniques and knowledge learned in chemistry courses can be applied to a wide variety of fields. In Jon's teaching, he works to demonstrate this interdisciplinary nature of chemistry through a variety of different examples from health, earth, forensic and food sciences, in addition to the chemistry seen in everyday life.
Courses Taught at Mount Holyoke
General Chemistry, CHEM-101 (2016-2018) and CHEM-150 (2020-present)
Analytical Chemistry, CHEM-223 (2017-2019)
Forensic Chemistry, CHEM-321 (2020)
Classification of a brass sample via complexometric titration. This experiment was complemented with a second experiment, direct detection of zinc and copper using the metal-specific dye zincon.
Jon's approach to analytical chemistry is very case focused - the class is split into three major sections (food adulteration, metal leaching in waterways, and pharmaceutical quality control).
As part of the quantitative analysis labs, pairs of experiments were designed so that a single analyte could be detected by two different methods. This allows for students to more effectively think of the various merits of one method over the other. In addition, these experiment blocks allow for additional practice with statistical analysis of data, between comparison to performance standards and comparison of data obtained by each method:
