Department of Chemistry
Hope College
P.O. BOX 9000
Holland, MI 49422-9000
Office: 205 Peale Science Center
Phone: (616) 395-7634
Fax: (616) 395-7118
Email: stewart@hope.edu
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| Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry Hope College P.O. BOX 9000 Holland, MI 49422-9000 Office: 205 Peale Science Center
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I joined the Department of Chemistry at Hope College in Holland,Michigan in the summer of 1988. My professional interests are in chemistry research and science teaching. A common theme in my work has been to try to join these two interests together. In other words, I have tried to work on projects where teaching is research and research is teaching.
While at Hope I have worked with over forty undergraduate students in chemistry research. Our early work on main group metal alkoxide and thiolate complexes has led to a better understanding of the solid-state structure and solution behavior of low-valent tin and lead alkoxide complexes. We are now investigating applications of these complexes to organic synthesis. More specifically, we are using chiral diols to make chiral metal alkoxides that can be used in asymmetric synthesis. The goal of asymmetric synthesis is to make molecules with only one "handedness." Because handedness affects biological activity, asymmetric synthesis is of great importance to drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. The undergraduate students I work with are introduced to all facets of the research enterprise, and this teaching part of doing research is very important to me.
My first science teaching at Hope primarily involved the introductory chemistry course. It quickly became apparent that there were as many reasons for taking introductory chemistry as there were students in the class, and I wanted to engage them all and help them all to be successful. As a participant in the first Teaching Enhancement Workshop at Hope, I was introduced to learning styles, which led to an interest in cooperative learning and other active learning approaches, which eventually led to giving faculty development workshops on these topics. In the mid- and late-1990's, I participated in the NSF-sponsored ChemLinks coalition (now ChemConnections), which developed wonderful new materials that use real-world questions and active learning to teach college chemistry. Initially, I was part of a ChemLinks pedagogy group that provided support for the development of active learning strategies. Eventually, a student and I wrote a general guide to teaching with ChemConnections materials. I am very enthusiastic about this approach to teaching and learning, and I continue to support the coalition by acting as a ChemConnections workshop leader.
Finally, if students are going to learn chemistry through real-world problems, they need real-world skills for dealing with complex issues. This is the piece that is still missing in science education, particularly in the core courses for science majors, the courses that train our future scientists. The interdisciplinary field of science studies provides rich insight into the production and nature of scientific knowledge and the culture of the scientific community; precisely the insight that students need for dealing with complex scientific problems. The ChemConnections materials serve as a stepping-off point for the incorporation of these ideas into science teaching, and I will continue to contribute actively to efforts in this area.