The CLC Innovators Program provides an opportunity for a team of curriculum developers to come together and develop an institutionally contextualized inquiry-based chemistry laboratory experience while also gaining valuable insights into best practices in curricular reform. They will then implement the laboratory at their institution and collect student learning data on its effectiveness with the intention of sharing the experience with the wider chemistry community. Thus, the team will join a community of practice centered around broadening instructional innovation in the chemistry laboratory. Through ongoing support, community members will be well-positioned to become agents of change within the broader chemistry community.
Additionally, the project’s leadership will collect data (surveys, interviews, and laboratory artifacts) on how the CLC Innovators Program impacts the knowledge and practices of it’s participants (the chemistry laboratory curriculum developers and their students’ experiences). Therefore, the goals of this community transformation program are to broaden both: (a) the community of laboratory educators that use evidence-based practices and (b) the field’s understanding of the factors that impact chemistry laboratory curricular reform.
