Two Names, One Subject

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I know exactly what I want to do in grad school, but I'm not sure which department to do it in. I'm interested in the educational psychology aspect of science (specifically chemistry) in higher education--how traditional categorizations help or hinder students' transfer of knowledge between courses (i.e. why perfectly reasonable people tend to think organic follows different rules than p-chem, though they technically know they're the same atoms), how positive/negative affect impacts academic performance, etc. I've lined up a couple of projects on these topics and can't wait to get to grad school to start them.</p>

<p>I've found some fantastic-looking programs in Chemical Education, which seems tailored to these kinds of studies but would also entail a traditional chemistry PhD curriculum. I think I'd love it, but I'm not sure I could find work in such a specified, interdisciplinary subject. I'll probably end up having to choose either the hard or social science--but I'm more interested in researching education than chemistry, and I'm more interested in teaching chemistry than psychology (it's just more fun). Which subject would be ultimately best for me to pursue?</p>

<p>Consideration: my undergrad research experience is in psychology, with my main project centering around the programming and introduction of "Rescue the Scientist: Organic Adventures," an adventure game involving some pretty spiffy monster molecules. It could go either way which grad committee would view this favorably.</p>

2

<p>You sound a lot like a chem professor at my undergrad :) He is an education major and is the head instructor for gen chem and probably teachers other courses as well. He teaches gen chem and researches ways to teach more effectively. From what I remember, he has also an organic lab studying molecule kinetics but I can't seem to find any information on that online. I'll PM you his info link and maybe you can search around and find some relevant info. Or if you're forward enough, send him an email and ask him about what he does and how he got there.</p>

3

<p>tkm,</p>

<p>I have a good friend in Physics Ed, and she's run into LOTS of employment opportunities. My impression is that opportunities in Chem Ed also abound. Anecdote does not equal data, of course, so you may want to ask someone currently in ChemEd.</p>

4

<p>I've tried to contact ChemEd faculty at three different schools (about meeting in person, not engaging in time-consuming email correspondence). The first two said "good luck with that" and the third hasn't replied at all (she's had two weeks to get back to me...I think my emails were put in the "not important enough to respond" folder). I'm going to have to cast a really wide net to find someone willing to help me learn about the Chemical Education field. Oh, the irony.</p>