{"id":6292,"date":"2017-03-23T15:32:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T22:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2017-04-10T11:40:50","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T18:40:50","slug":"chemist-named-top-educator-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/03\/chemist-named-top-educator-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemist named top educator in Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The College of Science warmly congratulates senior instructor of chemistry Richard Nafshun<\/a> for receiving the 2017 Outstanding Educator in Science and Mathematics, Higher Education Award<\/strong> by the Oregon Academy of Science<\/a> for his impressive teaching achievements.<\/p>\n

The award promotes merit in education by recognizing faculty who have made an extraordinary impact in their fields. Academy officials say that award winners serve as inspirational leaders to members of the Oregon Academy of Science, and embody the core values of serving students and advancing science for the common good.<\/p>\n

Nafshun teaches highly popular undergraduate and graduate as well as online \u00a0chemistry courses. These run the gamut from general chemistry classes for freshmen to a graduate course in non-traditional instructional techniques. He is the director of the graduate mentor program in chemistry, where he works with doctoral students who are interested in pursuing careers as professors. This is a unique program which promotes best teaching practices and provides a practicum experience for future college faculty.<\/p>\n

After earning his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Oregon State in 1996, Nafshun accepted a job in industry. But he was driven by a deep desire to teach and work on projects in a collaborative, spirited and interactive atmosphere. Within a year, he returned to OSU to teach and do research, and has remained in academia ever since.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with the American Chemistry Society, Nafshun said, \u201cI value the collaborative aspect highly. When I was doing my research work in industry\u2026. some of the research was interesting and involved discovery, and we\u2019d have periodic meetings with the group, but otherwise it was a very independent experience, and I didn\u2019t enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in academia, in contrast, I\u2019m always interacting with hundreds of young people, colleagues, and graduate students. To me, it feels much more interesting and alive,\u201d Nafshun added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nafshun\u2019s impact as an educator is also evident in the online chemistry courses offered by Ecampus at OSU. Now a thriving program of 20 online high-quality college-level chemistry courses and labs that attract students from around the world, it has achieved great heights since 2001 when Nafshun taught the first online General Chemistry course with just four students. To date, Nafshun estimates he has instructed more than 40,000 chemistry students.<\/p>\n

In response to a need for better quality virtual lab instruction materials\u2014initially provided by an outside vendor\u2014Nafshun and his colleagues, chemistry professors Michael Lerner and Mike Schuyler, created OnlineLabs<\/a> to deliver superior virtual lab software to students and educators online.<\/p>\n

They masterminded a way to deliver engaging online chemistry laboratories to college and high school students and educators nationwide. Students and instructors both reported a significant improvement in outcomes as a result of the improved virtual lab experiences.<\/p>\n

Nafshun enjoys a legendary reputation on campus for making chemistry unforgettable for his undergraduate students. His class demonstrations in the large-lecture general chemistry class, as he explains in this video<\/a>, are designed to \u201cgrab students\u2019 attention.\u201d Nafshun goes on to elaborate, \u201cWe want to use our classroom demonstrations to further student understanding and their learning with chemistry concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

His students speak highly of his general chemistry class. They are inspired by his energy and passion for the subject and find his chemistry demonstrations both engaging and a highly effective learning tool.<\/p>\n

An expert in research on chemistry education and how students learn chemistry, Nafshun leads the department\u2019s efforts in the area of effectively utilizing technology in labs, classrooms and online chemistry teaching. He also leads and participates in research collaborations focused on building strong interdisciplinary relationships between chemistry and other STEM subjects and on how students work and learn in small groups and large classroom environments.<\/p>\n

Nafshun has won virtually every prestigious teaching award at OSU. A few of his awards include the Loyd Carter Award for Outstanding and Inspirational Teaching, the Frederick H. Horne Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching and the Milton Harris Faculty Teacher of the Year honor.<\/p>\n

He holds a bachelor\u2019s in chemistry from California State University Stanislaus and a master\u2019s in science education from Oregon State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chemistry instructor Richard Nafshun receives 2017 Outstanding Educator in Science and Mathematics in Higher Education Award by the Oregon Academy of Science. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[640793,1507,841525,1168295,1168293],"tags":[653942,1000],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ch","category-faculty-and-staff","category-press-releases","category-spring-2017","category-student-success","tag-awards-and-recognition","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vHeb-1Du","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3334,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2016\/03\/oregon-academy-of-science-honor-three-faculty\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":0},"title":"Oregon Academy of Science honors three faculty","author":"nayaks","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Three science faculty were honored by the Oregon Academy of Science for outstanding contributions to science and higher education in science and mathematics.","rel":"","context":"In "Breaking News"","block_context":{"text":"Breaking News","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/news\/breaking-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5506,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/01\/oas\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":1},"title":"OSU hosts 75th annual Oregon Academy of Science conference","author":"farrisd","date":"January 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon State University hosts 2017 Annual Meeting of the Oregon Academy of Science on February 25.","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/news\/events-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"oas-impact","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/01\/oas-impact.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/01\/oas-impact.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/01\/oas-impact.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/01\/oas-impact.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":596,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/03\/remcho-named-oregon-scientist-of-the-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":2},"title":"Remcho named Oregon Scientist of the Year","author":"farrisd","date":"March 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The College of Science congratulates Professor of Chemistry Vincent T. Remcho on being named the 2015 Oregon Scientist of the Year.","rel":"","context":"In "Chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Chemistry","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/ch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Vince Remcho, Chemistry","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2015\/03\/Vince-Remcho_new.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7972,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/09\/mike-lerner-lead-chemistry-department\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":3},"title":"Mike Lerner to lead Chemistry Department","author":"farrisd","date":"September 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Lerner has been selected as the new Head of the Department of Chemistry.","rel":"","context":"In "Chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Chemistry","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/ch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5312,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/01\/online-learning-innovations-bringing-science-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":4},"title":"Online learning innovations: Bringing science to the world","author":"farrisd","date":"January 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"For more than 15 years, the College has pioneered online chemistry courses that have proven popular among students, providing access to courses previously unavailable.","rel":"","context":"In "Chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Chemistry","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/ch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10831,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2019\/03\/celebrating-excellence-2019-teaching-and-advising-awards\/","url_meta":{"origin":6292,"position":5},"title":"Celebrating excellence: 2019 teaching and advising awards","author":"cissnat","date":"March 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Inspirational teachers and advisors honored at the Winter 2019 Teaching and Advising Awards in the College of Science.","rel":"","context":"In "Biochemistry & Biophysics"","block_context":{"text":"Biochemistry & Biophysics","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/bb\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/03\/GY5A6846.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/03\/GY5A6846.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/03\/GY5A6846.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/03\/GY5A6846.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/03\/GY5A6846.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6302,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/6302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}