Schedule of Events

11:30 a.m. Executive Council meeting with lunch

1:00 p.m. Welcome from Dr. Cindy Gnadinger, Carroll University President

Welcome from Dr. Kareem Muhammad, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Announcements

1:10 p.m. Keynote Speaker #1: Making your assessments work for you: Measuring and reporting what matters, Dr Kristen Murphy (notes document)

There is an increased pressure to be more intentional in assessment practices with reporting outcomes to many stakeholders from students to accrediting bodies.  The work shared will provide some practical ideas for making assessments more meaningful as well as some results from our current work on reducing noise in measurements. 

2:15 p.m. State Caucus Meetings

2:45 p.m. Breakout Session #1

• Meet the Speaker: Dr. Kristen Murphy (notes document)

• Meet the Speaker: Dr. Christopher Jeffrey (notes document)

• Teaching Enzyme Kinetics to Undergraduates: Traditional Equation Methods vs. KinTek Explorer Computer Simulation Methods (notes document)

Undergraduate biochemistry courses usually cover steady-state/Michaelis-Menten kinetics, including how to find a Vmax, kcat, and Km for an enzyme mechanism. For advanced biochemistry courses, this can be expanded on using KinTek Explorer, a computer-simulation software that fits data to the mechanism model, instead of to an equation. We will focus on steady-state data for this breakout session, but can expand to single-step and two-step pre-steady state binding data for those interested. If able, please bring a laptop to the session, and pre-download the software at https://www.kintekexplorer.com/downloads/. The free download comes in a compressed zip folder that should be kept in its entirety. 

• ACS Products: Old and New and How to Use Them (notes document)

Come discuss the pros and cons of using ACS standardized exams. Did you know that ACS exams now have brief exams in general chemistry and organic chemistry? Your institution can also request and help design a custom exam to fill your testing needs. Once you have used ACS assessments, how can you use the results? Let's discuss how they can help with course redesign, institutional assessment or other needs you have! 

• Chemistry Seminars to Engage and Retain First-Year Students (notes document)

Come learn about a new 1 credit hour course developed for first year students majoring in biochemistry and chemistry. Created to improve retention, it is designed to help first year students transition to college, engage with their major, and build community within their major by forming relationships with their peers, older students in the major and program faculty. Course activities and survey results will be shared.

3:45 p.m. Break

4:15 p.m. Breakout Session #2

• General Chemistry for Chemistry Majors (notes document)

• General Chemistry for Health Science Majors (notes document)

• Organic Chemistry (notes document)

• Analytical Chemistry (notes document)

• Physical Chemistry (notes document)

• Biochemistry (notes document)

• Inorganic Chemistry (notes document)

5:15 p.m. Break

5:30 p.m. Keynote Speaker #2: Introducing undergraduates to chemical ecology- a "new" nexus of chemistry and biology, Dr. Christopher Jeffrey (notes document)

Chemical ecology provides a powerful lens for engaging undergraduates with chemistry at the interface of biology, agriculture, biotechnology, and environmental science. This talk will describe how chemical ecology studies serve as both an accessible and impactful framework for undergraduate research, training students in skills directly relevant to the modern scientific workforce while also cultivating collaborative and cross-disciplinary thinking. Emphasis will be placed on team science and co-authorship models that allow undergraduates to contribute meaningfully to projects addressing ecological and societal challenges. By highlighting case studies, this presentation will show how chemical ecology can be leveraged to inspire undergraduates, build confidence in authentic research, and prepare students for diverse careers situated at the intersection of chemistry and the life sciences. 

6:30 p.m. Dinner

7:30 p.m. Poster Session and Vendor Expo

8:15 a.m. Welcome and Announcements

8:30 a.m. Keynote Speaker #3: WiSER- a statewide community of practice for STEM education and professional development, Dr. Michaela Patterson (notes document)

• Statewide [regional] partnerships between PUIs and a medical research institution

• Research Deconstruction pedagogy in STEM classrooms

• STEM conference bridging undergraduate and graduate research enterprises

• Developing and advancing the next generation of STEM educators

9:30 a.m. Business Meeting (for all attendees)

10:15 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. Breakout Session #3

• Meet the Speaker: Dr. Michaela Patterson (notes document)

• Helping students get from A to B: Evaluating the need for scaffolding in chemistry instruction and implementing scale-focused strategies (notes document)

As instructors we face the challenge of how to best create a solid foundation for students to learn. In this session, methods of evaluating instructional scaffolding in the context of chemistry will be shared and discussed.

• Chemistry Clubs-- come share what you are doing to foster an active chemistry club on your campus (notes document)

• ACS Accreditation- Pros and Cons (notes document)

The Carroll chemistry program has seen a marked decline in interest in an ACS accredited degree, and fewer students interested in applying to graduate programs. The requirements to maintain accreditation are putting a strain on resources and teaching loads. Are others seeing such trends, and how do programs justify the resources necessary to maintain ACS accreditation? 

• Conversation about teaching the CLUE general chemistry curriculum (notes document)

Come to connect with others who either are teaching or are interested in learning more about the CLUE general chemistry curriculum. 

• Open Discussion of Using AI in the Chemistry Classroom (notes document)

11:45 p.m. Lunch (Executive Council will meet)

1:00 p.m. Workshop on Writing a Test Specification, Dr. Kristen Murphy

Learning outcomes and planning assessments: aligning what we plan to teach and how we measure what we taught

Participants will have an opportunity to evaluate and revise their current course learning outcomes.  Additionally, we will then work on planning out an assessment aligned to learning outcomes, specific content, difficulty and item types.