Taylor Haynes and Cassie Joiner welcomed Professor Samuel Pazicni (University of New Hampshire), Professor Joanne Stewart (Hope College), and Professor Anne McNeil (University of Michigan) to lead a discussion surrounding the balance of maintaining research projects in both Chemistry and Education.

Selected questions for the panelists:
When did you decide to be involved in both chemistry and education research?
What did you do to prepare for a career in both fields?
How is balancing multiple areas of scholarship sensitive to your institutional context?
What is challenging or different about being involved in education research in comparison to chemistry?
Where do you seek help for issues related to educational research?

Throughout the discussion, one persistent thread was the difficulty and importance of maintaining a supportive community. Research, regardless of discipline, is not done in isolation. When confronted with challenges in research
or at the institution, each panelist described the importance of personal relationships that served as a safe place to seek help and support.

This need for a community is a central facet of the CSIE | UM program, to create a lasting group of researchers interested in improving our understanding of science in the laboratory as well as in the classroom.