Professor Jennifer Farmer (ChemE) has been chosen as the 2024 recipient of the Wighton Fellowship. Awarded by the Sandford Fleming Foundation to just one recipient nationwide each year, the fellowship recognizes excellence in the development and teaching of laboratory-based courses in undergraduate engineering programs.
Farmer, who joined ChemE in 2016, is a teaching-stream faculty member who received her PhD in chemistry from York University. One of her objectives since joining the department has been studying the effectiveness of virtual labs and the best process to implement them. She created a web-based framework including short, narrated animations aimed at explaining content and theory related to each experiment before they are physically performed by students. Justifications around experimental procedures were also included. This complementary combo improved the learning outcomes of ChemE undergraduate students who expressed increased awareness and motivation.