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Education

ACS Award For Achievement In Research For The Teaching & Learning Of Chemistry

Sponsored by Pearson Education

by Susan J. Ainsworth
February 1, 2010 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 88, Issue 5

Abraham
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Credit: Courtesy of Michael Abraham
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Abraham

Even when he first began teaching chemistry back in 1964, Michael R. Abraham already “felt the need for fundamentally different instructional materials and methods that would have a solid base in learning research and theory,” he says. Rather than waiting for these tools to come along, he went to work to spur their development.

Through his research, Abraham, the David Ross Boyd Professor of Chemistry in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, has raised the bar on the “accepted good practices in the teaching of chemistry,” according to Vickie M. Bentley Williamson, a senior lecturer in the department of chemistry at Texas A&M University.

Abraham, 68, has done “exemplary work studying the effects of inquiry-oriented, laboratory-based instructional strategies on student learning of chemistry concepts,” says Williamson, who was one of Abraham’s graduate students from 1988 to 1992. Abraham’s research has supported a teaching strategy called the Learning Cycle Approach, which divides the activities of instruction into phases. It allows students to explore new concepts in a laboratory setting, discuss them with peers and experts, and test their connections to other concepts, she says.

“Now that the National Research Council’s K–12 science education standards are calling for an inquiry-based approach to teaching, the nature of Abraham’s work 25 years earlier is more clearly understood to be groundbreaking,” says Mark S. Cracolice, professor and chair of the University of Montana’s department of chemistry.

Equally important is Abraham’s later research in explaining the difficulties students have in understanding the particulate nature of matter. That work “has led to a major effort to connect the macroscopic and particulate-level explanations in modern college chemistry textbooks,” says Cracolice, who was a graduate student in Abraham’s group from 1989 to 1994.

Abraham has also explored new and more effective methods to allow students to visualize atomic and molecular behavior, including computer animation. More recently, he has been involved in collaborations with John I. Gelder, professor of chemistry at Oklahoma State University, and Thomas J. Greenbowe, professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, to develop Web-based, molecular-level laboratory experiments that allow students to control variables and benefit from interactive animation, according to Williamson. “This marriage of inquiry-based learning with particulate animations is an exciting new area for chemical education that builds on Abraham’s lifetime of work.”

Abraham began teaching high school chemistry after completing a B.A. in chemistry at Grinnell College, in Iowa, in 1964, and while earning a master’s degree in education at Emory University in 1965. He received a Ph.D. in science education at Florida State University in 1973 and joined the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1974.

During his long career, Abraham’s passion for research has been sparked by “those who have mentored me and the colleagues and students with whom I have collaborated,” he says.

After many years of working toward the goal of improving instructional materials and methods for teaching chemistry, he says he is “gratified and honored” to receive the award. “I feel it serves as a capstone to my career.”

Abraham will present the award address before the Division of Chemical Education.

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