chemistry

Heading to NASA to Become a Better Teacher

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 11:58:47 +0000

Heading to NASA to Become a Better Teacher msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 09/18/2024 - 07:58

For the past 24 years, the latter 15 at Calvin, Herb Fynewever’s primary role has been teaching. But, this fall, the chemistry professor is on a different mission—going beyond his usual surroundings on a journey of discovery.

“I love teaching at Calvin. I love teaching first-year students, and I get a lot of energy from those students,” said Fynewever. “I know you can get into a rut even when you’re doing something you love. It’s great to get out and do something different, learn something new, and breathe new life into your passions, so I’m grateful to Calvin for letting me do that.

Exploring New Terrain

Fynewever was selected as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow for NASA in Washington, D.C. As part of his fellowship, he’ll be tasked with writing the next strategic plan for The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program.

As a scientist, what excites Fynewever most is understanding the interaction between science and government.

“I’ve been really curious about this interaction between science and government, and I have a deep personal interest in policy,” said Fynewever. “If we don’t have an educated public and policymakers, then even if we get the science right, we don’t necessarily get policies that align with the evidence of science. I really wanted to get a job in the government temporarily so that I could understand a bit more of how it all works.”

Deepening His Understanding

While Fynewever is taking on the posture of a student this year, he’s most excited about how he can take what he’s learning and directly apply it when he returns to his teaching role next year.

“I can read about it in the newspaper and listen to congressional hearings,” said Fynewever, “but actually being in D.C. for a year and meeting with people who work in the government, getting to know them, meeting scientists who work in the government, seeing how it all fits together, that will help me when teaching my classes about these issues.”

Fynewever can see it being especially helpful in his “Chemistry and Public Policy” and his “Science and Society” courses.

“In my chemistry and public policy course, for example, I have students read primary literature in science and legislation and I have them watch congressional hearings, among other things, but it’ll be so much better when I can say to them, ‘when I was in D.C. this is how I saw this working.’”

Enhancing the Learning Environment

For Fynewever, it’s all about providing his students with a greater depth of learning, so that they can be the best possible citizens.

“We need an interdisciplinary approach to advance the kingdom. From Scripture, we are all given different gifts and to follow our vocation is to be faithful to the gifting that we have,” said Fynewever. “So, some of us are gifted to be scientists, to know how to collect evidence from general revelation, to learn about God’s creation. But that evidence only gets you so far. You then need to think about what we do with the evidence, that’s where I feel policymakers have an important role to play. They then take that evidence and use their gifts to determine what the appropriate, data-informed policy is. And now, what shall we do as Christians, what shall we do as humans to care for creation given what scientists have told us about it?”

Prepared to Succeed, Preparing Others to do the Same

While Fynewever’s experience is sure to benefit his future students, the fact he was selected to write the strategic plan for this major government outfit also speaks volumes to the benefit of a Calvin education.

“I think part of what’s contributed to my success is when I was taking classes at Calvin I spent a lot of time in the core curriculum learning how to write, how to discern, taking philosophy and history classes. But even in my science classes, writing well was a requirement and part of the curriculum was writing formal lab reports and getting lots of feedback,” said Fynewever. “At larger state universities, it’s just not possible to have that kind of hands-on training in technical writing, because it’s so labor intensive and when you don’t have the liberal arts values, core curriculum, small student-to-professor ratio, there’s no way to get the detailed feedback that I did as a student at Calvin.”

And Fynewever said that foundational work has allowed him to build up a competitive resume’ that is full of publications, a number of which he has co-authored with his Calvin students.

“I think part of what gave me a leg up for this position is my publication track record and seeing it’s in science education and I’m active in contributing to the literature,” said Fynewever. “They probably thought, oh he knows how to write, how to synthesize data, so this would be a good person to take data from all the stakeholders and come up with a plan to go with this data.”

And those are skills he learned at Calvin and ones he is excited to continue to impart when he returns from his latest mission.

“This is a new opportunity to learn, so I can come back re-energized with fresh insights,” said Fynewever.

Wed, 09/18/2024 - 12:00

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Discovering a World of Opportunity Just a Few Miles Away

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 12:11:56 +0000

Discovering a World of Opportunity Just a Few Miles Away msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 09/11/2024 - 08:11

When Hannah King was looking at colleges, she knew where she wasn’t going. Or so, she thought.

“I wasn’t thinking Calvin at first,” said King, who graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School.

King, whose high school sits just three miles down the road from �ƴ��ɸ��̳, felt it was just too close. With an interest in the sciences, she also had a negative perception about Christian schools compared to public research institutes.

“I was worried about the rigor…that I wouldn’t be able to go as in-depth into chemistry and the sciences,” said King. “I think it was a deep-rooted hesitancy.”

Changing her mind

But this hesitancy was ultimately uprooted when she realized the bottom line. “Calvin was significantly more affordable than the other schools I got accepted to,” said King.

So, King decided to enroll at Calvin and soon discovered that her perceptions of Calvin didn’t match reality.

“It’s been great, a lot better than I could have ever imagined,” said King. “The coursework is challenging—all of it. It’s very in depth. And my profs are respected and established in their fields.”

Finding opportunities right away

At Calvin, King found research opportunities right out of the gate.

“[After my] first year of college, I applied to Calvin’s institutional research program, and I was so surprised I got in,” said King.

She spent the first two summers at Calvin doing research alongside Professor Laura Westrate, which prepared her to compete for competitive internships across the country following her junior year.

Working with Calvin’s Career Center, King applied for multiple internships and was accepted into four of them. Ultimately, she decided to take the internship with Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech company in Boston, Massachusetts, which came with both moving and housing stipends.

“They are a contract company,” said King. “If Merck or Moderna want something done but don’t have the resources to do it or if it’s cheaper for them to outsource, my company will do that project for them. Because of all the instruments and specialists we have, we can do a lot of projects.

“Big pharma companies in early-stage vaccine development want us to help make vaccine components and test to see what’s in them,” said King. “My job is to see exactly what we are making, and what are the impurities.”

Equipped for success

While King had never done this particular type of chemistry research before, she was drawing heavily on lessons she learned at Calvin—about how through failure you ultimately find success.

“Because I had done research before at Calvin with Calvin profs, I knew that I was not going to be perfect, there would be mistakes, some experiments would fail, and I would have to troubleshoot and try again,” said King. “So, it was helpful to focus on using my mistakes to become better instead of considering it a wasted day. Calvin introduced that mindset [to me]...using my failures for learning.”

King said her colleagues took notice of this skill: “I was complimented on that a lot by my colleagues,” said King. “Other people are starting to realize how well Calvin has equipped me.”

And King is realizing that too.

“I am glad I came here. I feel that Calvin has given me exactly what I was looking for and proved my pre-judgments wrong,” said King.

King, a senior chemistry and French double major, is finishing up her time at Calvin. She’s in the midst of applying to PhD programs.

“I want to keep learning and see where it takes me,” said King.

Wed, 09/11/2024 - 12:00

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