AACT Member Spotlight: Chris Vyhnal



Every month AACT spotlights a passionate member who is dedicated to enhancing chemistry inside and outside the classroom. This month, we spotlight Chris Vyhnal. He teaches Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Science at The Thacher School in Ojai, California. 

Tell us about yourself.

I have a bachelor's and master's degree in Geology and a Ph.D. in Geochemistry, and I've been teaching some combination of geology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy for my 30 years as a science educator in private high schools. I chaired the Science Department for 18 of my 21 years here at The Thacher School, and I also coach girls' volleyball and do some writing for our College Office. I taught both an Honors-level, SAT II-preparatory chem class and an AP Chemistry course for 15 years here at Thacher before the school moved away from standardized curricula. This curricular shift fortuitously coincided with my 2019-20 sabbatical year abroad in Italy, Croatia, and Cyprus and afforded me the opportunity to design my own advanced chemistry class centered on applications in archaeology and art, which I've been teaching since. I like to cook, and I've used my chemistry skills as a homebrewer who's fond of decoction-mashed, German amber lagers.

What fuels your passion for science and teaching?

I always enjoyed science as a student, and I was really drawn to the interdisciplinary and historical nature of geology in college and graduate school--examining the chemistry and textures of minerals in igneous and metamorphic rocks to infer how they formed in the past. And many of the geochemical analytical methods I used in graduate school (i.e., PLM, XRD, XRF, SEM-EDX, EMP, and Raman spectroscopy) also have applications in the characterization of archaeological and artistic materials. 

So now what fuels me is research and teaching at the interdisciplinary intersection of chemistry, archaeology, art, and history--a combination of disciplines that has been collectively referred to as 'cultural heritage science.' It's been a real kick to design and teach a high school class centered on chemistry's fascinating applications in these areas rather than one focused primarily on chemistry's theoretical underpinnings in preparation for a standardized test. Although this is not an uncommon approach at the college level, particularly in smaller, liberal arts colleges, it's still a bit novel in high schools. I've become an advocate for this pedagogical approach in getting younger students excited about chemistry by presenting elements of my class at conferences and in publications in the Journal of Chemical Education and elsewhere. This work has provided both an invigorating intellectual boost for me toward the tail-end of my career and an engaging, enlightening, and fun class for my students who've taken it.

What topic do you find hardest for students? How do you teach it?

When I taught SAT II preparatory chemistry and AP Chemistry, kids often struggled with thermodynamics because it's so abstract and mathematical--they struggled to understand how we can quantify reaction enthalpy and entropy and use them to predict reaction spontaneity. It's heavy stuff. But now I teach this material in the context of the redox reactions that are thought to have occurred in the three-stage firing (oxidizing-reducing-oxidizing) of ancient Attic black- and red-figure pottery produced from the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. The fact that the ancient Greeks had such a finely tuned empirical understanding of the raw materials and firing protocols necessary to create these artistically sophisticated and aesthetically elegant vases, absent our modern theoretical understanding of chemistry, is nothing short of awe-inspiring to me. And I hope that the thermodynamic calculations that my students conduct for these reactions excites them about both the chemistry and the art history involved.

What do you do to remain current and bring the latest science into the classroom?

I'm a peer reviewer for several science publications (J. Chem Ed, Minerals, and ACS Omega) so I'm still reading and reviewing current science. I continue to both attend and present talks at conferences (ACS, BCCE), and I've both incorporated into my teaching curricular and pedagogical ideas from other teachers and published several papers in recent years to share some of my own curricular and pedagogical ideas. 

I also actively seek out opportunities for professional development: two summers ago, I was a Project MUSE Fellow in the Conservation Science Lab at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, working with Dr. Greg Smith there to offer a short course for Indianapolis area high school teachers on the pigment synthesis and analysis labs I've designed and published. I also analyzed via Raman spectroscopy the blue pigments in paint chips obtained during the recent conservation of Thomas Gainsborough's 1770 Blue Boy--the signature piece in the collection at The Huntington in Pasadena near where I live. I also characterized pigments in paint chips obtained during Silverlake Conservation's recent conservation of John Gamble's 1930 mural, Egyptian Sunburst Poppies, which sits above the entrance to the Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery at the Santa Barbara Public Library. And while I was working in the museum, the conservation lab was hard at work to characterize and conserve a Sassoferrato Madonna and Child from their collection, which was chosen to appear on USPS holiday stamps last year. The piece is now on display in their gallery, and I compiled and presented a talk to our school community on that analysis and conservation effort.

Why did you become involved with AACT? What are the benefits of being involved?

I became an AACT member coincident with my application to participate in Science Coaches Program, which pairs chemistry professionals together with teachers in a mentoring relationship and provides a stipend to purchase equipment and supplies. I'd highly recommend this program to anyone looking to enrich their teaching. Greg and I are working together now in our third or fourth cycle of the program. 

Greg supervised remotely one of my students on his senior capstone project in inexpensive infrared imaging of paintings, and he's also been out to visit us here in Ojai, working with my chemistry students on the analysis of fibers in a forged Moroccan tapestry and giving a lecture open to the school community on his work in IMA's Conservation Science Lab. I've also been to Indianapolis to conduct research in his lab, which has been both intellectually stimulating and fruitful in enriching my teaching. 

AACT also provides a wealth of other resources for teachers, including instructional webinars (one of which I offered last February on case studies and lab activities at the intersection of chemistry and art). AACT provides a great platform for networking with other chemistry teachers and industry professionals to enrich your instruction and excite and engage your students.