From the source: student-centred guest lecturing in a chemical crystallography class

Abstract

Guest lecturing is an underutilized teaching strategy that provides depth and richness in college‐level chemistry courses. The authors have found that student‐centred guest lecturing that combines themed guest presentations, hands‐on workshops (whenever possible) and small group conversations has yielded tremendous benefits. As a result, students have developed a lasting interest in chemical crystallography and have employed advanced experiments in their own research. The authors report on their experience in planning student‐centred guest lecturing, advise on best practices, and demonstrate the long lasting positive impact on student learning and engagement.

Expert-Led Module Improves Non-STEM Undergraduate Perception of and Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Vaccines

“…Here we evaluated the impact of guest lectures, a common pedagogical tool in higher education ( 35 , 42 ). While instructors of record are evaluated at the end of the semester at most institutions, evaluation of the impact of guest lectures has been studied only limitedly ( 35 , 39 ). We had two courses of non-major students at UAB engage with expert guest lectures by a microbiologist, an epidemiologist, and an infectious disease physician.…”

“…While the practice of inviting guest lecturers seems fairly ubiquitous in higher education, the recommendation to invite guest lectures is primarily anecdotal ( 35 ). The limited research that exists in the use of expert guest lectures to impart this type of key information suggests that the perceived relevant experience of expert guest lecturers increases the impact of the lecture ( 35 – 39 ). We have previously shown in an experimental study that non-major students are receptive to virtual expert-led guest lectures about COVID-19 ( 40 ), but have yet to explore how views can change related to the COVID-19 vaccines especially through a pre-post design.…”

CRISTAL-ITE: a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer scale model for scientific dissemination

“…A lot of very interesting media have been developed in that sense, especially since 2014, International Year of Crystallography (https://www.iycr2014.org/learn/educational-materials), and include exhibitions, games, comics, workshops, crystal growing competitions and radio broadcasts (Orlov et al, 2006;Garcia-Ruiz et al, 2015;Hodeau & Guinebretiere, 2015;Graz ˇulis et al, 2015;Van Meervelt, 2017;Gratias & Ravy, 2018;Casas, 2020). Scientific studies (Murphy et al, 2004;Weinberg et al, 2019) and testimonials (Zheng et al, 2018) also show that the wider public and school/college students are generally very enthusiastic about the idea of meeting laboratory staff, researchers and engineers, to discuss their research or more general scientific subjects.…”

Resolving Space-Group-Choice Dilemma in Small-Molecule Crystallography for Chemistry Students Using Case-Based Learning Modules

“…61 Many students will keep employing small-molecule crystallography after they go on to their own independent research careers, and make important contributions to the field. 16 An additional outcome of case-based learning is giving students an opportunity to learn that the scientific literature may make mistakes and scientists must be ever attentive. From time to time, the students who had acquired the critical thinking mindsets would share more similar cases that they discovered when they read scientific literature for their research projects (such as Case 8 in SI), 59 which in turn improves our crystallography teaching.…”

“…The development of technology and software related to crystallography in the past few decades revolutionized how we access structural information, design research programs, and collaborate across different fields. , Small-molecule single-crystal X-ray diffraction is becoming a routine, conventional technique to chemists of various backgrounds and research interests. − The result of such ubiquity is that crystallography, to some people, is considered “a solved problem.” Indeed, the idea of simply pushing a series of buttons, and the computer will automatically generate the corresponding molecular structure is what one would expect for a reliable and well-developed technique. Although a variety of crystallography modules have been developed and incorporated in different curriculums, in a lecture or lab setting, − formal crystallography education in the United States has declined significantly over the past decades . However, it is exactly this level of comfort toward crystallography that also has caused several corrections and retractions on high-profile publications by some researchers due to their lack of appropriate training and understanding of basic but important concepts.…”