Bringing Chemistry to Life

Chemistry lecturer Kristy Trevino, Ph.D., is dedicated to revealing how chemistry manifests in everyday life to the Trinity University community. During Fall Family Weekend, she invited parents, students, and other curious minds to attend a chocolate sommelier event titled the Chemistry of Tasting Chocolate.

Chemistry lecturer Kristy Trevino, Ph.D., taught students and their families about the chemistry of chocolate during Fall Family Weekend 2024.

Trevino walked participants through the art of chocolate tasting and gave them a wide variety of chocolates to sample. She asked the participants to consider the chocolate’s taste, scent, texture, and sound when snapped in half. After enjoying the chocolates, Trevino gave everyone a chemistry lesson that resonated with any pet owner: How much chocolate could a pet have before it became harmful?

As her participants tasted the various selections of chocolate, Trevino broke down this sweet treat's chemical properties.

Trevino broke down the specific chemicals of chocolate that make it harmful to animals and the appropriate doses for a household pet. The lesson was captivating, and she effortlessly showed the audience how chemistry can make itself known in aspects of everyday life. Trevino developed this Chemistry of Tasting Chocolate event by drawing inspiration from her class “Chemistry in Everyday Life” (CHEM1303).

This class is a non-major Pathways course that covers chemistry often found in the real world. “We incorporate basic chemistry lessons so students can understand stuff they see in the news and on social media.” Trevino says, “We do lab experiments with stuff you can find at home and at the grocery store, watch shows about chemistry and how it relates to their daily use products, and we do individual research projects that bring any type of science to light that a student is interested in.”

The class can cover atomic and molecular structure, chemical bonds, acids and bases, liquids and solids, energy, medicinal chemistry, and food chemistry. Trevino introduces and demonstrates these topics in both lectures and laboratory activities, allowing students to apply concepts learned in class in a hands-on approach.

Trevino drives her students to cultivate all sorts of skills in this course. She not only exposes them to fundamental chemistry concepts but also encourages them to think critically and apply these concepts and their findings to the real world. This course also allows students to develop their communication skills through lab reports and stretch their qualitative and quantitative skills to evaluate data.

This course resonates perfectly with Trinity’s mission to cultivate scientific learning alongside the liberal arts, as students effectively learn to see the application of scientific concepts in their everyday lives. “I can mesh anything current that we see in the news, such as toxic levels of lead in Stanley cups, into a lesson in my class and can easily make that concept a lab that the students can actually test qualitatively and quantitatively,” Trevino says.

Trevino hopes students will walk away from this course with a new-found appreciation for chemistry. “Most students that are not STEM majors do not like chemistry, when you ask them about it, they typically say I hated chemistry in high school,” she says. “I want my students to gain respect for chemistry and learn chemistry concepts that they can see play out in the real world, such as baking a cake to brewing a cup of hot vs. iced coffee, and being conscious of the products they buy because of the chemicals that are in them.”