Dr Jenny Burnham from the University of Sheffield will be our second speaker in the afternoon session, presenting a talk with the title: “Harnessing students’ potential – Stories of engagement, empowerment, and success”.
Jenny’s career teaching chemistry in higher education has spanned 20 years and she is now PFHEA, University of Sheffield Education Prize award winner and NTF (nominee), chair of RSC-HEG, and an enthusiastic member of the HE Chemistry Education community. Her expertise encompasses laboratory education, professional skills development, the student experience, and working as a teaching specialist, and she is interested in everything related to student education. And boron.
Jenny first arrived at the University of Bristol School of Chemistry in 1993 as a wide-eyed UCAS applicant hoping for a place on their BSc Chemistry with Studies in Continental Europe. Four Bristol undergraduate years was followed by three more for her PhD (at Bristol) with Peter Timms. There she blew up fewer things than he did, but (as Chris enjoyed reminding her) entered X-ray folklore with one particular boron fluoride (sorry JJ) with her boron fluorides. It was during her PhD that Jenny crossed paths with Chris Adams. Bristol inorganic chemists (at that time) loved to chat and a firm community revolved around “our” section of the tea room, with regular social activities and a memorable trip to Alton Towers (Chris was driving when the minibus broke down and we ended up taxiing home).
Jenny started as a teaching assistant at the University of Sheffield in 2005, joining a well-established community of ex-Bristol inorganic chemists and keeping up with developments at Bristol and organising a road-trip for Sheffield’s teaching team to the newly-opened ChemLabS when Tom Podesta was in charge. Jenny and Chris resumed contact when he returned to a teaching position at Bristol. From non-academic positions, Chris became a lecturer and Jenny a University Teacher, cheering on each others’ initiatives and achievements and aligning ducks in their quest for teaching domination recognition. For Chris, this included hosting a slick and well-attended Variety in Chemistry Education-Physics Higher Education Conference in 2019 with unparalleled catering (Chris credits Paul Wyatts skills here), baby-friendly sessions (Lecture Theatre 1’s projection booth), and accommodation that is probably better forgotten (shared bathrooms at CHH…).
Then came the pandemic and everything went online. This provided new challenges but also familiarity with collaboration software enabling much more regular communication and interaction between people in far-flung parts of the country (like Manchester, Sheffield, and Bristol). The encouragement of peers (like Chris’s challenging the establishment philosophy) gives Jenny confidence and motivation to move onwards and upwards developing her career as a chemistry education specialist in higher education and this talk will cover some of the fun things she has done with students along the way.