May 13, 2025
Guest
Colleen Kelley Creating fun and accessible chemistry stories has been a labor of love for Colleen, as a retired chemistry professor and author of a series of kid’s chemistry comic books. In 2023, the PBS short documentary, “Comic Book Chemistry,” was awarded an Emmy.
Colleen holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State University and was a tenured professor with research expertise in environmental toxicology, medicinal chemistry, and chemistry education.
Why This Episode Matters
In this interview, Dr. Colleen discusses her journey from teaching college chemistry to developing "molecular literacy" programs for children ages 4-10. Inspired by her childhood experience with the Three Mile Island incident and challenges teaching college students, she created comic books with character-based storytelling to make chemistry accessible. She believes building neural pathways for understanding chemistry symbols early helps overcome traditional learning barriers and promotes lifelong scientific curiosity.
Three Important Takeaways
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Chemistry education faces significant challenges, with a 50% failure rate among college students, often because they lack foundational understanding of molecular symbols and concepts.
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Teaching "molecular literacy" through storytelling and character-based learning engages young learners and creates neural pathways that make advanced chemistry concepts more accessible later in life.
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Chemistry education should extend beyond traditional classroom settings to help people of all ages (8-108) understand scientific concepts relevant to climate change, health issues, and daily life.