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Perimeter College
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CLARKSTON, Ga—Bringing her students to science through adventures in research has always been the aim of chemistry professor Dr. Vivian Mativo. The 2024 Faculty Professional Development Award recipient has been a long-time advocate of developing STEM curiosity-seeking students, as well as finding ways for her fellow faculty to enrich their own teaching practices with research.
As one of five recipients of Georgia State's 2022 Research Innovation and Scholarly Excellence Challenge seed grant, Mativo also helped develop the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research Collaborative to help faculty across disciplines share and engage in research. (The second annual SoTL Conference, one of the fruits of this program, kicks off April 30.) And last fall, she was awarded a $649,000 National Science Foundation 'EXCITE' grant to help encourage students to explore research and careers in STEM. The goal is to use research as a tool to get students excited about science, and maybe consider STEM as a career choice, she said.
Mativo developed her own love of research through her undergraduate work in laboratories, often working in labs during the summer, she said. “I just kind of fell into my chemistry major. I had been doing so many chemistry courses and realized I had enough for a major.” She went on to get both her master’s and doctorate at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
She worked at both a two-year college and four-year institutions before coming to Perimeter in 2009, after moving to Georgia from Ohio with her husband.
While Mativo specializes in teaching inorganic chemistry, she said she has taught "every single chemistry lecture and lab except Chemistry 1050."
Getting students engaged in the lab is important, she said. “I’ve always enjoyed working in labs and doing as much hands-on as possible,” Mativo said. “Even during COVID, I preferred a face-to-face format; we met once a week and the other days we did projects online.”
During the spring, you’ll typically find her conducting ice cream making “experiments’ with members of the Chemistry Club or running an Atlanta Science Festival project (this year, her ASF project dabbled in a bit of alchemy, turning pennies into “gold” and “silver"). She’s been a regular volunteer for the Atlanta metro-wide science festival since its beginnings in 2014.
For the last few years, she’s teamed up with engineering associate professor Dr. Sahithya Reddivari, traveling to Clarkston high schools and middle schools to help them in doing hands-on experiments and activities.
As a faculty advisor and mentor for students enrolled in the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Summer Bridge program, Mativo has been involved in the program almost since she stepped foot on campus 15 years ago.
She also has worked with the Honors University Assistantship Program; this semester the Honors group took samples of the soil, around the Clarkston Campus testing for trace amounts of nitrate, phosphate, and pH levels.
Her emphasis in her doctoral program was bio-inorganic chemistry, focusing on metals and biological systems. “To me, inorganic chemistry is interesting—it involves (day-to-day) stuff you can relate to with everyday products and pharmaceuticals,” she said.
She is matter-of-fact in her approach to teaching, which she adjusts to fit the class. While the science doesn’t change, how students come to class prepared to learn has changed, she said.
“For example, I have homework assignments created, but I’ve found that people used to understand the directions—and now they don’t. I’ve realized I’ve had to explain the content a different way—you need to adjust to your present audience. “
She says the collegial atmosphere in Perimeter’s science program allows faculty to thrive, giving her opportunities to pursue opportunities like the NSF grant.
“We have a lot of camaraderie and support here, and I appreciate that.”