Center for Teaching Staff
4039 Main Library
(319) 335-6048
Norbert Pienta
Director
(319) 335-6048
Norbert J. Pienta became the Director of the Center for Teaching in July, 2005. He is an Associate Professor in Chemistry where he teaches large introductory courses and conducts scholarship and research in chemical education. He has been interested in using technology to collect data and promote effective pedagogy in labs; to provide homework, tutorials and self-help; and together with artificial neural network analysis as a way to study student problem solving.
Norb earned a B.S. at the University of Rochester in 1974 and left the Snow Belt to pursue a doctorate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After completing the Ph.D. in 1978, he worked as a postdoc at Pittsburgh and Duke where he first learned about the challenges of communicating chemistry. His first academic appointment was at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in 1980 where he earned tenure and was promoted in 1985.
His first real challenge in teaching was a one-semester organic course for a group of students that a colleague described as "terminally disinterested." Norb returned to his alma mater, UNC-CH in 1989 to become the Director of Laboratories and Director of Laboratory Curriculum Development. Norb has been a co-author of a textbook and lab manual for non-science majors, "Chemistry in Context," that presents the material in terms of societal issues. He is a co-author and co-editor of a monograph in print and another in preparation, "The Chemists' Guide to Effective Teaching" that provide resources for university teachers of chemistry.
Jean Florman
Associate Director
(319) 335 - 6048
Cassie Potter
Secretary
(319) 335-6048
Yeon Kyeong Kim, Journalism & Mass Communication
Graduate Assistant
(319) 335-6048
Robert Starkins, History
Graduate Assistant
(319) 335-6048
Minkyu Sung, communication Studies
Graduate Assistant
(319) 335-6048
Abby Tibbetts, Higher Education
Graduate Assistant
(319) 335-6048