BYU professor Jennifer Nielson is a chemistry enthusiast, humanitarian, and self-proclaimed ‘nerd’—but first and foremost she is a teacher.
“At this point I’ve taught over 10,000 students and I’ve been here ten years, so that tells you the volume of students that I interact with every year,” Nielson said.
Nielson’s passion, experience, and skill in teaching recently led to her receiving the BYU Karl G. Maeser Professional Faculty Excellence Award at this year’s Annual University Conference. This award recognizes outstanding achievement among professional faculty in citizenship and professional service.
Although she went on to earn three degrees in chemistry, Nielson didn’t initially realize she was interested in the subject until she took Chem105 at BYU.
“It’s not like I did great in it—it was probably the lowest grade I got in college,” Nielson said. “But it was so interesting that I changed my major to chemistry.”
Nielson’s passion for chemistry carries over into her teaching.
“Whether you love chemistry or you hate chemistry, I think by the time you get through with my class . . . you’ll say it is pretty cool,” Nielson said.
That zeal for teaching eventually led Nielson to work with secondary schools in Kampala, Uganda.
Nielson first visited Uganda as a chaperone on a mentored research abroad trip with her husband. When the family visited schools for humanitarian projects, Nielson had the opportunity to speak with the teachers.
“Every time I went into a school I would talk to the chemistry teacher, and I was amazed at what they were doing in Uganda,” Nielson said. “In Uganda, they’re taking four to six years [of chemistry].”
Despite the extensive years of instruction they receive in chemistry, Nielson said most students perform poorly and aren’t interested in the subject. So she started visiting schools and doing chemistry demonstrations for the students.
“I realized I can’t reach all the students, [but] what I can do is reach the faculty,” Nielson said.
After this realization, Nielson created a workshop for teachers where she taught them a more demonstrative teaching style to help them better engage their students. All the demonstrations are water-based to limit costs and waste management issues.
One teacher who attended Nielson’s first workshop two years ago said that he had a student who was failing chemistry and hated the subject.
“Almost in tears, he told me that on the last exam she earned a B and she was so excited,” Nielson said.
Nielson returns to Uganda annually to teach more workshops and train teachers to run workshops so the program will be sustainable.
This year, Nielson plans to teach two workshops: one for current teachers and one for students training to be teachers. Additionally, she’s currently working with the Ugandan Ministry of Education to redesign their chemistry curriculum.