Luciana Aronne, M.S.

Experience

• Graduate Research, 1992-1994
  Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
• Graduate Teaching Assistant, 1992-1994
  Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
• Undergraduate Research, 1990-1991
  University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

Teaching 

Teaching Specialties

• General Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry

Teaching Statement

I want to encourage students to think for themselves and give them the confidence to be able to logically think through any chemistry problem they may face.

Research Interests

My research involves chemistry laboratory development. I am looking for new ways to improve the laboratory program here at Penn State-Behrend by not only providing increased interest in chemistry but also by helping the student learn concepts that were introduced in the lecture. There are many ways to improve a laboratory program. The current methods talked about today are cooperative learning and discovery based laboratories. I feel there must be a way to incorporate both of these methods along with some traditional experiments to provide a laboratory course that will teach the student a lot more than just laboratory techniques for future use. Cooperative learning will help the student learn how to communicate with others and discovery based experiments will give the student the confidence to think for him or herself.

A student who works with me will most likely but not necessarily have an interest in teaching. I am currently working on new laboratory experiments for the general chemistry laboratories taught here. I usually have the student to read through chemical education journals to help us find new ideas for new experiments. These new experiments take much work since all the correct conditions for the experiment to work properly must be determined mostly through trial and error. If a student's laboratory skills are weak, they will definitely improve while working to develop new experiments. I am also trying to bring in some new experiments that the student will recognize in everyday life. I also feel that a student's opinion is very important when developing new experiments because it helps me understand the difficulty that other students would have if this laboratory experiment were introduced into the course.

I would hope that anyone choosing to work with me on this project would develop a better understanding of chemistry, improve their laboratory skills, and also realize that chemistry can be fun and exciting.