Women Chemists Committee

LINDA BRAZDIL

School: Prairie Crossing Charter School (previously at Illinois Math and Science Academy) Title: Director Education: Notre Dame College of Ohio – BS Case Western Reserve University – MS and PhD In high school I was fascinated with chemistry because it helped to explain how and why many observed phenomena occurred. The further I went in my studies, the more fascinated I became. I find the excitement of watching my students learn very rewarding. Including paid and volunteer positions, I have been in chemical education 26 years.

What I most like about by work is watching students grow in knowledge over time and knowing that I have helped to provide the conditions for that growth to occur.

My philosophy of ChemEd at the elementary/middle school is helping students to first become good observers and recorders and then to help them ask questions and conduct experiments that will help them to understand basic chemistry in a variety of situations. At the high school level (where I started) it is to solidify students understanding of how to interpret chemical phenomena and apply chemical principals in the laboratory and in areas of current research of interest to them.

I am currently developing curriculum for 7th and 8th grades, including chemistry principles and their application to environmental studies for these grades as they are added to my school. I still find excitement in learning more chemistry and its connections to other sciences. I hope to continue to be able to inspire this excitement in students.

Honors:

Award for Excellence in Catalysis from The Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York (one of nine team members of the BP Propane Ammoxidation Catalyst Team named on the award), May 2001
Joan P. Lambros Service Award from the Fluorine Chapter of Iota Sigma Pi, April 1998. Outstanding Alumna of the Chemistry Department, Notre Dame College of Ohio, 1994. Notre Dame College of Ohio’s 70th Anniversary Outstanding Alumnae Award, 1992. Cleveland Technical Societies Council 1991 Technical Achievement Award. Inducted into BP America Inventors Hall of Fame, 1990.

American Chemical Society, Cleveland Section, Chair and Director
Iota Sigma Pi, National President, and Editor
ISBE Scientific Literacy Advisory Committee, 1993-1999
First in the World Consortium Executive Committee Advisory Group, 2000-2002
Advisory Committee for National Board Certification in the Chicago Public Schools, 2003-present