Transitioning into HE Chemistry: exploring challenges through a geographical lens (Initial planning for BSc Chemistry Education Project)

For several years, we have been using creative assignments to help our project students develop a deeper understanding, as well as a sense of ownership, of their individual research projects in Chemistry Education / SoTL.

We (Dr Smita Odedra & Dr Linnea Soler) are Senior Lecturers (Learning, Teaching & Scholarship track) in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. We co-supervise final year research projects which span a wide range of topics across discipline-based Chemistry Education (DBER) research and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We understand the difficulties faced by chemistry students when undertaking ChemEd/SoTL research because it lies outwith their previous training.

Therefore, at the very outset of the academic year we use creative assignments to support the student transition to their project topics. (See last year's approach by visiting https://uofgsotl.blog/creative-pedagogies/.) This year, part of the assignment was to create a "vision board" poster to outline and display the current understanding of their project topics, underpinned by what literature that they had encountered by this point, and how they perceived their project would develop over the academic year. Through this approach, we hoped to give them a supportive and fun introduction to the Scholarship process, building in opportunities for peer support and developing transferable skills in teamworking, communication and research skills.

This NTR resource consists of the vision board (poster) created by Josh Hylands, our final year (undergraduate) Chemistry BSc project student who made this resource a mere 1.5 weeks of starting the academic year and his research project. We are very proud to share his output here!

This is only ONE component of our creative pedagogies approach to onboarding our students this year. To read about our approach in context, keep an eye on the University SoTL Advent Calendar (https://uofgsotl.blog/blog/), to be published in December 2024 (Note: Links will be shared here when live).