CBC Ochem Teaching Milestone
Picture (from left) Professor Njardarson, Evamaria, Jillian, Cassidy, and Palmer. Also shown is Evamaria’s trusted companion Chauncey.
This semester Professor Jon T. Njardarson had the great pleasure of personally teaching University of Arizona undergraduate student Evamaria Tanori Contreras, who is blind, organic chemistry in his CHEM 241a class. Evamaria is the first blind student to take organic chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC), which presented an amazing opportunity for Professor Njardarson to learn about how to find fun and productive ways to communicate to Evamaria about the wonders of organic chemistry.
After reaching out to his broader community, it became clear that at UA and other institutions there is lack of established practices to best serve students like Evamaria. With help from the College of Science, CBC and specifically Dr. Deirdre Belle-Oudry, Professor Njardarson was able to get tactile-drawing boards, which allowed him and Evamaria to draw structures and communicate effectively. Furthermore, with help from the UA Disability Resource Center (DRC), textbook chapters were printed in braille and all custom educational support materials and exams that Professor Njardarson created for Evamaria were printed in braille in a timely fashion by the DRC.
Special thanks to Barb Lopez, Dawn Hunziker and Annissa Stout at the DRC. Professor Njardarson was further supported by his awesome preceptors (Cassidy L. Zimmerman, Palmer H. Grabner and Jillian Sweetland). During this semester, Professor Njardarson customized organic chemistry models to uniquely fit Evamaria’s need to enable her to master all aspects of CHEM241a, which she did with flying colors. Professor Njardarson is currently compiling these experiences and best practices into a journal article for the Journal of Chemical education.
March 2023 Update:
After hearing about Evamaria’s organic chemistry success story, the Arizona Daily Star reached out to get the scoop.
The new story features insights from Evamaria, Dr. Njardarson, the DRC, and Evamaria’s roommate and Organic-Chemistry Preceptor Cassidy Zimmerman.
Read the full story here.