The purpose of the Chemical Education Research (CER) Committee is to inform educators about chemical education research, to foster scholarship, and to encourage improvement in the quality of chemistry education research. This vision is achieved through a variety of avenues for educators to learn about CER, while providing a platform that highlights work and methods within the field.
The current leadership of CERC (past chair Nikita Burrows, chair Elizabeth Day, and chair-elect Regis Komperda) are working to implement changes in the committee structure and activities to best align with the revised vision and mission of the committee and the DivCHED Strategic Plan.
Since our last report, CERC has organized and supported initiatives that align with the DivCHED Strategic Plan
- National ACS Symposia: Elizabeth Day served as symposium coordinator and managed the efforts of both CERC committee members and volunteers external to the committee. We offered three national symposia in 2025: Research in Chemistry Education at Spring 2025 ACS (San Diego), Research in Chemistry Education at Fall 2025 ACS (Washington), and Putting CER into Practice at Fall 2025 ACS (Washington). These symposia were organized by committee members Ryan Stowe, Gina Frey, and Regis Komperda; their efforts were supplemented by volunteers Brandon Yik (UGA, now committee member), Bill Donovan (U Akron), Li Ye (CSU Northridge), Katherine Havanki (Catholic University of America), Jackie Fajardo (U Delaware), Johanna Herman (U Delaware), Lauren Genova (U Delaware), and Yiben Wang (Villanova).
- Collaborative Efforts:
- Budget and Funding Support:
$750
We used this to fund volunteers who were going to the ACS conferences to preside over the sessions that the CERC committee was in charge of organizing. We also provided funding to ECCES for gift cards to guest speakers for the collaborative effort on the Graduate Student and Post-Doc Professional Development online conference.
We provided $240 to the collaborative effort with ECCES to provide guest speakers for the Graduate Student and Post-Doc Professional Development Conference. We also offered $125 to each presider for national ACS conference symposia sponsored by CERC.