Science Education
Courses Taught by Professor Pietro
(numbers in parentheses are the number of students per semester)
CHEM 1000 Chemical Structure (850 - 1000)
CHEM 1001 Chemical Dynamics (850 - 1000)
CHEM 2030 Basic Inorganic Chemistry (250 - 300)
CHEM 2011 Thermodynamics (50 - 100)
CHEM 3031 Theoretical Models of Inorganic Chemistry (30-60)
CHEM 4300 Electronic Materials (20 - 25)
CHEM 4090 Topics in Materials Science (10-15)
CHEM 4091 Electrochemistry of Surfaces and Materials (20 - 25)
CHEM 5260 Chemistry of Electronic Materials (graduate level) (10 - 15)
CHEM 1500 Introduction to Chemistry (200 - 300)
ISCI 1210 Integrated Science (Chemistry) (10 - 40)
NATS 1720 History of Science (200 - 300)
NATS 1760 Science and Technological Change (200 - 300)
NATS 1840 Chemistry and the Environment (200 - 300)
NATS 1820 Molecules and the Mind (150 - 200)
NATS 1730 Scientific Change (200 - 300)
Teaching Innovations
Introduced molecular graphics and modern computational chemistry into the York undergraduate curriculum
Designed five courses for the Division of Natural Science, a program with the mission of introducing science to non-science majors
Designed four upper level and graduate courses (CHEM 3031, CHEM 4300, CHEM 4091, CHEM 5260)
Co-developed the Chemistry Department's Materials Chemistry Stream
Co-developed York University's Integrated Science Program and designed its chemistry component. Integrated science is an elite program open only to the top 5% of incoming science majors
Designed the networking and file management systems for the York Molecular Graphics Laboratory
Co-designed an undergraduate biophysics laboratory in photon counting (with Professor Mermut, Department of Physics)
Science Education Articles
Deprotonation of Nitroalkanes: Semiempirical determination of solvation effects on a simple reaction coordinate, Pietro, W. J. J. Chem. Educ., 1994, 71, 416-420.
An inexpensive controller for heating mantles, Pietro, W. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 733.Â
Ethanol as an alternative fuel for automobiles? Using the first law of thermodynamics to calculate the corn-area-per-car ratio, Pietro, W. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 579.
Geiger mode single photon counting: An example exploring delayed fluorescence in plants, C. W. Schruder, C. J. Barrett, W. J. Pietro, and O. Mermut, J. Chem. Educ., 2023, 100(10), 3991.