Although I executed an early retirement from SWC, I am still actively engaged in the STEM education and STEM workforce development communities, especially with regard to building capacity in my fellow STEM educators in two-year colleges.
My interests as a chemistry educator are wide and varied. They include doing my best to create learning environments conducive to facilitating undergraduates to learn (and hopefully enjoy) chemistry and also engaging them in research activities, developing educational programs and curricula, providing professional development activities for my fellow educators and engaging youth in hands-on science activities in an effort to increase their interest in education and careers in science, ultimately building capacity in the STEM enterprise.
Several of these endeavors have been funded through the generous support of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Left to right in front are former Southwestern College students Monique Patrón, Chona dela Cruz, Héctor Eduardo Mendoza Solano and Manuel Alingog on our trip to the 2008 Posters on the Hill event held on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research, where the students presented results of their research. [Yours truly is in the back.]
NSF grants to support some of my activities include the following:
“Broadening Institutional Participation in the NSF Advanced Technological Education Program,” NSF ATE program, $3,610,655, 2020 (NSF grant no. DUE 2018198).
“Capacity-Building Workshops for Competitive S-STEM Proposals from Two-Year Colleges in the Western U.S.,” NSF S-STEM program, $457,004, 2018 (NSF grant no. DUE 1826514).
“EAGER: Implementing Active Learning Strategies in Two-Year Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Impacts on Faculty Change and Student Success in STEM Courses,” NSF IUSE program, $288,978, 2017 (NSF grant no. DUE 1645083).
“Project iLASER - Celebrating the International Year of Chemistry 2011,” NSF Chemistry and Informal Science Education programs, $150,000, 2011 (NSF grant no. CHE 1118663).
“Project TUESTYC: A Workshop and Mentoring Program for Two-Year College Faculty,” NSF TUES program, $200,000, 2011 (NSF grant no. DUE 1129271).
“Chemistry Coalitions, Workshops and Communities of Scholars,” NSF TUES program, 2010. The Principal Investigator is Jerry Smith at Georgia State University, and I was the Principal Investigator of a subaward to support the workshops at SWC in 2011 and 2017. (NSF grant no. DUE 1022895).
“Broadening Participation in CCLI: a Workshop and Mentoring Program for Two-Year College Faculty,” NSF TUES program, $199,041, 2010 (NSF grant no. DUE 1029031).
“A CCLI Proposal Preparation Workshop for Two-Year College Chemistry Faculty,” NSF CCLI program, $49,999, 2009 (NSF grant no. DUE 0924269).
“Bridging Community College Chemistry Faculty into the National Educational Community,” NSF CCLI program, $200,000, 2007 (NSF grant no. DUE 0737166).
“Establishing a Program in Chemical Technology at Southwestern College,” NSF ATE program, $211,615, 2001 (NSF grant no. DUE 0101729).
“Instrumentation to Enhance the Chemistry Curriculum at Southwestern College,” NSF ILI program, $73,426, 1998 (NSF grant no. DUE 9850951).
Accounts of some of these activities have been reported in the media and scientific literature:
