Carrie Shepler Academic Professional Office: Boggs 2-13 Phone: 404-385-1342 Fax: 404-894-7452 E-mail Carrie Shepler

B.S., Georgetown College, 2000; Ph.D., Washington State University, 2005; Post-doctoral experience, Washington State University 2005-2006 and University of Georgia 2006-2008

 

Responsibilities

Carrie is the academic professional for the undergraduate program in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her current responsibilities include: (1) development and management of the advisement program for undergraduates, (2) individual student advisement, (3) mentorship of the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society, (4) undergraduate seminar course instruction and coordination, (5) advisement of student organizations, and (6) instruction and support for the general chemistry program. In the future, Carrie hopes to be involved in the development of a more extensive undergraduate research program, alumni relations, and chemical education research and development with the general chemistry program.

Teaching Interests

General Chemistry (CHEM 1310)
Quantitative Analysis (CHEM 1313)

Scholarship

Carrie comes from a multi-disciplinary research background. Her graduate work focused on uranium biogeochemistry and provided experience in analytical chemistry, radiochemistry, mineralogy, and microbiology. However, as a teaching post-doctoral fellow Carrie combined her love of teaching with research to focus on chemical education. She studied the problem-solving strategies of general chemistry students using a semi-structured interview protocol and statistical analysis to determine whether students still demonstrate a gap in conceptual versus algorithmic understanding more than a decade after the phenomenon was first identified in the literature. The long-term goal of the research is to determine how the thought processes of students who excel in both areas differ from those who do not and how best to transfer that knowledge.

Carrie is also very interested in the non-chemical issues that impede general chemistry students' success and would like to collaborate with cognitive psychologists to further explore this topic.