End of Week Three?

My third week here at Kemin this summer is coming to a close. Time has gone by pretty quickly. Luckily, I am working here for ten weeks this summer, otherwise, I would be half way done already. Interestingly, I believe that I have already learned more here in three weeks then I did in my six weeks here last summer and I still have a lot of time left. I discussed this in my previous post, the fact that I have learned a lot about industrial chemistry methodology. I have continued learning about the practicality of chemistry methodology, and ways to carry the real world aspects into the classroom. Also, I had an interesting conversation with my supervisor and co-worker today about the idea of teachers spending time working in the business aspect of science. We discussed the idea that you as individual do not learn about science until you actually spend time working in science, whether it be working on research as a graduate assistant, or just working with a company. The theoretical concepts learned in school help, but the experiences are the most important. My supervisor even mentioned that it would be a good idea for science teachers to work in an area of science for an extended period of time, like a couple of years before teaching, so that teachers would become more knowledgeable. I agreed with him. This program that I am working with is great at doing that, and I am glad that I have been able to do this two summers now because I have learned that much more. Hopefully the IMSEP externship program grows into a program in which all teachers have the opportunity to work with companies every summer, because it truly is the best type of professional development.

Busy Days

I have been at Kemin for over a week now in my second time around here. Things started off pretty busy at the beginning of this week. I began testing a Kemin material that the company has been looking into. I have learned a lot this week, especially in the areas of just getting used to different methods in the lab. I believe that real world chemical methods are often overlooked in the secondary high school chemistry classes. I don't think that students neccesarily need to being methods that are at the level of things done at Kemin, but some of the basic concepts need to be taught to students, especially methods like uv-visible spectroscopy and basic chromatography, because these methods are widely used in the many different types of chemical industry. I think the lack of teaching these methods may be due to lack of knowledge or resources of the teacher. Teacher's may not know how to do these methods, dispose of chemicals, or even afford the proper equipment. Professional development can definitely help in these areas, and placing teachers with companies during their summer time off is a great opportunity to develop great teaching skills that cannot be learned elsewhere. One other thing that has become clearly evident this summer is that if you want to hold a successful job, then you have to work hard, and I think a number of high school students lack this. There are many factors for this but I believe one of them is because students are not required to complete challenging work in their classes. For example, plenty of workers here at Kemin work at least 9 hours a day, and sometimes even take work home with them. Sometimes I have noticed that some classes are being watered down and the students aren't being challenged. Well, I have to get back to work here, I will try and keep on keeping you updated.

Round 2

Hello again! I am back at Kemin for another summer as a teacher extern working in partnership with the Iowa Math and Science Education Partnership. I began my second summer of work today. This year I will be working at Kemin for a total of ten weeks. Kemin has atleast three different projects in mind for me this summer and I am excited to get started. Again, due to a confidentiality agreement, I can not disclose specifics about my work this summer. One of the main projects I will begin working on immediately, deals with researching a more economical option for a Kemin product. Also, I was given a tour of the Kemin Health manufacturing area and it was pretty impressive to see things on a larger scale. Later in the day, I was able to discuss with my main team member and advisor, where we will be heading with the summer work.