Recent paper featured

Our paper (citation below) on Generative AI and the concept of valence was published in July 2024. This past spring, it was featured on science.gmu.edu. Read the new piece here. https://science.gmu.edu/news/george-mason-university-study-highlights-limitations-generative-ai-conveying-concepts-general

Jones, Rebecca M., Eva-Maria Rudler, and Conner Preston. 2024. “Exploring the Concept of Valence and the Nature of Science via Generative Artificial Intelligence and General Chemistry Textbooks.” Journal of Chemical Education 101 (8): 3276–83. https://doi.org/10.1021/

acs.jchemed.4c00271.

Abstract graphic from cited paper, showing various quotes from texts about the concept of valence.

This post was written by a human without input from or alternation by artificial generative algorithms.

Winning the 2024 Teaching Excellence Award

I've been nominated for the Stearns Center Teaching Excellence Award 5 times. In Fall 2024, which I was fortunate to only have 1 course and we had a new STEM Accelerator Director who was actually doing the job, I opted to go ahead and apply. After being nominated, I had to submit a 5 page narrative for the 1st round. It took 6 weeks to be informed I had been selected to submit a "portfolio" about my teaching excellence.

What followed was a long journey over winter break (damnit!) which yielded a 134 page narrative about my life as an educator. I opted to take an unconventional approach and used a quest theme complete with dragons! Besides 2024 being the year of the dragon and my lunar zodiac animal, this portfolio was a dragon to slay. When I was notified of winning the award in March 2024, my first thought was "thank G-d, I don't have to ever do that again".

The awards ceremony in April 2024 was lovely. Colleagues, students, and family joined me at a special table in the front of Dewberry Hall. I wore a new dress. I did not hide my tattoos. I was wholly myself and felt proud.

For the sake of posterity and because I am ridiculously proud of my cleverness, find below the opening and closing pages of my portfolio.

Peer Review in the Classroom

Peer review is a powerful paradigm for teaching and learning. On November 22, 2022, I gave a presentation about how I've used peer review in various settings to the VIPEr-IONiC community in SLiThEr #41. You can listen to the talk and discussion here.