CAS CONNECT 2015

21 Haines first heard about the NSF proj- ect through a friend in the computer science department, who took him to a meeting with Gelder. “I actually had been helping another one of my friends with their computer graphics assignment where their proj- ect involved an animation that had realis- tic motion of billiard balls,” Haines says. “When Dr. Gelder was describing how he wanted the program to work, it was the same type of collisions as the billiard balls. I showed that project to him, and he decided to bring me on board.” The team formally completed the NSF project in 2005 but used these simu- lations as a foundation to continue to develop technology that would begin popping up in more chemistry classrooms. The new College Board curricu- lum offered the perfect opportunity for Gelder to bring this technology to high school teachers who needed it and to other university personnel who weren’t aware of their existence. He again turned to Abraham so they could update and develop more comprehensive programs that anyone could use. Gelder estimates that thousands of teachers now use the simulation programs in high school and college class- rooms around the country. When devel- oping his college programs, he takes into account that students bring a variety of educational backgrounds to the table. Macey Colbert, a political science/pre- law and pre-medical senior, recently took Gelder’s Chemistry I and II courses and says his programs helped her understand the material despite her limited back- ground in chemistry. “With chemistry, it’s a difficult subject to understand to begin with, and that’s why labs are an important part,” Colbert says. “But you only do labs once a week. With the simulations, you can watch them anytime and really get to under- stand the concepts at the particulate level that before you were only talking about abstractly.” With a nationwide emphasis on increas- ing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors over the past decade, Gelder sees his programs as a win-win for OSU and the STEM initiative. He is helping to make it easier for high school students interested in STEM careers to grasp chem- istry concepts and is bringing that technol- ogy to his students at OSU. For the past 25 years, Gelder has become an expert in the ways chemistry affects students and teachers across the country. He loves working with teach- ers who work hard every day to help their students succeed. Gelder met his wife, an AP chemistry teacher, through one of his workshops, so the passion for chemi- cal education runs deep in his household. Students, he notes, are equally amazing. “You will have students coming out to study chemistry on the weekends,” Gelder says. “The interest and dedication they show just amazes me. If I can help to keep students motivated like this, then it all pays off in the end.” “With the simulations, you can watch them anytime and real ly get to understand the concepts at the particulate level that before you were only talking about abstractly.” — Macey Colbert, pol itical science/pre-law and pre-medical senior