Don Wink - dwink@uic.edu

  Professor, Chemistry, LAS and Director of Graduate Studies

  4478 SES : 312-413-7383

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Donald J. Wink is Professor and former Head in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has engaged in several materials and curriculum development projects since he arrived there for a faculty position as Coordinator of General Chemistry in 1992. Prior to that he was an assistant professor at New York University engaged in research in theoretical, synthetic, and applied organometallic chemistry. He was trained at the University of Chicago (S.B.) and at Harvard University (Ph.D.). His current projects are diverse but share a theme of crossing boundaries, often using student pathways as a source of inspiration and direction. His first UIC project joined preparatory chemistry and intermediate algebra curricula in a curriculum development and research project that demonstrated gains for student outcomes in later chemistry classes (Wink et al 2001) and the publication of a new "math-aware" preparatory chemistry text, The Practice of Chemistry. A later project, discussed in this paper, involved faculty from other departments that require general chemistry in the development of scenario-based laboratory instruction. His most recent work focuses on issues of teaching in K-12 settings, including a collaborative for teacher preparation that brought together UIC and area community college and an NSF GK-12 project for intervention in schools. As part of the latter project he is a regular participant in activities at Crane Tech Prep High School on Chicago's West Side, where he works with a community of administrators, teachers, and students addressing some of the most challenging teaching and learning issues of urban schools. Not surprisingly, he relies on a network of valuable colleagues and coauthors within the greater Chicago area.