News
Closing the divide between ‘green’ and ‘organic’ chemistry
Over the summer, our group has been working on a new project: developing ‘plug-and-play’ organic chemistry modules that connect the classic topics (e.g., Michael additions) with green… Read more “Closing the divide between ‘green’ and ‘organic’ chemistry”
A send-off to our graduating 4th-year students
Congrats to Manisha, James, Evan, and Sarah who all successfully wrapped up their research projects and finished their undergraduate programs! Manisha is going on to pursue a… Read more “A send-off to our graduating 4th-year students”
2020 Wrap-up
Welcome Sarah! Part way through the term, Sarah Gulycz joined the group as our first jointly-supervised 4th year thesis student. She is working with our group and… Read more “2020 Wrap-up”
Research
chemistry education research
CER is an interdisciplinary field combining chemistry theory,
educational research, and the psychology of learning.
Our group explores three main areas…
Publications: 2019-2020
Building mental models of a reaction mechanism: the influence of static and animated representations, prior knowledge, and spatial ability
Bongers, Beauvoir, Streja, Northoff, Flynn.
Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2020 21 (2), 496-512
Is Learning Scale Free? Chemistry learning increases EEG fractal power and changes the power law exponent
Bongers, Flynn, Northoff.
Neuroscience Research (in press).
Working with mental models to learn and visualize a new reaction mechanism
Bongers, Northoff, Flynn.
Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2019 20 (3), 554-569
Click here for a list of current publications on Amanda’s ORCID page
Publications: 2018 and earlier
- Intermolecular Aminocarbonylation of Alkenes using Concerted Cycloadditions of Iminoisocyanates.
Journal of Organic Chemistry 2017 82(2) 1175-1194 - Synthesis of Cyclic Azomethine Imines by Cycloaddition Reactions of N-Isocyanates and N-Isothiocyanates
Organic letters 2016 18(15), 3778-3781 - Kinetic resolution of azomethine imines by Brønsted acid catalyzed enantioselective reduction
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015 54(51), 15516-15519 - Modular Synthesis of Pyrazolones Using an Alkene Aminocarbonylation Reaction
Organic letters 2015 17(14), 3612-3615 - A tunable route for the synthesis of azomethine imines and β-aminocarbonyl compounds from alkenes
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2012 134(39), 16111-16114
Click here for a list of current publications on Amanda’s ORCID page
Team
Amanda Bongers, Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorLeads the group in studying learning in chemistry and science.
Alaina Boyd, Ph.D.
CollaboratorStudying sustainability and green chemistry in education
Phung Nguyen
M.Sc. StudentStudying the effects of drawing on chemistry learning.
Kristin Drescher
Summer Research StudentCon. Ed. B. Sc. Chemistry
Victoria Yu
NSERC USRA StudentCon. Ed. B.ScH Specialization in Biology - Psychology
Please email Prof. Bongers with your CV if you are interested in joining our group!
Active studies
Recruiting for study “Multi-modal learning of organic reaction mechanisms”
We are looking for undergraduate and graduate students who are (or were) enrolled in chemistry courses at Queen’s to participate in an online research study about learning and memory in chemistry! The study is part of a research project by Prof. Bongers and her research assistant Manisha Blaskevitch, and is not related to the courses in any way. The study takes place online over two sessions, one week apart, for a total of around 1 hour.
Contact Prof. Bongers to sign up!
This study has been approved by the Queen’s General Research Ethics Board (GREB). For more information contact Prof. Bongers. Any questions about ethics can be directed to the GREB at
chair.GREB@queensu.ca