When the Chemistry Club wanted to raise money to travel to a national conference, Associate Professor of Chemistry Susan Young didn't suggest that they sell "chocolate bars that they bought from a company somewhere." That's not her style. Instead, she asked how a practical problem could become an opportunity for learning science.
That's why club members spend many afternoons in Young's lab--making soap. Soap making helps the students think about everyday objects from a scientific perspective, and selling it helps pay their way to the conference. The whole process captures what makes Young an effective teacher.
Young wasn't interested in science growing up. But when she took chemistry in high school, she got hooked, eventually earning a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. "The trigger was an excellent, kooky high school teacher. I loved the mystery of chemistry: that you could take two clear liquids and mix them together and get a beautiful yellow solid. I also liked that when you think about it, chemistry just makes sense."
Young's early experiences still affect the way she approaches her work. "Whether I'm teaching or working on the textbook I'm writing, I try to take this hard subject and get students to see it from a common-sense perspective." The textbook is a team project with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and SUNY Oneonta. Taking a novel approach to first-year chemistry, the textbook is paired with an online homework system featuring discovery-based simulations, exercises, and tutorials.
This emphasis on interactive discovery comes across in Young's commitment to research as a teaching tool. "When I do research, I do it with undergraduates. It's such an important part of their training." This fall, for example, when faced with a lab experiment for inorganic chemistry that was not working, "I pulled out a freshman and sophomore chemistry major and said, okay, take this lab, figure out what's wrong, and make it work. It was simple, but it was a real problem, with real consequences. They worked all semester, keeping track of their time in the lab, helping each other design experiments, talking about what variables to change. They treated it professionally. It gave them a taste of what real research could be like."
Every Hartwick chemistry major takes on an independent lab project. Students whose projects are good enough present their work at American Chemical Society meetings. They practice presenting scientific views to the public and share their research with peers from other colleges. These experiences, says Young, ultimately help them to market themselves better. "That's really our job--to provide our students with the opportunities that will prepare them for whatever it is they want to do."
