News
Our research is now funded by NSERC!
It’s been difficult to keep this news under wraps… the Government of Canada officially announced the NSERC Discovery Grant results, and our research program was funded! We’ll… Read more “Our research is now funded by NSERC!”
Some good news!
Welcome to the new students joining the group (remotely) this summer 🌞 Welcome to Manisha Blaskevitch, a student entering her 4th year in chemistry, and congratulations for… Read more “Some good news!”
Undergrad thesis presentations
What a weird way to end the semester! Congratulations to Josh and Katie who pulled through with fantastic virtual presentations of their thesis work. Josh wrapped up… Read more “Undergrad thesis presentations”
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
Sustainability in chemistry 
Chemistry has a central role to play in solving global challenges, but is this how we teach chemistry? We are exploring how sustainability is incorporated into general and organic chemistry education in Canada, and if a curriculum centered on sustainability improves students’ success and attitudes!
Cognition & learning 
We’re combining research tools from educational research, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience to study learning in science. This project is interdisciplinary at its core; our goals are to both impact classrooms and inform future research. With our approach, hypotheses from learning can be translated into research questions to be tested with cognitive science, and similarly, discoveries in cognitive science can be translated into practices to be implemented and researched in the educational context.
self-concept in education 
Chemists are skilled in asking questions, developing and using models, and interpreting data, but are educators helping students develop these skills, or testing their abilities in these areas (hint: no!)? We’re exploring ways to incorporate these Science Practices into learning and assessments, and if these changes increase students’ self-concept as scientists, attitudes towards chemistry, and academic achievement.
Team
Dr. Amanda Bongers
Assistant ProfessorLeads the group in studying learning in chemistry and science
Manisha Blaskevitch
B.Sc. Student, ChemistryStudying multimodal learning and memory in chemistry
Alex Hemmerich
Con. Ed. B.Sc. Student, BiochemistryExploring ways to help students with spatial tasks
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.
All participants will receive a $10 gift card for compensation. Click here 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