Page 4 - UMN Chemnews December 2020

Department creatively pivots instruction to meet the challenges of COVID-19 environment... continued from page 3
“To meet their needs, many people in the department quickly adapted processes to ensure that students could effectively learn and safely use chemistry- experiment kits.”
invaluable assistance, including Chellina Angok, Adam Baxter, Joshua Denzer, Aminata Dotson, Phillip Ly, Isaiah Ripley, and Cristina Youngren.
With Kylie Adams leading the effort to
put together the general chemistry lab kits, the laboratory staff spent the early summer months making solutions and labeling bottles. Then it was time for more than 80 volun- teers, including faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and staff, to wrap glassware and assemble kits. More than 250 volunteer hours were logged. Some kits were shipped, but most were picked up in person by students living near or on campus.
“Assembling and delivering 2,500 general chemistry laboratory kits was only possible thanks to the many hours of volunteer work from our staff, students, and faculty,” said Department Head David Blank. “This was a truly remarkable example of our entire depart- ment coming together in a challenging time to provide the best experience possible for the students in our courses.”
—Michelle Driessen, General Chemistry Director
that students could effectively learn and safely use chemistry-experiment kits,” said Professor Michelle Driessen, General Chemistry direc- tor.
Once the laboratory curriculum was tested
at home by Professor Driessen, the General Chemistry Team of Hannah Leopold, Quin Hu and Driessen along with four experienced general chemistry lab teaching assistants, Brian Karl, Michael Hodny, Nicholas Livezey and Harrison Frisk, piloted the curriculum and experiment kits during the summer. The pilot put the department in a good place for a large-scale fall rollout.
This did not happen in a vacuum: ordering needed supplies, preparing solutions, labeling and bubble-wrapping glassware and instru-
ments, putting together laboratory kits, and shipping or arranging for pick-up of the kits was a monumental effort.
Leading the effort to obtain and order the more than 50,000 individual pieces of glassware and equipment needed were Diana Mayweather, Ph.D., senior laboratory services coordinator, and Victor Munsch, stockroom supervisor. The department’s major suppliers also provided much-needed assistance.
Developing and executing plans for prepa- ration of the kits were Kylie Adams and Patrick Schildt, laboratory service coordina- tors for general chemistry, and organic and analytical chemistry, respectively. The other members of the teaching lab staff and the stockroom and receiving staff also provided
4 Chemnews December 2020