As our major program grows and more students are involved in research year-round, we have created another venue for local sharing of student research beyond the Spring semester reading day- Undergraduate Research Symposium.  Yesterday was our first (annual?) Fall semester reading day poster session for the Department of Chemistry & Physics.

We started our day with the 3rd Annual Pedagogy and Technology Faculty Retreat in the morning, where we heard from Dr. Richard Wester regarding Organic Chemistry laboratories and Dr. Fidelis Manyanga regarding his research and his strategies for recruiting students to participate.  We also spent some time sharing about experiences different faculty have had using a group exam as part of their courses.  In the afternoon, we hosted this poster session!  It was a great day before finals!

On October 23, the Department of Chemistry & Physics started a new "tradition" by hosting our first "Mole Day" Alumni reception.  We were thrilled to welcome back chemistry majors from the 1970s - the past couple of years.  Our alumni shared their carreer experiences and offered advice to our current students, including "take more math classses", "seek out internships (even a bad experience can help you decide what you *don't* want to do)", and "a research project with hands-on experience planning a project, collecting data and presenting that work- can really help you land that first job".

Can you help make these research experiences possible for our students?