362: Invisible Worlds Made Visible: Transforming Chemistry Education for Young Minds
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Guest
Creating fun and accessible chemistry stories has been a labor of love for Dr. Colleen Kelley, as a retired chemistry professor and author of a series of kid’s chemistry comic books. In 2023, the PBS short documentary, “Comic Book Chemistry,” was awarded an Emmy.
Colleen holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State University and was a tenured professor with research expertise in environmental toxicology, medicinal chemistry, and chemistry education.
Why This Episode Matters
In this interview, Dr. Kelley discusses her journey from teaching college chemistry to developing "molecular literacy" programs for children ages 4-10. Inspired by her childhood experience with the Three Mile Island incident and challenges teaching college students, she created comic books with character-based storytelling to make chemistry accessible. She believes building neural pathways for understanding chemistry symbols early helps overcome traditional learning barriers and promotes lifelong scientific curiosity.
Three Important Takeaways
Chemistry education faces significant challenges, with a 50% failure rate among college students, often because they lack foundational understanding of molecular symbols and concepts.
Teaching "molecular literacy" through storytelling and character-based learning engages young learners and creates neural pathways that make advanced chemistry concepts more accessible later in life.
Chemistry education should extend beyond traditional classroom settings to help people of all ages (8-108) understand scientific concepts relevant to climate change, health issues, and daily life.
Referenced
About Jeff
Jeff Ikler is the Director of Quetico Leadership and Career Coaching. “Quetico” (KWEH-teh-co). He works with leaders in all aspects of life to identify and overcome obstacles in their desired future. He came to the field of coaching after a 35-year career in educational publishing. Prior to his career in educational publishing, Jeff taught high school U.S. history and government.
Jeff has hosted the “Getting Unstuck—Cultivating Curiosity” podcast for 5 years. The guests and topics he explores are designed to help listeners think differently about the familiar and welcome the new as something to consider. He is also the co-host of the Cultivating Resilience – A Whole Community Approach to Alleviating Trauma in Schools, which promotes mental health and overall wellness.
Jeff co-authored Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change. Shifting integrates leadership development and change mechanics in a three-part change framework to help guide school leaders and their teams toward productive change.
Show Credits
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