Department of Chemistry

On Saturday, April 26, 2026, we held our semi-annual high-school chemistry teachers’ workshop in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. Organized by professors Michael Morse, Gina Frey, and Jef Statler, the Saturday-morning event brought together more than 60 high school chemistry teachers from across the region. The workshop promotes learning and discussion of ideas about the teaching of chemistry. This event is becoming quite a reunion, with numerous returning teachers joining us, as well as Eileen Ragsdale, her son Steve, and his wife Naomi. We were equally thrilled to welcome many new teachers to the event!

Participation in the workshop counts toward continuing teacher education credit and is designed to assist Utah chemistry teachers in deepening their understanding of specific chemistry topics that interest them and in discussing current research in chemistry education on teaching and learning. With a line-up of Chemistry Department faculty, the program consisted of three presentations.

Professor Gina Frey shared research highlighting the role of students’ academic mindsets in their performance on chemistry exams. Drawing on studies from general and organic chemistry courses, Gina discussed how affective factors, such as a sense of belonging, imposter syndrome, and beliefs about intelligence, can significantly influence exam performance, even after accounting for prior content knowledge. Her findings show that students with a fixed mindset and higher levels of imposter syndrome tend to perform worse, while growth-oriented beliefs can improve outcomes and even help narrow achievement gaps among student groups. Gina also offered practical strategies for educators, emphasizing the importance of fostering a classroom culture that normalizes struggle, promotes effective study strategies, and explicitly teaches students that intelligence can grow with effort.

Professor Michael Morse welcomed the teachers to the meeting and gave the first talk, on a topic that had been suggested by one of the teachers, Thomas Robinson: How was Avogadro’s number determined? Prof. Morse began with a visualization of just how huge Avogadro’s number is by depicting how enormous a collection of Avogadro’s number of avocados would be. (Answer: larger than the moon, but smaller than the earth!)  He pointed out that Avogadro’s number describes how much bigger the macroscopic world is, compared to the world of atoms and molecules, noting that Avogadro’s number is the ratio of the mass of 12 g of carbon-12 to the mass of one atom of carbon-12, for example. The problem is measuring these two quantities in the same units. Ultimately, the first real determination of Avogadro’s number was made by Jean Baptiste Perrin in the 1908-1911 time frame in a series of painstaking experiments. Perrin cleverly determined Avogadro’s number from 13 different experimental methods, obtaining closely matching values from all 13 studies. Prior to his measurements, the notion of atoms was hotly debated with some famous scientists refusing to accept the atomic theory. More than anyone, Perrin’s measurement of Avogadro’s number established the atomic theory, changing it from a debated hypothesis to an accepted fact.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926 for this accomplishment. The teachers were shocked that although Dalton had formulated the atomic theory in 1808, it wasn’t fully accepted for over 100 years.

The 2026 Ron and Eileen Ragsdale High School Teaching Award was also presented to Miriam Draper, Honors Chemistry, Chemistry CE, and Astronomy Teacher at Springville High School. The awardee is selected for their exemplary teaching characterized by organization, equity, and high standards. In addition, the recipient exhibits motivating enthusiasm in the classroom, inclusive treatment of students, is an excellent role model, and demonstrates both detailed and global analysis of complex scientific principles. As a dedicated and enthusiastic educator, you have been selected by our department to receive this award, which was established by our own outstanding educator, the late Professor Emeritus Ron Ragsdale, and his wife, Eileen Ragsdale. Robert Fleming, principal at Springville High School, shared the following in support of your nomination: "Mirriam is greatly appreciated for her inclusivity and patience, and in helping all students succeed. Mirriam finds creative ways of answering the question, "Why does this matter?" She has recently developed a new approach to teaching centered on chemistry and cooking. Because of this, she has a high degree of engagement in her classroom, and students enjoy being there. Mirriam has provided a safe and structured lab environment that supports learning and lowers the science anxiety that some students experience. She is certainly deserving of this award.”

Meaningful conversations took place throughout the workshop, including during the break and lunch, fostering a local community of teaching and learning. We will be holding the next workshop this fall (2026). We look forward to seeing all the high school and middle school teachers, the undergraduate chemistry majors, and the Ragsdale family again, and we also invite interested chemistry graduate students and faculty in the department to join us.

June 2026