PAMELA MARKS

Principal Lecturer

  Office: H-238  
  Phone: (480)965-7214  
  Fax: (480) 965-2747
  Email: pmarks@asu.edu

Research and Teaching Interests

The main focus of my teaching at ASU the past 14 years (since 1995) has been in Introductory Chemistry (CHM 101), General Chemistry for Engineers (CHM 114), and General Chemistry II (CHM 116). I currently teach three large-enrollment lecture courses each semester. I use multimedia and interactive activities to enhance student learning in the classroom. I feel that the purpose of the lecture hour is to help students get a sense of the "big picture," and to help students draw connections between what they know and what they are learning. However, success in chemistry requires that students spend a lot of time learning chemistry outside of class, such as reading, doing lots of problems, and working in small groups outside of class. I encourage student-student interactions and student-instructor interactions outside of the classroom through assignments such as online homework and resources that I make available online.

Over the past few years, I have worked with other general chemistry faculty on a course redesign project that was implemented in the introductory and general chemistry courses starting Fall 2008. The redesign has involved designing a multimedia collaborative learning classroom for recitation sessions, developing guided-inquiry activities, adding online homework, and redesigning some of aspects of the laboratory component of each course. In addition to helping to plan the recitation room, my efforts have focused on writing the guided-inquiry activities for the CHM 101 and CHM 114 recitation sessions.

In addition to teaching and curriculum development, I have focused on specific aspects of chemical education, including new educational materials for general chemistry. My most recent publication is the 2nd edition of an introductory chemistry textbook, Introduction to Chemistry-a Conceptual Approach, published by McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Publications

"Introduction to Chemistry, 2nd Edition," R.C. Bauer, J.P., Birk, P.S. Marks, McGraw-Hill (Text Book) (2010)

"A Conceptual Introduction to Chemistry," R. C. Bauer, J. P. Birk, P. S. Marks, McGraw-Hill (Text Book) (2007)

"General Chemistry CD of CollegePro Science," J. P. Birk and P. S. Marks, Topics Entertainment (a multimedia-based study guide) (2002)

"Test Bank for Conceptual Chemistry – Understanding Our World of Atoms and Molecules," P.S. Marks, Benjamin Cummings (Electronic version and book version) (2001)

"An Electronic Companion to General Chemistry," J. P. Birk and P. S. Marks, Cogito Learning Media, Inc (a multimedia-based study guide) (2000)