Melanie Cooper
Alumni Distinguished Professor
Chemistry Education
Phone: (864) 656-2573
Office: 259 Hunter Laboratories
E-mail: cmelani@clemson.edu
Chemistry Education Program Web Site
Research Interests | Publications
Melanie Cooper, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Chemistry received her B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, England. She carried out postdoctoral work in organic chemistry before turning to chemical education as her area of research. She has been a faculty member in the Clemson chemistry department since 1987, where she teaches general and organic chemistry and chemistry education courses. Her appointment was ground-breaking, not only at Clemson but nationally, in that it was one of the first tenure track appointments in chemistry education in a chemistry department. Her research has focused on problem solving in a wide variety of areas, including laboratories and large enrollment lectures. She is interested in methods to assess and improve students problem solving abilities and strategies, and has focused on interventions that promote metacognitive activity. An outgrowth of this research is the development and assessment of evidence-driven, research-based curricula. She is a Fellow of the AAAS and has received a number of awards for excellence in teaching. In 2002 she was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor. She has also held a number of elected positions within ACS and was the Chair of the Division of Chemical Education in 2007.
Research Interests
Dr Cooper’s research has focused on the development of demonstrably effective ways for students to learn science in meaningful ways. One of the prime outcomes of this research is the development and assessment of evidence-driven, research-validated curricula. For example: Chemistry, Life, the Universe and Everything is a new general chemistry curriculum that uses the emergence and evolution of life as the scaffold to teach chemical principles. The materials under development are a text, interactive applets where students explore difficult concepts, guided tutorials, and a variety of assessments – ranging from formative concept inventories, to criterion-based assessments, and problem solving materials. All of these materials are based on research (ours and others) about how students learn and develop the cognitive skills that will allow them to develop a robust understanding of chemistry concepts and problem solving – rather than rely on memorization and algorithms that are not transferrable to new situations.
The development of new curriculum materials is based on our research in a number of areas.
The effect of interventions and educational environments on problem solving and metacognition: We have developed a number of assessments that allow us to probe student problem solving ability, strategy, and metacognition as they change over time. These tools allow us to assess the effects of specifically designed interventions and research-based curricula on these constructs.,
Investigation of representational competence: The relationship between structure and properties is fundamental to a deep understanding of chemistry, yet little is known about how students learn to construct and use different types of representations. We are investigating this using OrganicPad a tablet-based program that allows us to observe and model how students draw different types of structures.
Development of assessment systems for conceptual understanding: We are developing a number of different types of assessments for different situations. For example: concept inventory questions are designed to elicit student misconceptions, and are used to introduce material – giving both instructor and student an insight into their understanding. We are also developing a range of multi-tier questions that will allow us to probe the level of student understanding for summative assessment purposes.
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Publications
• Understanding the roots of molecular creativity and evolutionary change: what are the inherent and instruction-induced conceptual barriers and curricular omissions? Michael W. Klymkowsky, Erin Marie Furtak, & Alma Gonzales, Kathy Garvin-Doxas, Melanie M. Cooper. (Submitted)
• Enhancement of Metacognition Use and Awareness by Means of a Collaborative Intervention. Melanie M. Cooper, Santiago Sandi-Urena, (submitted).
• Mixed methods study: effect of cooperative problem based lab instruction on regulatory metacognition and problem solving skills and performance. Melanie M. Cooper, Santiago Sandi-Urena, Todd Gatlin, Gautam Bhattacharyya, Ron Stevens. (Submitted)
• "A Chemists Guide to Effective Teaching: Volume II” Pienta, N. Cooper M. M., and Greenbowe, T. Eds. Prentice Hall, 2009.
• "Design and Validation of an Instrument to Assess Metacognitive Skillfulness in Chemistry Problem Solving" Cooper, M.M. and Sandi-Urena, S. J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 240
• "Cooperative Chemistry Laboratory Manual" Cooper M. M.. McGraw Hill, 2009
• “Reliable Multi Method Assessment of Metacognition Use in Chemistry Problem Solving” Cooper, M.M.; Sandi-Urena, S; Stevens, R. Chemical Education Research and Practice, 2008, 9, 18
• “An Assessment of the Effect of Collaborative Groups on Students’ Problem Solving Strategies and Abilities” Cooper, M.M. Cox, C.T. Nammouz, M. Case, E. Stevens. R. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85, 866.
• “A Chemists Guide to Effective Teaching: Volume II” Cooper M. M., Greenbowe, T., and Pienta, N. Eds. Prentice Hall, est 2008.
• “OrganicPad: A Tablet PC Based Interactivity Tool for Organic Chemistry” Roy Pargas, Melanie Cooper, Calvin Williams, and Samuel Bryfczynski. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies, May 24-25, 2007, Catania, Italy.
• “Assessing Problem Solving Strategies in Chemistry using the IMMEX System” Melanie Cooper, Ron Stevens, and Thomas Holme. Proceedings of the National STEM Assessment of Student Achievement conference, 2007, pp 118-129..
• “Drawing Meaningful Conclusions from Education Experiments” Cooper M.M. Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, Bunce, D. Cole, R eds. 2008
• Case, E.L. Cooper, M.M. Stevens, R.H. J Coll Sci Teach, 2007, 36, 42-47
• “The Effect of the Laboratory Course on Student’s Achievements and Perceptions: Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects” Cooper, Melanie M.; Kerns, Timothy S. J. Chem. Educ. 2006 83 1356
• “Chemical Equilibrium” in Teaching and Learning Creatively, Connor-Greene, P; Mobley, C; Paul, C; Waldvogel, J.A.; Wright, L and Young A. Eds. Parlor Press, West Lafayette Indiana, 2006.
• "Assessing Student Understanding with Technology: The Use of IMMEX Problems in the Science Classroom" Charles T. Cox Jr., Joni Jordan, Melanie M. Cooper, Ron Stevens. The Science Teacher, 2006, 73, 56.
• The Top Ten Reasons Why a Chemistry Department Should Hire Chemistry Education Faculty Members, Melanie M Cooper Chem. Educator 10 (2005) 1, 50-52
• “Modeling the Development of Problem-Solving Skills in Chemistry with a Web-Based Tutor” Stevens, R. Soller, A, Cooper, M. M. Sprang, M. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems” 2004, Springer Verlag
• “A Chemists Guide to Effective Teaching:” Cooper M. M., Greenbowe, T., and Pienta, N. Eds. Prentice Hall, 2005.
• “An Introduction to Small Group Learning” in “A Chemists Guide to Effective Teaching:” Cooper M. M., Greenbowe, T., and Pienta, N. Eds. Prentice Hall, 2005.
• “ACS General Chemistry” J. Bell, Editor, Freeman, 2005
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