The RELIC lab is a community of students, teachers and faculty who work to understand what would be required for chemistry classes to support learning that is useful in daily life. This agenda is multi-faceted and requires attending to how people and communities use chemistry in daily life, considering how (or whether) knowing and learning in-class resembles knowing and learning in-life, and de-settling taken-for-granted assumptions about what chemistry learning could and should look like. Although our physical space is housed in the chemistry department, members of our community have a range of disciplinary expertise and the questions we ask resonate beyond school chemistry.
Latest News
Congrats, Dr. Greco on a great defense!
After a great defense, Nicole now goes by Dr. Greco :). Congrats, Nicole!
April 29, 2026Congrats to Niall on passing his TBE!!!
Niall did a predictably awesome job on his Thesis Background Exam (TBE). Congrats, Niall!
April 3, 2026Mythbusters paper published
Ryan joined an international team of colleagues to think about common myths related to teaching and learning in organic chemistry. The article is worth a read!
February 10, 2026Getting serious about useful chemistry learning would be a (worthy) challenge
Ryan’s perspective on how we might advance chemistry learning useful beyond school was just published in JCE. Check it out!
January 6, 2026Check out our new paper on keeping research plumb!
Congrats to Nicole, Rosemary, and Ryan on their paper unpacking how they worked to design and carry out a theoretically coherent study of instructors’ epistemologies.
November 12, 2025- More News posts