By: Emily Delgado  

Renée Cole, professor and DEO of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was recognized for her work in chemistry education with a national award sponsored by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society. 

Cole, along with two collaborators, will be awarded the 2023 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry during a ceremony this November in Boston.  

Cole worked with Juliette Lantz, a chemistry professor at Drew University, and Suzanne Ruder, a chemistry professor at Virginia Commonwealth University on the award-winning project, Enhancing Learning by Improving Process Skills in STEM (ELIPSS) Project.

“We've developed resources that faculty across the world actually can use to better support students in developing the skills used in STEM fields,” Cole says. 

This award, established in 1950, is the first national award for outstanding achievement in the teaching of chemistry. It recognizes educators at any level who have had a “wide-ranging effect on chemical education,” according to the American Chemical Society.  

The project team is being recognized for its development of curriculum materials and rubrics to help guide STEM instruction toward more active, collaborative learning, while also giving students feedback on their skills. 

Cole helped develop materials and resources that allow students and faculty from STEM fields to assess their ability to think critically, solve problems, and communicate effectively.  

“The ELIPSS project answers the question of how to assess chemistry skills because one of the things we know that drives student learning is what you assess,” Cole adds. 

Cole, whose research focuses on productive and successful ways to teach chemistry and other STEM subjects, says the reason she came to Iowa in 2011 was because of the support she received from the university and chemistry department.  

“The UI has done a lot of work in establishing the chemistry department and understanding the value of chemistry education research,” Cole explains.  

Cole says she has received support and praise from faculty in her department and the university about the research she is doing, with some colleagues approaching her for advice on how they can improve their instruction and courses. She says it is gratifying to see her work making a difference for STEM instruction at Iowa.  

“Being able to see where the CLAS policies are changing to encourage better practice, or that are much more visible and explicit now than it was when I first was hired at Iowa, has been fantastic to see,” Cole says. “Seeing changes in instructional practices to better support student outcomes, including at the institutional and national policy level, encourages me to stay involved.”