Join the Chemistry Department for our weekly seminar series that brings speakers to campus to dive deeper into a field of Chemistry research. Students, as well as members of the public are encouraged to attend! Light refreshments will be provided.
This week, we're joined by Meng-Yang (Matt) Wu from The Ohio State University.
Meng-Yang Wu received a BS in Biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles in 2013. By 2016, he obtained his MS, under Dr. Thomas Bussey, in Chemistry from the University of California San Diego. He obtained his PhD from Purdue University in 2020 working with Dr. Minjung Ryu. As a postdoctoral researcher at Miami University, he worked with Dr. Ellen Yezierski and Dr. Roy Tasker on the VisChem Institute, an intensive summer professional development program for in-service high school chemistry teachers. In 2022, Dr. Wu was also selected to be a CADRE Fellow. Currently, Dr. Wu is interested in understanding chemistry graduate teaching assistants and how enacted pedagogy can fulfill excellence and effectiveness in chemistry learning. Dr. Wu is Co-PI on a project funded by NSF IUSE, PI on a project funded by NSF BCSER, and PI on a project funded by the Spencer Foundation.
Title: Mobilizing New Assets for Chemistry Education Research and Practice
Abstract: Throughout science and chemical education research, reform-based initiatives have largely abandoned the deficit perspective when considering students within a classroom. Assumptions that learners bring assets for their engagement and understanding now undergird modern curricular and pedagogical design principles. Nevertheless, how we consider asset-based framing can still be expanded. This presentation discusses two new approaches for chemical education research and practice. First, an arts-based research study will be discussed, showcasing findings about students’ laboratory experiences of empowerment and marginalization. More specifically, this study will demonstrate the affordances of having undergraduates lead the analyses and the meaning-making the emerges from agreements and disagreements. Second, this presentation will feature ongoing work with community-engaged scholarship. Findings will demonstrate the assets that rural agricultural communities bring, especially for reimagining and informing how we may implement systems-level thinking in undergraduate chemistry classrooms. With these two studies, this presentation aims to generate productive conversation and ultimately momentum toward more expansive approaches for asset-based framing.