Curriculum Development

My background is quite diverse; I completed my High School education in Nigeria; completed my BS and MS in India and then graduated with PhD from USA. With my education in three different countries I have an appreciation of the variety of education systems. And now I have the experience of teaching in two different kinds of teaching institutions: liberal arts university and a community college. 

During my over twenty years of teaching I have developed new courses, improved existing ones and incorporated technology in a number of my courses.

1. New Courses Developed: I developed two upper division courses for chemistry majors: Advanced Organic Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry. I developed these courses entirely from selecting the text book, designing the syllabus, developed assessment methods and then taught the course. In addition, I have also offered an upper division Special Topics chemistry course in which the students and I discussed on what topics they would like to learn, which turned out to be polymer chemistry, environmental chemistry and medicinal chemistry.

2. Co-teaching: I co-developed and co-taught two courses with two professors in the liberal arts division: Forensic Science with a criminal justice professor, and India: Its People, Culture and History with a professor of history. In the Forensic Science course, I was responsible teaching the science component of the course in addition to developing some lab experience for the mostly liberal arts students. Both courses were developed in one semester and offered during the next. We got good enrollment for both courses. The India course was offered once every year. It was great experience for me to teach both the courses, as a scientist and as an Indian. 

3. Improvement of Existing Courses: Two courses I worked on updating to the need of the time were Chemistry for Allied Health and Chemistry and Society. I incorporated multiculturalism in the Allied Health and an international component in the Chemistry and Society course. The general education and liberal education aspect of the courses made them perfect candidates for these updates. were the chemistry course taught for allied health and a chemistry and society course for liberal learning. as a general education course. 

4.  Online Teaching: I started developing resources for my students for outside the class, lecture videos, lab techniques, problem solving (using LiveScribe) etc. Soon I had so much teaching material that I felt comfortable offering general chemistry 1 and 2 online, on Blackboard and Canvas, without sacrificing any of the rigor of the courses. I have been offering these courses for over five years now.

5.  Flip Classroom: In two of my classes, general chemistry 1 and organic chemistry 1, I have successfully flipped the classroom. Students listen to the lecture outside the class, complete an assignment on that lecture and in class we deal with additional problems and clear up any other misconception. I developed many worksheets for this type of teaching. There are clear advantages to this method of teaching. I have seen a significant improvement in student grades during the time I have used this method.

6.  Experiments for General and Organic Labs: I have developed my own manual for general chemistry 1 and 2 and organic chemistry 1 and 2 labs. The labs are geared towards what we have in the lab in terms of chemicals and equipment. They are written in simple direct instructions to help students have a good, successful lab experience.