Greg Rushton, Ph.D.

Chemical Education, Organic/Polymer Chemistry

Assistant Professor

grushton@kennesaw.edu

SC 435

(678) 797-2046

 

Detailed Research Interests:

We are currently trying to understand the factors that influence the decisions of high school teachers we work with in professional development settings either to implement or not to implement reform-based practices in their classrooms. Although all of the teachers agree that the strategies espoused by the research literature in chemistry education are effective, some do not integrate these approaches in their classrooms to any large extent. We are interested in identifying and addressing the particular challenges that these teachers face when challenged with the task of significantly changing their teaching philosophy and resultant teaching practice.

We are also working towards understanding the complex decision making process that many students travel through before choosing science teaching as a career. Since there is such a critical shortage of such teachers in the secondary setting, understanding the roadblocks to effective recruitment of science majors into teaching careers may improve the pipeline of prospective candidates into the profession. In addition, the rate at which new science teachers leave the profession is alarming, and addressing the issues that lead to the high turnover during the induction years is a high priority.

One of our ongoing chemistry education projects is the development of curriculum aimed at driving the conceptual change of students and teachers in the fundamentals of chemistry. Put in a simple way, this means helping everyone we work with to understand the basics of chemistry at a deeper level and with fewer alternate conceptions about how the natural world operates. To date, we have worked with students and teachers from grades 3-11, but have spent most of our time with middle and high school audiences.

In collaboration with Dr. Kevin Gwaltney, we are interested in preparing and characterizing novel molecularly imprinted polymers, materials capable of molecular recognition, for the purpose of discriminating between structurally similar molecules. This work has potential applications in separation science and drug delivery methodologies.

Selected Publications (KSU students are underlined):

Rushton, GT; Lotter, C; and Singer, J. “Chemistry Teachers’ Emerging Expertise in Inquiry Teaching: the Effect of an Authentic Professional Development Model on Beliefs and Practice”, Journal of Science Teacher Education, 2008, in review.

Brown, T; and Rushton, GT. “Modeling Changes in Matter, Magnifying Interest in Science”, Science Scope, 2008, accepted for publication.

Rushton, GT; Dias, M.; and McDurmon, G. “Enzyme Inquiry”, The Science Teacher, 2008, 75 (6), 60-64.

Rushton, GT; Hardy, RC; Gwaltney KP; and Lewis, SE. “Alternative Conceptions of Organic Chemistry Topics among Fourth Year Chemistry Students”, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2008, 9, 122–130.

Brown, T.; Rushton, GT; and Bencomo, M. “Mighty Molecule Models”, Science and Children, 2008, 46 (1), 33-37.

Rushton, GT; and Shimizu, KD. “Molecularly Imprinted Polymers”, Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing (EChP), 2006, 1737 - 1746.

Lee, JD; Greene, NT; Rushton, GT; Shimizu, KD; and Hong, J-I. “Carbohydrate Recognition by Porphyrin-Based Molecularly Imprinted Polymers”, Org. Lett., 2005, 7 (6), 963-966.

Rushton GT; Karns CL; and Shimizu KD. “A critical examination of the use of the Freundlich isotherm in characterizing molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs)”, Anal. Chim. Acta, 2005, 528 (1), 107-113.

Rushton GT; Furmanski B; and Shimizu KD. “Plastic antibodies: Molecular recognition with imprinted polymers - An introductory polymer chemistry laboratory investigation”, J. Chem. Educ., 2005, 82 (9), 1374-1377.