The Chemistry Teaching Fellowship Program provides financial incentives and opportunities to develop specific teaching initiatives, under the supervision of a faculty member. The objective is to provide a high quality learning experience in developing pedagogical tools that would benefit both the graduate student in their future careers and directly enhance the quality of instruction currently in the department. Additional activities will include participation in the TATP where participants develop their teaching philosophy statements. Participation in CTFP will generally be for one term. The call for proposals is sent out in April and June of each year.
About Bryton's Project:
My CFTP assignment challenges students to use analysis and critical thinking as well as fact checking, by having them examine AI-generated essays on topics covered in class. Students edit short essay answers generated by ChatGPT, when prompted with exam-style questions.
I worked alongside Professor Dwight Seferos to design this assigment for Organic Materials Chemistry (CHM456). The underlying concept is that LLM generative chatbots are able to generate writing that is passable to non-experts, but which usually does not hold up to the scrutiny of those actively engaging with the field. Since current students are positioned to be the next generation of experts and will have to grapple with the existence of this technology for all of their professional lives, it's important to get them thinking about this early.

About Sofia's Project
My CTFP was on Creating Writing Exemplars for WIT Components of Introductory Organic Laboratories.
This project involved creating writing resources for first and second year undergraduate students in CHM151Y and CHM249H. With the help of Dr. Barb Morra and Dr. Andy Dicks, we developed writing exemplars that thoroughly demonstrate what university-level writing looks like in Chemistry, which will hopefully serve as a useful starting point for students writing lab reports for the first time.

About Anna's Project
As a participant in the Chemistry Teaching Fellows Program (CTFP), I have had the opportunity to develop and introduce six innovative experiments for the CHMA12 Winter 2025 lab manual. Under the guidance and support of Dr. Lana Mikhaylichenko, this initiative is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and practical applications. These experiments aim to offer students hands-on experiences that highlight the significance of chemistry in everyday life.
My objective is to ignite a passion for chemistry, illustrating its relevance in daily activities and fostering both academic and personal growth. I am excited to contribute to a curriculum that not only prepares students for advanced studies but also equips them with essential practical skills, and I look forward to seeing how these new experiments will inspire and engage future learners.

About Karolina's Project
My CTFP was for developing the synthesis of lidocaine, a local anesthetic, for a third-year undergraduate course. CHM343, organic synthetic technique, teaches students synthetic techniques and research skills through experiments that involve important reactions (example: Suzuki cross-coupling) and/or useful products (example: this one!). I took this course as a student and was a TA for it later, so having another perspective from the development of the course material was a great experience.
This project was supervised by the course instructors, Dr. Andy Dicks and Dr. Kylie Luska, who were fantastic mentors and taught me a lot about the priorities and qualities for teaching instructors in chemistry. This is my third CTFP and I am excited for the future teaching projects made available through this program.

About Shine's Project:
My Fall 2023 CTFP was on "the Development of Complex Spectroscopy Problems for CHM 247H".
I worked alongside Dr. Andy Dicks to produce a bank of spectroscopy questions for 2nd year organic chemistry tutorials, problem sets, and tests. These spectroscopy questions were designed to be challenging with an emphasis on creative and unique applications of the tested material.