Deborah Herrington

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Integrated Science Program

Office: 327B Padnos Hall

Phone: (616) 331-3809

Email: herringd@gvsu.edu

Education/Professional Training

B.Sc. Honours Chemistry, Wilfrid Laurier University
M.Sc. Chemistry, University of Waterloo
B.Ed. Secondary Science and Mathematics, Brock University
Ph.D. Chemistry – Education Emphasis, Purdue University

Research Interests

I serve as the director of the Target Inquiry (TI) program at GVSU and my primary research project involves studying the teachers enrolled in the TI program and their students.  The TI program is an innovative, research-based professional development program for science teachers designed to improve the frequency and quality of inquiry instruction in area science classrooms. To date the program has involved only high school chemistry teachers but it is expanding to include the other science disciplines (biology, geology, and physics) as well as middle school teachers.  Students involved in this project get experience with both quantitative and qualitative educational research methods and acquire a deeper understanding of research-identified best practices in science education.  For more information about the TI program see www.gvsu.edu/targetinquiry.

I also collaborate with Dr. Nathan Barrows jointly oversee a project titled “Take 10 for Chem.”  Students involved in this project work on developing online chemistry screencasts aimed at helping students in general chemistry and introductory organic chemistry with concepts/topics they are having difficulty with. These screencasts are then posted on the project website for students to access and comment on. Some students may also wish to conduct a research project that looks at how students are using the screencasts, what students like and dislike about the screencasts, or other related topics.  To take a look at some of the screencasts currently available see http://mi-chemed.net.