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Group of people standing around an oversized chair smiling

RELiC fall fun

Members of RELiC joined friends from the Pazicni group at Sutter’s Ridge farm on 10/18 to enjoy cider, pick pumpkins and navigate a corn maze.

Diagram showing teachers' epistemic learning goals relating to instruction, assessment, and curricular materials, which in turn influence how and why students engage in class activities

We should talk about our epistemic learning goals

Lindsay, Aaron and Ryan just published a paper on how iterative, scaffolded sensemaking can help teachers refine their epistemic learning goals and how these are communicated. Check this paper out in Science Education!

Diagram with two side-by-side squares, one reading "cooking" and the other reading "chemistry" a circle reading "Mixing and Manipulating" overlaps with both squares and a third area labeled with "Other activities"

Maybe cooking isn’t chemistry

Noah and Ryan argue that “the relationship between scientific and everyday practices is more complicated and less obvious than is claimed” and illustrate this by unpacking the many ways in which cooking is not chemistry. Check out their paper in Science Education!

Three circles describing different aspects of epistemic agency

We try to clarify epistemic agency

A new paper by Brie, Andy and Ryan tries to sharpen how we talk and think about epistemic agency. Out now in Science Education!

Pie chart showing the skills emphasized on general chemistry exams. These are mostly mathematical skills and unjustified claims.

What counts in general chemistry?

Nicole, Niall, and Ryan took a look at what was emphasized and rewarded on general chemistry exams given across the nation. Check out their paper in the Journal of Chemical Education describing these findings.

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The RELiC lab is a community of students, teachers, and faculty who work to understand what would be required for chemistry classes to support learning that is useful in daily life. This agenda is multi-faceted and requires attending to how people and communities use chemistry in daily life, considering how (or whether) knowing and learning in-class resembles knowing and learning in-life, and de-settling taken-for-granted assumptions about what chemistry learning could and should look like. Although our physical space is housed in the chemistry department, members of our community have a range of disciplinary expertise and the questions we ask resonate beyond school chemistry.

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Latest News

  • Let’s talk about epistemic learning goals

    Lindsay, Aaron, and Ryan’s recent paper in Science Education suggests that dialogue around how we assess and support epistemic learning goals would be useful. You can read their paper by clicking this…

  • What do we mean by “epistemic agency”?

    Brie, Andy and Ryan think we should have better answers to the above question. Check out their paper on clarifying epistemic agency by considering multiple facets of epistemic cognition! You can find…

  • What if cooking isn’t chemistry?

    If you’ve ever thought that cooking was clearly the same thing as chemistry, it might be worth taking a look at Noah and Ryan’s new paper on the subject. They argue, “the…

  • Welcome, Lily and Lexi!

    The RELiC lab is excited to announce Lily Apte and Lexi Mann have joined the group!

  • Our study describing what counts in general chemistry was just published in JCE!

    Congrats to Nicole and Niall on their insightful look into what was emphasized and rewarded on general chemistry exams given throughout the US!