Dr. Maureen Scharberg is an Associate Dean for the College of Science, Director of the Science Education Program and Professor of Chemistry, specializing in chemical education, at San Jose State University.  She serves as the BA Chemistry and BA Chemistry, Teacher Preparation Advisor.  She has been at San Jose State since 1991.

 

Her previous research experience is in protein NMR investigations of heme proteins before expanding her research interests to chemical education fourteen years ago.  Her research interests involve how non-science majors learn and perceive chemistry, developing effective teaching and learning curricula and strategies for the chemistry classroom and developing and implementing course and program evaluation plans.  She has received numerous awards for her excellence in teaching chemistry.  Her past projects have including developing and implementing a "blended" general and organic four-semester course sequence for the NSF "New Traditions" Project for the Systemic Reform of Undergraduate Chemistry.  Currently, she served on the writing team for the ACS Chemistry textbook project.  Her main contribution to this project was the "Faculty Resource On-Line Guide" (FROG), an instructor "script" for teaching inquiry-based, activity-based general chemistry curricula.  This text was published in March 2004. The FROG has received excellent reviews from both field testers and reviewers.

 

She serves on the AP Chemistry Development Team for the College Board.  For over six years, she has been an active member of the ACS Society of Education Committee and currently serves as the Subcommittee B Higher Education Chair.  Her work on this committee focuses on successful transitions between two-year and four-year colleges.

 

From the beginning of the Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership (SCCBEP) in 1992 through 2001, Dr. Scharberg was the Executive Director of SCCBEP and was responsible for providing the leadership, administration and sustainability to this program.  Now, she is working with SRI to bring nanotechnology education to Silicon Valley�s high school classrooms.

 

She has been involved with many high school and college chemistry teacher workshops, both locally and nationally.  Most notably, she organized the ACS Division of Chemical Education, Operation PROGRESS-IV (Professional Regional Outreach Groups for Revitalizing and Enhancing Secondary Science) at Clemson University in 1996 for 55 high school chemistry teachers.  Six years later at a follow-up workshop in November 2002, over half of the 55 OP-IV teachers met and confirmed the lasting impact of this 4-day workshop on their professional careers in teaching high school chemistry.  She continues to provide workshops to both elementary and high schoolteachers and enjoys working with teachers to bring the excitement of chemistry into their classrooms.