First Post: Dan Meyers

Here it is. My first contributory post to the ChemEdX. My name is Dan Meyers and I am a chemistry teacher in Portage, MI which is south of Kalamazoo. The area is home to many science-related industries including Pfizer, Zoetis, Stryker, MPI Research, and the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College are post-secondary institutions nearby that some students choose to attend to further their career aspirations.

So what is it about Portage that led me to the ChemEdX? It's a simple answer really: Twitter. Doug Ragan just recently posted on ChemEdX about the power of Twitter. Lowell Thompson got here in a similar fashion. After graduate school at Indiana University I began teaching in Indianapolis, IN at a small urban parochial high school. I didn't exactly have a mentor, at least not in chemistry, or science for that matter. I did my best, though, and gained additional resources while teaching at IUPUI in the evenings. Last summer I was hired in Portage and once the school year began, I started using Twitter more and more. I'd post pictures of labs we did or read up on the latest chem ed news that peaked my interest. I started following #chemchat last fall and the rest is history. I met Erica Posthuma-Adams, Doug Ragan, Julia Winter, and Lowell Thompson among others virtually on Twitter and I recently met most of these fine chemistry teachers at BCCE a couple weeks ago.

I anticipate my contributions ranging from my work with developing/sustaining a high school organic chemistry curriculum, debriefing on conferences such as BCCE, and sharing ideas and thoughts from my own lessons in my classroom.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Feel free to comment below. You can also follow me on Twitter: @MeyersChemistry.