Dr. Amanda Bongers
Assistant ProfessorAmanda joined Queen’s in July 2019 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Chemistry and leads the Queen’s Chemistry Education Research group.
Amanda grew up in a small town in Southern Ontario, where she learned by exploring and asking questions about nature. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry (2011) in the co-operative program at the University of Waterloo, where she grew a passion for synthetic organic chemistry. She went on to complete her Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry (2016) at the University of Ottawa with Prof. André Beauchemin, making many new and colourful heterocycles along the way.
She then took a postdoctoral position (2016-2019) in the fields of Chemistry Education and Neuroscience, under the supervision of Prof. Alison Flynn (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Georg Northoff (Royal Ottawa Mental Health Institute).
Phung Nguyen
M.Sc. StudentMy name is Phung. I am a Vietnamese by birth, a Singaporean by education and hopefully will be a Canadian by profession. I believe education is the future of humanity—in this age of fast-paced technological advancement, it is even more pressing that mankind should be well-educated because with great power comes great responsibility to wield it. I graduated from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a B.Sc. Honours in Chemistry and Biological Chemistry in 2017. Afterwards, I worked in the education industry for 3 years before joining Bongers’ group in Fall 2020 as an M.Sc. student. I was fascinated to find that Chemistry Education is a recognized field of research where systematic investigations could improve classroom practices. But above all, it is the like-minded people I have been meeting with since I joined Chemistry Education that makes this journey a surreal experience. I am currently exploring the effect of multimodal encoding on memory performance in First-Year Undergraduate Organic Chemistry.
Kristin Drescher
Summer Research StudentHello! My name is Kristin Drescher. I am a 4th year concurrent education student at Queen’s in the intermediate/senior stream. I am an honours chemistry major, and my second teachable is fine art. I am also working towards having the qualifications to get teaching ABQs in physics, math, and biology. I will be working in Dr. Bongers’ Queen’s Chemistry Education Research Group this summer and then next fall and winter for my 4th year thesis. I am currently taking on a project with Dr. Bongers to study the effects on innovation and learning from a student-in-residence program within chemistry research groups in the Queen’s Chemistry Department. I am so excited to be a part of this research!
Outside of school, I love animals, skiing, nature, and time with family and friends! When everything is up and running, I am a part of Queen’s archery and ASUS Lost Paws. Feel free to email me at kmd11@queensu.ca to say hi or ask any questions.
Alex Parker
Undergraduate Thesis ProjectHello everyone! My name is Alex Parker. I am a fourth-year student in the Concurrent Education program at Queen’s. I am completing a B.ScH in Chemistry with a minor in French. I joined the Queen’s Chemistry Education Research Group in September 2021 to work with Dr. Bongers on my undergraduate chemistry thesis. My research delves into the barriers to integrating green and sustainable chemistry in organic chemistry classrooms.
Feel free to contact me at 17agp1@queensu.ca!
Cameron Aerts
Undergraduate Thesis ProjectCameron is a fourth-year student in the Concurrent Education program at Queen’s. He is working towards an Honours degree in chemistry and a second teachable subject in vocal music. Cam grew up on a farm outside Ailsa Craig, Ontario, where his passion for learning about science and the environment was cultivated. Cameron’s research considers how we can make chemistry education more accessible for students in a society where science is becoming increasingly important.
Alaina Boyd, Ph.D.
CollaboratorAlaina grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She completed her undergraduate studies at Acadia University, including her honours thesis on cisplatin derivatives with Dr. Robert Gossage. She went on to complete her PhD at Queen’s University with Dr. Philip Jessop and Dr. Erwin Buncel on new applications of switchable solvents. While completing her PhD, Alaina developed passions for both green chemistry and chemical education. Since then, she has taught first- and third-year courses at Queen’s and is thrilled to be working with the QCER group, first as a PDF and now as a collaborator, to explore how to integrate green chemistry into standard chemical education.
Past group members
Con. Ed. B.ScH Specialization in Biology - Psychology
Pursuing an M.Sc. in Epidemiology at McGill
Pursuing a degree in Outdoor Education
Continuing with a B. Ed. degree at Queen's
Brand Ambassador for Beiersdorf
Exploring ways to help students with spatial tasks
Policy Engineer at Environment and Climate Change and Canada
Pursuing PhD at McGill, Fall 2020
Joined the Sales Leadership Development Program with Fritolay
If you’re interested in joining our group please check out the application guidelines and email Prof. Bongers at amanda.bongers@queensu.ca with your curriculum vitae or resume.