09 July 2025

GRC chair Michael Seery was spotted representing the Barbera CER group. Thanks for the support!

05 July 2025

J.D. Young was an invited speaker at the Gordon Research Seminar on Chemistry Education Research and Practice. Congratulations J.D.!

As second year students in the Ph.D. program, Sarah and Rachael successfully passed their comprehensive exams. Very proud of them!

28 May 2025

Jack visited the University of California - Riverside to meet with faculty and students and give a Chemistry Department seminar. He was hosted by Dr. Jack Eichler (L in picture).

09 May 2025

The Barbera group hosted Dr. Sachin Nedungadi from the University of Nebraska - Omaha for a CER group meeting and a Department of Chemistry seminar.

Pictured (L to R): Rachael, Sarah, Sachin, jack, Courtney, J.D.

28 January 2025

Sarah, J.D., Rachael, and Courtney (L to R) enjoying a coffee break at Case Study coffee on the PSU campus.

Not pictured - the scone they brought back for Dr. Barbera to enjoy. 🤓

24 January 2025

The Barbera group hosted Dr. Molly Atkinson from the University of North Texas for a CER group meeting and a Department of Chemistry Seminar.

Pictured (L to R): Rachael, J.D., jack, Molly, Courtney, Sarah, Ellie

07 November 2024

Congratulations to Elizabeth on successfully defending her dissertation! Dr. Barbera unfortunately needed to be remote for the defense and post-celebration, but the group got creative so that photo ops could be had.

01 November 2024

The Barbera group hosted Dr. Oluwatobi (Tobi) Odeleye from West Virginia University for a CER group meeting and Department of Chemistry seminar.

Pictured (L to R): Sarah, Courtney, J.D., Tobi, jack, Rachael, Elizabeth, Ellie

As part of her dissertation project, Elizabeth investigated students expectations and engagement within both general and organic laboratory courses as well as two different general chemistry laboratory styles. This work provides preliminary insights prior to a larger modeling study.

As part of her dissertation project, Elizabeth investigated the learning goals and expectations of students, graduate teaching assistants, and lab coordinators within general and organic chemistry. This data provides insight to the overlap among these groups.

As part of her dissertation project, Elizabeth's psychometric analysis of data from the MLLI led to establishment of the MLLIv2. This new measure is used to investigate students' positive and negative expectations within laboratory learning environments.

29 October 2024

Beautiful day for our annual pre-year group gathering in Dr. Barbera's back yard.

Pictured (L to R): Courtney, J.D., Elizabeth, jack, Jasjot, Osie, Rachael, Sarah

Congratulations to Sarah Abdo on her first publication. This manuscript reports on work Sarah did during her summer RUE at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Courtney Murphy is the newest Ph.D. student in the group, having joined in Fall 2024. Courtney comes to the group after completing her B.S. in Biochemistry at U. California - Riverside.

J.D. is the newest post-doc in the group, having joined in summer 2024. J.D. comes to the group from U. South Florida where she completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Scott Lewis.

J.D.'s work in the Barbera CER group is funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) STEM Education Individual Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (Award # 2411736). J.D.'s project is titled: Constructing a Model and a Measure of Students' Goal Orientation in Undergraduate Chemistry Courses.

Congratulations J.D.!!!

Many of the current, former, and honorary Barbera group member gathered during the 2024 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) held at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

Pictured: (L to R, front) Katy Hosbein, jack barbera, Paulette Vincent-Ruz (L to R, back) Courtney Murphy, Elizabeth Vaughan, Alissa Hartig, Nicole James, Sarah Abdo, Safaa El-Mansy, Regis Komperda, Rachael Mayhew

The Barbera CER group hosted Dr. Maia Popova on 08 March 2024 for a group meeting and Department of Chemistry seminar.

Pictured: (L to R) Jasjot Singh, Sarah Abdo, Elizabeth Vaughan, Rachael Mayhew, jack barbera, Maia Popova, Shanna Hilborn (Popova Group)

True to her Canadian spirit, the Department of Chemistry chair (Dr. Theresa McCormick) hosted a holiday curling party in December 2023. Everyone was treated to lessons and engaged in scrimmage matches.