Resumen de Tell Me More, Tell Me More: Introducing the Virtual Festschrift for Stacey Lowery Bretz
The music from the iconic movie Grease (1) filled the car as we sat on the side of Interstate 70 outside of Columbus, Ohio; we had made a quick detour on our way to the 36th Central Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. I learned an important lesson that day: one cannot hand jive and drive (safely!) at the same time. So, there we sat as the music played. Indeed, I believe we listened to it a second time before continuing our journey! This is just one of many fond memories I have of my time with Stacey Lowery Bretz over the last 20 years. These memories transcend the academic, as they do for many in the chemistry education research field. Professor Bretz clearly demonstrates that it is okay to embrace and celebrate your humanity. You can, for example, be a dedicated mother and faculty member at the same time. You can hold high expectations for your students but simultaneously provide them with understanding grace when life inevitably intervenes. It also means you can pull over to the side of the road on the way to a conference for a lighthearted moment of frivolity.
As a child, Professor Bretz remembers constantly asking her teachers and parents two questions: (1) how did that happen? and (2) why did that happen? This natural curiosity served her well, as she was eventually offered a position by her tenth-grade chemistry teacher to participate in enzymatic catalysis research after school. For three years, Stacey worked with Mrs. Palmer and the other students in the group, and along the way she won several awards for that research, traveled on her first airplane to present the results at an international meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and most importantly, met a fellow student who a decade later would become her husband. This pivotal opportunity changed the trajectory of Stacey’s life and exemplifies the impact teachers can make on the lives of their students.
After studies at Cornell University (B.A., Chemistry, 1989) and Penn State (M.S., Inorganic Chemistry, 1991), Stacey returned to Cornell to work on a Ph.D. in chemistry education research (1994) with Dr. Joseph Novak, one of the original proponents of the use of constructivist theory and meaningful learning to understand how students learn science. Her postdoctoral position working with Dr. Angelica Stacy at the University of California, Berkeley (1994–1995) is widely considered to be one of the first in the field of chemistry education research. Academic appointments at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (1995–2000), Youngstown State University (2000–2005), and Miami University (2005–2023) followed. During that time, Professor Bretz’s prominence in the field grew, and in 2020 she was the recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Award for Achievement in Research on Teaching and Learning of Chemistry.
As an educator, Professor Bretz has taught thousands of general chemistry students, designed and delivered coursework specifically targeting K-12 science teachers, and educated dozens of graduate students in chemistry education research theory and methodologies. She has served as the primary research mentor for five postdoctoral scholars, 17 Ph.D. students, five M.S. students, and over 40 undergraduates. As a researcher, she has been awarded more than $5,000,000 in external funding as principal investigator or coprincipal investigator, authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, and delivered almost 200 invited seminars and keynote addresses. She has been named a Fellow of both the ACS and the AAAS.
More recently, Stacey has found herself increasingly drawn to leadership opportunities within the academy. She spent highly successful tenures as chair of Miami University’s Academic Program Evaluation, Improvement, and Prioritization Committee (2019–2021) and the Fiscal Priorities and Budget Planning Committee (2016–2022). The deep budgetary experiences she gained led to her receiving a prestigious position within the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship Program (2021–2022) that provided her the opportunity to work within the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of the Provost at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. This immersive experience allowed her to gain invaluable experience working in a large land-grant institution with a highly decentralized structure.
On July 1, 2023, Professor Stacey Lowery Bretz took the next step in a journey that began nearly three decades ago when she assumed the mantle of Dean of the Getty College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio Northern University, becoming Dean Stacey Lowery Bretz. Given this transition, it is only appropriate to look back at the tremendous impact that Stacey has had on the chemistry education research community via this Festschrift. The contents of this Festschrift include articles highlighting Dean Bretz’s work in three main areas:
1. Cognitive Theories and Meaningful Learning 2. Concept Inventory Building and Use 3. Laboratory Learning Each theme includes seminal articles authored or coauthored by Stacey Lowery Bretz, followed by a series of more recent papers that build upon her foundational work.
