2023
Stacey has accepted the position of Dean, Getty College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio Northern University (4/14/23).
The University of Rhode Island hosted Stacey for a research seminar (2/13/23).
2022
The James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry was bestowed upon Stacey (11/10/22).
The keynote address at 2022 MAALACT was delivered by Stacey (11/11/22).
Stacey gave an invited presentation for ChemEdXchange (10/29/22).
Stacey presented a department research colloquium at the University of Iowa (10/28/22).
Stacey gave an invited presentation at High School Teacher Day at the Fall 2022 ACS National Meeting in Chicago (8/21/22).
Stacey was interviewed by Bloomberg and featured in the Washington Post about best practices for teaching and assessment in chemistry. (10/13/22).
Sarah and Courtney presented our research at the 2022 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (8/3/22).
The IOP Institute of Physics and Royal Society of Chemistry invited Stacey to give a keynote address at the STEM Education Innovation Workshop (8/5/22).
Stacey spent the 2021-2022 academic year as an ACE Fellow in residence at the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
Stacey gave a keynote address to the American Modeling Teachers Association about "Designing Assessments with Multiple Representations" (6/23/22).
Stacey was an invited panelist at the Ohio Academy of Science annual meeting (4/10/22).
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Fullington on her graduation from Miami University! Next stop: post-doc with Dr. Sam Pazicni at University of Wisconsin Madison.
Stacey presented research on students' understandings of multiple representations for the 2YC3 (3/25/22) and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (3/31/22).
Stacey co-presented about academic program prioritization at the Higher Learning Commission annual meeting (4/3/22).
Stacey presented her ACS Award Address, "Meaningful Learning, Measurement, & Mentors" in a day-long symposium to honor her by former students and colleagues at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA (3/20/22).
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Fullington who successfully defended her dissertation! (2/17/22)
Stacey gave an invited seminar about measuring mindset & meaningful learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory at Tufts University (2/23/22).
2021
Stacey presented a seminar "Meaningful Learning and Beliefs about Intelligence in the Chemistry Laboratory" in the Cardiff STEM DBER webinar series (12/8/21).
Our collaboration with Maria Gallardo-Williams on meaningful learning in virtual reality organic chemistry laboratories was published in J. Chem. Educ. (12/3/21).
Our NSF-funded project on for a chemistry & psychology learning community on professional identity development has published a paper on S.M.A.R.T. Goals, Mentor Maps, and Values in GP Chemist (11/12/21).
Stacey was one of 6 keynote speakers at the first-ever Chinese Chemical Society - American Chemical Society Bilateral Forum on Chemical Education. More than 60,000 primary, secondary, and university chemistry teachers attended the forum. (11/26/21)
Congratulations to Bretz group alumna, Dr. Kimberly Linenberger Cortes, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Kennesaw State University, on her election to be Chair-Elect of the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Education! (10/6/21).
Stacey hosted several American Council on Education Fellows at Miami University to learn about leadership in higher education. (11/15/21)
Congratulations to Bretz group alumna, Dr. Zahilyn Roche Allred, who was awarded a distinguished postdoctoral research fellowship at Florida International University! (9/17/21).
Stacey gave a seminar on meaningful learning and mindset research in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory at Kennesaw State University (10/6/21) and participated in a panel discussion about discipline-based education research (DBER) in chemistry, mathematics, biology, and physics (11/3/21).
Congratulations to Bretz group alum, Dr. Tim Abell, on starting a new position as an Instructor at Fayetteville Technical Community College! (8/15/21)
Stacey is the College of Science Distinguished Speaker at Rochester Institute of Technology (9/15/21)
Stacey & colleagues' Atoms-Focused AP Chemistry Textbook has been officially added to the AP Chemistry textbook list as the first-ever atoms first book on the list! (8/11/21)
Stacey presented our two newest instruments at the IUPAC/CCCE meeting in August 2021 - the Nucleophile & Electrophile Concept Inventory and the instrument to measure Intelligence Mindset in the Chemistry Laboratory. (8/11/21)
Sarah and Courtney presented posters at the spring ACS virtual meeting (4/15/21)
Sarah presented a poster on our newest lab assessment tool at #MICER21 (5/28/21)
Sarah held a successful 6-month conference and is on-track to graduate! (6/21/21)
Stacey gave a seminar to the University of Pittsburgh Discipline-Based Science Education Research Center (7/26/21)
Sarah presented a poster about our research into effort, ability, and success in the laboratory at #CLEAR21 (4/8/21)
Stacey is a member of the newest American Council on Education Fellows cohort (3/3/21).
Sarah presented a poster at the inaugural X-DBER Conference about our assessment tool to measure mindset in the chemistry laboratory. (3/3/21)
Stacey presented a research seminar at Florida International University. (2/19/21)
Stacey began her term as Chair of the ACS Division of Chemical Education. (1/1/21)
2020
Celebrating a milestone!!
Publication #100 for the Bretz group due to collaborations with 55 talented students & 65 colleagues! (11/3/20)
Our research on lab learning was featured in C&EN. (5/11/20)
Molly was hired as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University of North Texas come fall 2020!
Stacey was elected to a 3 year term as Chair-Elect/ Chair/Past Chair of the ACS Division of Chemical Education (1/1/20), honored with the prestigious Benjamin Harrison Medallion for “education of the nation” (3/6/20), and named an ACE Fellow (3/19/20). She co-lead a #CER webinar on concept inventories (5/19/20).
2019
Courtney successfully completed her first year conference! (7/31/19)
49 Grad Students & Post-Docs attended the 2019 CER Professional Development Conference. (7/18/19)
Daniel Reed joined us from Western Carolina University as a member of our NSF REU program (5/20/19) and presented his research at the summer poster session (8/1/19).
Congratulations to Dr. Tim Abell, Dr. Zahilyn Roche Allred, Carrie Dobbs, Katie Ferguson, & Lilly Huff on their graduation! (5/18/19)
Sarah passed her cumes (4/17/19) and Original Research Proposal defense! (9/11/19)
Carrie Dobbs and Kate Yezierski were honored as Runners-Up for Best Undergraduate CER Poster at ACS Orlando! (4/9/19)
The Bretz CER group presented 11 CER posters at #ACSOrlando, 5 posters at the Miami University Undergraduate Research Forum, 3 posters at the 2019 CER Gordon Research Conference and 2 talks at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego (8/25/19)
Zahy defended her dissertation (3/20/19) and her first paper from her dissertation research on gen chem & pchem students’ reasoning with representations was published in CERP (2/6/19). Her research was featured in Education in Chemistry - a magazine for chemistry teachers published by the Royal Society of Chemistry! (4/4/19), and the Quantization and Probability Representations Inventory (QuPRI) was published in JCE (6/28/19).
Tim defended his dissertation (3/12/19) and his papers on students' reasoning about entropy changes and spontaneity in dissolving and insolublity (2/21/19) and Enthalpy & Entropy in Dissolution and Precipitation Inventory (E2DPI) (8/1/19) were published in JCE.
Michael published his cognate research to create an inquiry photopolymerization lab in JCE. (1/28/19)
Molly Atkinson joined the Bretz CER Group! (1/2/19)
First pub of 2019 from our collaboration with the Liu group (1/2/19)
Stacey presented invited seminars at UCSD (1/14/19), Iowa State University (10/4/19), University of Michigan (10/24/19), and University of North Texas (11/22/19). She co-authored a commentary on Growing Chemistry Education Research. (2/8/19), and authored an editorial on “Evidence for the Importance of Laboratory Courses” in J. Chem. Educ. (2/12/19). She also presented a #CERGinar for the Royal Society of Chemistry (5/22/19), a talk about our assessment tool on reaction coordinate diagrams at the CCCE (6/4/19), and a talk at the 2YC3 meeting at Miramar College (8/24/19). Stacey & Ellen's teaching was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter (10/24/19)
2018
Courtney Chatha joined the Bretz CER Group! (10/31/18)
Bretz Group alumna, Lindsey Bullinger, was honored as one of the 18 of the Last 9 by Miami! (10/26/18)
Sarah completed her first year conference (summer 2018) and her cognate project was published in Biochemistry! (8/14/18)
Tim and Zahilyn both earned the Graduate Certificate in College Teaching. (5/16/18)
Katie & Lilly each won the prestigious Dean’s Scholar Award for 2018-2019! Congratulations!! (5/3/18)
Carrie, Charlie, Kate, Katie, & Lilly presented posters at Miami’s Undergraduate Research Forum (4/25/18)
Dr. Maia Popova successfully defended her dissertation (3/30/18) and published a paper in CERP on coherence formation between organic reactions and reaction coordinate diagrams. (4/16/18) Stacey got to ‘hood’ Maia at graduation! (5/18/18). Her paper analyzing students’ thinking about the surface features of reaction coordinate diagrams was published in CERP (6/9/18). Her paper on organic students’ ideas about leaving groups was published in JCE (6/12/18) and her paper on organic chemistry students' annotations of reaction coordinate diagrams was recognized with the prestigious #ACSEditorsChoice. (6/16/18)
Our latest cognate research collaboration with the Danielson group was published in J. Chem. Educ. (3/26/18)
Congratulations to Carrie and Mikayla for winning best CER poster and runner-up at the ACS NOLA meeting! (3/26/18)
The Bretz group presented 9 posters at ACS NOLA (3/18/18) and 10 talks at the 2018 BCCE! (7/29/18)
Tim’s paper on students’ ideas of enthalpy in dissolving and precipitation was published in J. Chem. Educ. (2/20/18)
We welcomed Kate Yezierski to the Bretz CER Group! (2/13/18)
NSF has funded our collaborative project between CHM & PSYCH for a graduate student learning community at Miami!
Mom the Chemistry Professor has published a 2nd edition, including Stacey’s story (8/15/18).
Stacey gave the science ed keynote at the 12th Tennessee STEM Education Research Conference (2/1/18), the keynote at the 2YC3 meeting at Delgado Community College (3/16/18), both a chemistry seminar and a STEM CORE seminar at Texas Tech University (4/4/18), two talks about our two newest concept inventories at the CSC (5/30/18), two talks at the national ACS meeting in Boston (8/19/18), an invited research seminar at SUNY Cortland (9/17/18), a research seminar at Ball State University (10/11/18), and she presented data from our two newest inventories at the 2018 ACS Midwest Regional Meeting. (10/21/18)
2017
Greg has joined the faculty at Mendocino College. (12/21/17)
Ana’s concept inventory about flame tests and atomic emission was published in J. Chem. Educ. (11/22/17)
Jessica Gephart, an undergrad alumna of the Bretz group, was honored as one of the “18 of the last 9” young alumni by Miami University! (10/27/17)
40 grad students & postdocs presented their research at the 2017 CER Professional Development Conference (6/28 - 7/2/17)
Zahy published her cognate research, PyMOL for a guided inquiry investigation into noncovalent protein interactions. (5/24/17) and presented a poster at the ASBMB Transforming Undergraduate Education in the Molecular Life Sciences conference (7/22/17). She was selected one of the top two doctoral student presenters at the 2017 Miami Graduate Research Forum! (12/11/17)
Congratulations to Carrie, Katie, Lexi, Joanna, and Kevin who presented posters at Miami’s Undergraduate Research Forum! (4/26/17)
The Bretz Research Group presented 6 papers at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, April 2-6, 2017 and 4 posters at the 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry Education Research & Practice. (6/18-6/22/17) and 4 posters at the 2017 TRUSE Conference. (7/6/17)
We welcomed Lilly Huff (1/23/17), Charlie Spieser (2/9/17), Mikayla DeLuca (REU student, 5/31/17), and Sarah Fullington (10/20/17) to the Bretz Group!
Mikayla completed her NSF REU project! (8/3/17)
Stacey co-authored two General Chemistry textbooks (both a traditional curriculum and an atoms-focused curriculum) that feature new pedagogy based on Stacey’s research have been published by W.W. Norton! (2/1/17). She was recognized as one of the most highly prolific authors (most published articles in the last 5 years) by the Journal of Chemical Education. (7/17/17), was appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board for the (2/8/17), and published a JCE editorial refuting learning styles (7/11/17). Stacey gave invited seminars at Iowa State (3/28/17), Kenyon (3/20/17), and RIT. (3/3/17) She was an invited panelist at the CER Gordon Conference (6/21/17), and she and Ellen presented two talks at ACS about putting CER into practice for using sims in the classroom (8/21/17).
2016
The Bretz group presented 9 papers at the ACS San Diego meeting, 7 papers at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, and 3 posters at Miami’s Graduate Research Forum.
Kelli joined Alison Flynn’s research group as a post-doc (3/1/16) and her research on meaningful learning in the laboratory was featured in an RSC blog (8/3/16).
Tim completed his cumes (2/15/16) and successfully defended his original research proposal (7/29/16)
Maia successfully defended her original research proposal (2/4/16) and her cognate experiment on liquid crystals and visualizing chirality made the cover of JCE! (6/13/16)
Mary Beth’s concept map structure function analysis of nucleophiles and electrophiles was published in CERP (7/26/16) and she started her new job as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Georgia Gwinnet College.
Zahy finished her cumes (1/20/16) and successfully defended her original research proposal (6/9/16).
Misha, Kevin, and John joined the group as undergraduate research students (1/22/16) and presented posters at Miami’s Undergraduate Research Forum, as did Elizabeth and Joanna! (4/27/16)
Lexi, Carrie, Katie, and Michael joined the research group in fall 2016.
Greg Allen joined the group as our newest post-doc after completing his PhD at UC Davis. (8/12/16)
Joanna and Elizabeth’s research on the alignment between faculty goals and meaningful learning was published. (11/29/16)
Stacey gave invited seminars at Wright State University (3/25/16), the 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference in Nova Scotia (6/6/16), the W.W. Norton National Sales meeting (8/4/16), the National Science Foundation (10/24/16), and Michigan State University’s CREATE for STEM Institute. (11/2/16). She presented a poster at the EnFUSE Symposium sponsored by AAAS & NSF (4/28/16).
2015
Zowoi and Kelli’s research on affective learning, control & responsibility in the lab was published in JCE (12/14/15).
Kelli was selected as the 2015 Dissertation Scholar in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry! (4/28/15) and has accepted a post-doc with Alison Flynn at the University of Ottawa! (4/22/15) Her articles on development of the MLLI (7/20/15), a national study (9/30/15), and a longitudinal study (11/16/15) were published in JCE. Her cluster analysis of MLLI data (8/18/15) and action camera study (11/20/15) were published in CERP. She defended her dissertation (10/19/15), presented a poster at the Graduate Research Forum (10/30/15), and graduated (12/11/15).
Mary Beth’s research on nucleophiles & electrophiles is now an Advance Article at CERP (7/20/15) and was featured in an RSC Education blog (11/6/15)
Maia was the only graduate student to give a talk at the Chirality at the Nanoscale Symposium (6/4/15). She completed her cume exams (9/29/15) and presented a poster at the Graduate Research Forum (10/30/15).
Zahilyn completed her first year conference (6/3/15) and presented a poster at the Graduate Research Forum (10/30/15)
Kathryn is High School Chemistry Teacher of the Year for the ACS Cincinnati Section! (4/22/15)
Elizabeth and Joanna presented posters at the Undergraduate Research Forum (4/15/15)
Allie accepted a postdoc with Nicole Becker at the University of Iowa (4/10/15)
Cindy is the newest Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Texas State University! (4/10/15)
Stacey was appointed as University Distinguished Professor by the MIami University Board of Trustees (5/15/15) and honored as Distinguished Scholar (9/22/15). She was also honored as ACS Cincinnati Section Chemist of the Year. (3/18/15) She gave invited seminars at Ohio University & the Ohio Upper Valley ACS Local Section Awards Night (4/6-7/15), the 98th Canadian Chemistry Conference (6/15/15), the University of Iowa (9/11/15), the University of Georgia (10/26/15), and Pacifichem (12/19/15).
2014
The National Science Foundation awarded $1.277M to the Bretz CER group for the next 5 years! (07/29/14)
Kelli Galloway published her cognate project on the anti-oxidant properties of anthocyanins in berries in JCE (10/08/14)
We welcomed two new graduate students to our group: Tim Abell and Zahilyn Roche!
Joanna Orzel joined our group to conduct undergraduate research on faculty goals for learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. (8/28/14)
Dr. Allie Brandriet defended her dissertation and is now a post-doc at the ACS Exams Institute at Iowa State in Tom Holme’s research group (4/7/14). Allie published two papers about redox misconceptions, the redox concept inventory (ROXCI), and measuring the Dunning-Kruger effect in JCE and CERP. (7/26/14)
Kim Linenberger published a paper in BAMBEd on students’ ideas about the role of shape and charge in enzyme-substrate interactions. (2/17/14)
Cindy Luxford published a paper on the Bonding Representations Inventory that was designated as the first-ever ACS Editor's Choice at JCE (2/23/14).
Zowoi, Will, & Elizabeth presented posters at the Miami Undergraduate Research Forum. (4/16/14)
The Bretz group presented 7 papers at the ACS Dallas meeting, 2 papers at the BCCE and 5 papers at the ACS San Francisco meeting.
Stacey presented a poster at NARST and gave seminars at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras and Cayey, Loyola University, and Duke University. She was a keynote speaker at ICCE. To the right is a picture with Israel and David, two Bretz group alumni she visited while in Puerto Rico. She published a critique of the Cronbach alpha in concept inventories in J. Chem. Educ. and a book chapter on designing concept inventories in Tools of Chemistry Education Research. She also published a book chapter on the challenges and rewards of being a mom & a professor of chemistry in Mom the Chemistry Professor: Personal Accounts and Advice from Chemistry Professors who are Mothers.
2013
41 CER grad students from across the U.S. presented their research at the 3rd CER Grad Student Conference. (7/26-7/28/2013)
Dr. Michael Bindis successfully defended his dissertation and is now employed at College of Mount St. Joseph. (9/13/13)
Allie Brandriet published a manuscript in CERP (5/9/13) and was an invited speaker at the May 2013 2YC3 Conference (5/21/13).
Kelli Rush Galloway passed her ORP (3/21/13), earned Honorable Mention in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program (3/29/13), and was chosen Outstanding TA in the CHM department (4/23/13).
Jessica Gephart (Bretz alum) was awarded an NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship at the University of Virginia. (3/29/13)
Dr. Jana Jensen successfully defended her dissertation. (3/14/13)
Dr. Cindy Luxford officially defended her PhD (3/19/13) and published a manuscript on student models of bonding in CERP (4/2/13).
Dr. Ana Mayo is now teaching at Chaffey College. (1/24/13) Her cognate manuscript on flow injection analysis and LC was published in JCE. (3/15/13)
Israel Méndez Bermúdez, an REU student from University of Puerto Rico, joined us for summer 2013. (6/3/13)
The Bretz CER group presented 6 posters at the ACS New Orleans meeting and 5 papers at the ACS Indy meeting.
Stacey's collaborative work with the Yezierski group on a case study of a blind student learning gas laws was published in JCE. (3/26/13). She published "A Chronology of Assessment" in Trajectories of Chemistry Education (9/27/13). Stacey was an invited speaker in the ACS CER Award Symposium honoring Mary Nakhleh (4/7/13), at the May 2013 2YC3 Conference (5/9/13), at the Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry Education Research and Practice (6/10/13), and at the 4th International RME Conference (9/27/13). Stacey was honored with Miami's Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentoring (11/1/13).
2012
Allie completed the Graduate Certificate in Applied Statistics.
Cindy accepted a post-doc position with Tom Holme at the ACS Exams Institute at Iowa State.
Jana accepted a post-doc position with Melanie Cooper at Michigan State.
Ana successfully defended her dissertation.
Mary's case study of a 4th grader's prior knowledge about chemicals was published in School Science & Mathematics.
Kim accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position in CER at Kennesaw State University to begin in Fall 2013. Her paper on cognitive dissonance and multiple representations was published in CERP, the ESICI (Enzyme-Substrate Interactions Concept Inventory) was published in BAMBEd, and the paper on Livescribe data collection was published in JCST.
LaKeisha accepted a faculty position at George Washington University. Her organic acidity concept inventory (ACID 1) was published in IJSE.
Jessica, a former undergrad in our group and now grad student at the University of Virginia, earned an Honorable Mention in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
The Bretz CER Group presented 6 posters at the Miami Grad Research Forum, 8 papers at the 2012 BCCE at Penn State, a poster at the DRK-12 PI meeting in Washington D.C., 2 posters at the TRUSE Conference in St. Paul, 2 talks at the NSTA National meeting in Indianapolis, and 6 posters at the 243rd ACS National Meeting in San Diego.
Stacey was selected as an ACS Fellow and chosen to be the Volwiler Distinguished Research Professor for 2012-2015. Stacey published an editorial on assessment in JCE. She gave the keynote address at the 2012 W.E. Harris Teaching Workshop; invited seminars in chemistry departments at Stanford University, Wooster College, and the University of Nebraska (including a 2nd talk for the UNL DBER group); an invited talk at the 2012 TRUSE Conference, and was an invited speaker at the ACS Symposium to honor Susan Hixson on her retirement from NSF. Stacey was reappointed to the Board of Trustees for the ACS Exams Institute and re-elected Chair of the Board. She was an invited participant in the AAAS/NSF workshop on the Measurement of Teaching Practices in Undergraduate STEM. She was an author/committee member for the NRC report on Discipline-Based Education Research and was appointed a Faculty Associate of the Center for Human Development, Learning, and Technology.