W.E. Harris Teaching Workshops
Each year the Walter E. Harris Teaching Workshop brings together select chemistry professors, lecturers, lab instructors, and graduate students from universities across western Canada to the University of Alberta to discuss a specific aspect of teaching undergraduate chemistry. Find summaries of previous workshops as well as PDF and presentation resources on the year's topics below.
The workshop series was established in 1976 by late professor emeritus and former department chair Walter E. Harris. This workshop was re-established in 2003 and has since been endowed in his honour.
Previous Workshops
- 2007 - Teaching of Organic Chemistry
Discussion Group Summary Presentations
- What Should be Taught Session 1 (PDF, 59k)
- What Should be Taught Session 2 (PDF, 32k)
- Classroom Demonstrations (PDF, 57k)
- The Organic Laboratory (PDF, 45k)
- Engaging Student Interest Session 1 (PDF, 117k)
- Engaging Student Interest Session 2 (PDF, 3.9mb)
- Power Point vs. Blackboard (PDF, 139k)
- Evaluating Students (PDF, 89k)
- Strategies for Teaching Organic Chemistry to non-chemistry Majors (PDF, 124k)
Additional Resources
- 2008 - New Roles and New Balance: Teaching and Research at Technical Institutes, Colleges, and Universities
2008 Workshop Program (DOC, 26k)
Discussion Group Summary Presentations
- 2009 - Teaching of Inorganic Chemistry
- 2010 - Tactics for Teaching 3 - What Students Want
- 2011 - Innovations in the Chemistry Laboratory
The 2011 Harris Teaching Workshop was held on May 12-13, 2011 at the University of Alberta, North Campus. The topic for discussion was "Innovations in the Chemistry Laboratory" and participants from all post-secondary schools across western Canada were invited to attend. In this workshop, we looked at the laboratory experience across the entire undergraduate chemistry program and discussed various topics, including curriculum, delivery, students, teaching assistants, and structure. A particular recurring theme this year was to examine how to collaborate across sub-disciplines of chemistry, across departments, and across institutions to give students a better lab experience.
The workshops are structured such that the first day has 4 small-group breakout sessions on various topics, so that a detailed look at the issues can be done. On the second day, all the groups report back to the large group to allow all participants a chance to discuss the issues. Below are the report outlines of the small-group breakout sessions, organized by session number and topic.
Download the workshop schedule here.
Session 1
- Green Chemistry (PDF)
- Introduction of Spectroscopy in 1st and 2nd-year labs (PDF)
- Lab Exams and Lab Assessment (PDF)
- Methods of Engaging Students in the Lab (PDF)
- Virtual Labs/Labs at a distance (PDF)
- Where and when do students do their most important learning? (PDF)
Session 2
- Discovery vs Concept Reinforcement Labs (PDF)
- Methods of Engaging Students (PDF)
- How to engage students (PDF)
- Multiscale/Multi-Institutional Labs (PDF)
- Synthetic Labs (PDF)
Session 3
- Encouraging Collaboration (PDF)
- Grading rubrics, marking and learning objectives (PDF)
- Integrated Labs (PDF)
- Measurement of Labs (PDF)
- The Role of the Laboratory in Chemistry Student Training (PDF)
Session 4
- 2012 - Concepts and Misconceptions in Chemistry
Keynote presentation by Dr. Stacey Lowery Bretz (Professor of Chemistry, Miami University)
Concepts
- What Concepts Should First-Year Students Know? (PDF)
- What Concepts Should Second-Year Students Know? (PPT)
- What Concepts Should Third-Year Students Know? (PDF)
Misconceptions
- Misconceptions in Transitions to Post Secondary Education (PDF)
- Misconceptions about Chemistry Career Paths (PPT)
- Misconceptions in the Chemistry Lab I (PPT)
- Misconceptions in the Chemistry Lab II (PPT)
- Misconceptions in General Chemistry (PPT)
- Misconceptions in Analytical Chemistry (PPT)
- Misconceptions in Inorganic Chemistry (PDF)
- Misconceptions in Organic Chemistry (PPT)
- Misconceptions in Physical Chemistry (PPT)
Public Misconceptions (PDFs)
Strategies for Changing Misconceptions
- 2013 - Electronic Resources for Teaching Chemistry
The 2013 W.E. Harris Workshop, titled Electronic Resources for Teaching Chemistry, took place on May 9-10. Participants brought examples of their online resources, blended learning modules, mobile learning, visualization tools and more to show and share with other chemistry instructors. We also hosted discussions focusing on both practical examples and best practices. Participants included Bob Burk (Carlton, Ottawa), Peter Mahaffy (King's University), Jonathan Schaeffer (Alberta), and Charles "Chuck" Lucy (Alberta).
Participants of the workshop used Google Docs to produce real time reports of the discussions. The document below captures the dynamic and chaotic nature of the conversations between passionate teachers.
- 2014 - Enhancing the Undergraduate Experience: To the Curriculum and Beyond!
The 2014 W.E. Harris Workshop, titled Enhancing the Undergraduate Experience: To the Curriculum and Beyond!, took place on May 15-16. Participants discussed Internship/Co-op programs, professional training, industrial chemistry, classroom activities for blended or flipped delivery, research in the class (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year), research outside the class, and communication skills.
Presenter: Prof. Cindy Larive (UC Riverside)
"Peer-reviewed, Open Access Electronic Resources for Analytical Science Education" (PDF)
Participants of the workshop used Google Docs to produce real time reports of the discussions. The document below captures the dynamic and chaotic nature of the conversations between passionate teachers.
- 2015 - Interdisciplinary Chemistry
The 2015 W.E. Harris Workshop, entitled Interdisciplinary Chemistry took place on May 14-15. Participants discussed incorporating interdisciplinary topics in introductory general and organic chemistry, interdisciplinary labs, bio-analytical chemistry, chemistry and society, chemical biology, green chemistry, nano science, chemistry and education, environmental chemistry, and chemistry and industry. We were pleased to have Prof. Brian P. Coppola (University of Michigan) as an invited speaker. Prof. Coppola presented an interesting and engaging lecture entitled "Real work is better than homework." (PDF, 5.4mb)
Participants of the workshop used Google Docs to produce real time reports of the discussions. The document below captures the "real-time" conversations between passionate teachers. Harris Teaching Workshop: Interdisciplinary Chemistry (0.6 mb)
We would like to thank our sponsors: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Nelson Education, Pearson, Wiley, the Faculty of Science, the Department of Chemistry, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning.
- 2016 - Teaching Analytical Chemistry
The 2016 Walter E. Harris Workshop on Teaching Analytical Chemistry was held at the Gunning/Lemieux Chemistry Centre of the University of Alberta on Monday August 15 and Tuesday August 16, 2016.
The Walter E. Harris Teaching Workshops are a forum for discussion. Participants will break out into groups of 6-10 people to discuss various topics related to teaching analytical chemistry. The topics for discussion will be solicited from the participants but will include: active learning in analytical chemistry; and what does industry want our graduates to know? Each group has a facilitator to ensure everyone engages in the discussion and a recorder to keep a brief record of the discussion. After 1.5 hours, the groups scramble and discuss a new set of topics. After the second session, everybody gets together to listen to and discuss the reports from the various groups.
The first day will end with a feature presentation by a keynote speaker, Dr. Jill Robinson of Indiana University. Jill teaches general, analytical and environmental chemistry, and has been honoured with several teaching awards including the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Indiana University. She participates in a National Science Foundation project developing team-based modules for analytical chemistry and has facilitated a workshop on active learning for faculty. She is a co-author of the widely used general chemistry textbook: Chemistry, McMurry, Fay, and Robinson, 7th ed., Pearson Education (2015). Most recently, Jill joined the first group of Mosaic Active Learning Fellows at IU. The Mosaic group is studying active learning methods as well as active learning classrooms.
The second day of the Workshop continues to follow the pattern of the first day.
Over the years participants have found these workshops to be very helpful in assisting with course content, textbook selection and use, and laboratory experiments. We endeavour to enhance the value of the workshop by contacting you, the participants, early to identify your needs and concerns. Professor Charles Lucy (charles.lucy@ualberta.ca) will chair the workshop and welcomes suggestions for discussion topics.
We are grateful to our sponsors for their support:
- Previous Years
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2006 - Teaching of Physical Chemistry
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2005 - Teaching of Analytical Chemistry
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2003 - Freshmen Chemistry: Web-based Media and Classroom Demos
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1983 - Safety in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory
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1982 - General Chemistry, CAI, Laboratory and Course Content
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1980 - Organic Chemistry in the Classroom and the Laboratory
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1979 - The Teaching of Analytical Chemistry
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1977 - The Teaching of Physical Chemistry
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1976 - The Undergraduate Curriculum
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