We are currently recruiting both undergraduate and graduate students. Information on expectations and project areas can be found below.
If you are interested in being part of the research team, please send an email using the link at the bottom of the page.
How we work
Our group is strongly collaborative and works together in small teams on tasks for specific projects. We value the unique perspectives each individual brings to the research team and encourage frequent questions and open communication. All teams meet at least weekly to share updates and plan next steps. Research team members use online laboratory notebooks to keep track of their daily work, communicate with each other, and share progress with project leads.
Though we are passionate about our work and the impact it has on student success in chemistry courses, we also value the health and well-being of our research team members. We encourage all students to develop a weekly schedule that reflects their priorities and long term goals and to make research one piece of a larger professional development plan. In our full research group meetings with all team members we focus on preparing students for success in their future careers by inviting guests to talk about their journeys both within and outside academia. We also use this time to give peer feedback on presentations and publications as well as celebrate the successes of team members.
Skills we use
Since much of our work is related to the analysis of survey data, our group frequently uses quantitative research methods. However, we recognize the value and importance of developing a well rounded research skill set. Therefore, team members are encouraged to develop competencies across areas related to the use of frameworks in education research, qualitative methods, and quantitative methods. See this recent editorial in the Journal of Chemical Education for details about standards for chemistry education research. All studies that involve use of human subjects data require research team members to complete Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Human Subjects Research Training.
Some specific skills you will develop as part of our team include
- Human subjects research
- Survey design, deployment, and analysis
- Understanding of psychometric principles
- Interviewing and coding of qualitative data
- Descriptive and inferential statistics
- Reproducible data analysis using the R statistical software
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate students in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department earning Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees are required to conduct research. It is strongly encouraged to start research early in your academic career so that you can more deeply engage in a project.
In the Komperda group, undergraduate students are typically paired with a more senior undergraduate or graduate student to learn the specific skills needed for each project. Most undergraduate students in our group have worked on the CHIRAL project, which involves reading chemistry education journal articles and extracting relevant instrument information (topic, number of items, format, etc.) for inclusion on the CHIRAL website. See an example of our undergraduate research presentations at the SDSU Student Symposium in 2023.
Graduate Research
In addition to work on specific group projects, graduate students (both MS and PhD) are encouraged to pursue their own research questions for thesis and dissertation work so that they can begin to develop skills as independent researchers. Graduate students can receive funding through either research assistantship (RA) or teaching assistantship (TA) positions while in the program.
Master’s Degree
The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at SDSU offers both Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Science (MS) degrees. The MS degree requires a research project and thesis defense.
All Master’s students admitted to the Chemistry & Biochemistry department must take orientation exams in the traditional chemistry content areas (Analytical, Biochemistry, Inorganic, Organic, and Physical) and complete 24 hours of graduate level chemistry coursework. Since the field of chemistry education research draws from other disciplines such as psychology and education, graduate students in the Komperda group often take additional coursework in these departments to develop the skills necessary to conduct research.
View a past MS thesis from the Komperda group: Influencing Agents: A qualitative study and characterization of undergraduate research experiences with chemistry and biochemistry students
Doctoral Degree
Due to the unique structure of the California higher education system, SDSU partners with schools in the University of California system to offer joint doctoral programs (JDP). At this time, the most appropriate path for a student interested in a PhD in chemistry education research is to first earn a Master’s degree in chemistry (can be from SDSU) and then apply to the Mathematics and Science Education Doctoral (MSED) Program.
The MSED program is a rich interdisciplinary program that integrates both mathematics and science education capitalizing on faculty and research expertise from both SDSU and UCSD courses and faculty. Students in the program can choose to specialize in chemistry education research and conduct dissertation research with the Komperda group focused in a chemistry context.
View a past PhD dissertation from the Komperda group: Exploring graduate student identity development and the intersection of multiple sub-identities
A publication resulting from dissertation research:
Corrales, A. & Komperda, R. (2022). Characterizing graduate student identity development in the context of an integrated research and teaching graduate student training course. Journal of Chemical Education. 99(4), 1747-1757. doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00927