Dr Andrew Parsons (University of York) and Dr Linda Morris (University of Dundee) are the recipients of the 2006 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Education Division Higher Education Teaching Awards. Now in their ninth year, the aim of these awards is to identify excellent HE chemistry teachers and disseminate good teaching practice throughout the UK. Award winners receive a certificate, £250 and are given the opportunity to talk about their innovative approaches to teaching chemistry at RSC events throughout the forthcoming academic year. James Berressem reports.

Andrew Parsons for his 'inspired teaching and innovation'

Andrew Parsons' award completes a hat-trick for the department of chemistry at York, adding to the RSC HE teaching awards collected by colleagues David Smith (2004) and Paul Walton (2000). After graduating from the University of East Anglia Parsons moved to Oxford to complete a DPhil and postdoc studies working in Sir Jack Baldwin's group. He moved to York in 1993 and is now a senior lecturer in organic chemistry. He runs a research group which focuses on the development and application of free radical reactions in the synthesis of biologically important compounds, such as acromelic acid, a kainoid amino acid and potent neurotoxin, and mitomycin which is an effective antitumour agent (see Educ. Chem., 2003, 40(2), 42).

Parsons' radical approaches do not stop at his research. Never afraid to innovate, he incorporates some unusual elements into his lectures, such as pop tunes in his teaching of organic carbonyl reactivity. 'I relate the song Once, twice, three times a lady (by The Commodores) to the iodoform reaction, which involves introducing three iodine atoms, ie "your once, twice, three times introducing an iodine atom"'. Parsons also uses short break-out periods to introduce interactive elements to his teaching. 'I often get students to "act out" reactions covered in the lecture using models. For example, for nucleophilic addition to a C=O bond, students need to consider what angle the nucleophile approaches the C=O bond. These activities can be done to music - a slow or fast beat depending on the relative rate of the reaction - and help students to visualise the processes going on in reactions, and it's more fun than staring at computer graphics'. Parsons likes to involve students in demonstrations done during his lectures too, for example by getting volunteers to identify smells and their associated carbonyls. 'Even in my tutorials and workshops I like to use chemical games and quizzes, which can help to inject some humour', he adds. 

Currently undergraduate admissions tutor for chemistry, Parsons' innovative approach to teaching led to the introduction of a reactivity and mechanism course for first-year undergraduates. 'The course introduces students to and builds their confidence in using the tools and foundations of organic chemistry which they may not meet through the school specifications, eg abbreviations, drawing structures in different ways, drawing curly arrows etc. For me that's the beauty of organic chemistry', he enthuses. 'With a firm grasp of these tools, in theory, you can understand any reaction or give a logical guess to a likely reaction product', he adds.

Parsons also runs an innovative distance learning course on organic synthesis aimed at MChem fourth-year students who are doing either a research project at York or are on a placement in industry. 'Through the course we aim to encourage them to revisit and build on their knowledge of core organic chemistry. We try to bring together all the elements from the organic chemistry courses so that they can revise in a fun way'. Currently delivered as a paper-based course, Parsons, is developing an enhanced multimedia version which he hopes will be on the Internet from October.

In addition to his teaching, Parsons excites the young and old alike about chemistry through the department's outreach programme of events for school students and teachers. Many local sixthform students have benefited from his organic chemistry taster day, in which they get to do practicals in the university lab, and an A-level chemistry revision course, developed in collaboration with his wife who is a chemistry schoolteacher. As a tutor on the York Science Enhancement Programme (YSEP) of continuing professional development (CPD) for school science teachers, Parsons has been motivating teachers with his course on modern synthetic methods. 'As well as provide new ideas to take back to the classroom, the course offers teachers hands-on experience. They do a reaction on a solid support and get to prepare and explore the reactivity of persistent radicals'. Currently, Parsons, working as part of a team, is writing a first-year undergraduate chemistry text, which, true to form, he describes as having a 'radical approach'.

Linda Morris for her 'innovation in curriculum development'

Linda Morris studied chemistry with environmental chemistry as a mature student via the Access programme run at the University of Aberdeen. 'While doing my first degree I was a mother of three teenage daughters - at one point three of us were students at the same time', she recalls. After completing her degree Morris stayed on at Aberdeen to do an MSc, followed by a PhD and then post-doctoral research in Professor Marcel Jaspars' group, looking at interesting compounds from marine sources. In 2001 Morris moved to Dundee University to take up a teaching position. Since then she has revolutionised the teaching of chemistry at Dundee by introducing radical changes to the ways early years' teaching of chemistry is both delivered and assessed, transforming the learning experience of students in the process. 

At Dundee students studying for life sciences degrees must complete a foundation course in chemistry in the first year. In 2003, against a backdrop of waning numbers for the single honours chemistry degree at Dundee and the realisation that the associated first-year chemistry modules had little relevance to the life sciences degree programmes, the decision was taken to replace the chemistry degree with a new pharmaceutical chemistry degree. Morris played a key role in developing and implementing this new programme, which now reflects the research strengths and specialities of the school of life sciences. 'Previously students were being taught material they would never use again', she says. 'Since the chemistry backgrounds of our life sciences is so varied our aims for the foundation modules were two-fold: to address the lack of prior knowledge of chemistry among some students; and to demonstrate that a grasp of the fundamental principles of chemistry is central to students' understanding of their chosen degrees. We now teach first-year students all the basic language and tools of chemistry but with a bias towards the life sciences, the examples used are relevant to biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology etc'. Practical classes now have a pharmaceutical slant too, with synthetic practicals focusing on the synthesis of drug-like molecules and analytical work looking proteins, RNA etc. 

Coupled with the redesign of the chemistry degree, Morris has adopted a more interactive approach to teaching. An innovation she has brought to her lectures is the use of personal response systems in first- and second-year courses. The students call this 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'. Each student has a keypad linked to a Powerpoint program which presents questions with answers for them to choose from. This acts as a good way of quickly testing their knowledge of concepts covered in class and as a check for me that I'm getting the information across', she says. 

Course assessment is another area in which Morris is an innovator. 'Assessment of all the first-year modules, including tutorials, practicals and exams, is now done by computer-assisted assessment (CAA)', she told Education in Chemistry. Questions designed by Morris and her colleague Dr Nick Brewer, using the Questionmark Perception assessment system, makes use of the university's virtual learning environment, My Dundee, to give students 24-hour access to online assessment tasks. According to Morris the system is popular with the students, 'because they can do tasks when and where they like. Formative assessment tasks allow them to gauge their progress and, by returning again and again to improve their performance, reinforce their learning', she adds. Currently, Morris is working with colleagues in IT to design a system which integrates drawing and modelling molecules into the Questionmark Perception tool. 'This would give an added dimension to the questions we could ask and assess by CAA, producing a richer learning experience for students'.

Despite her commitment to continuing the development of chemistry teaching at Dundee, Morris still finds time to contribute to the departments schools' liaison programme. Next year the department will run a practical skills class for students at the end of their fourth year in secondary school. 'This was a suggestion from local schools which had realised that they are not giving students these essential skills through the current teaching', she explains. 'The students will spend a couple of days doing practical tasks, eg dilutions, titrations etc, and on completion receive a certificate of competence in basic lab skills, which they can take on to a vocational course at college or a job'.