Chemistry lecturer champions investment in student-centered teaching

Rachel Prado has no shortage of bold ideas for transforming the Auburn student experience — and with philanthropic support, she believes they can move from classroom innovation to campuswide change.

“That’s the cool thing about Auburn — I’ve really been empowered to put ideas into practice that help students succeed,” said Prado, a senior lecturer in Auburn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM). “And there are a couple of areas where I could see donors making a huge difference.”

Prado, who teaches in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, received the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Teacher Award at the college’s 2026 Honors Convocation. Several years ago, during a postdoctoral fellowship, the Alabama native and first-generation college graduate realized she belonged where she could truly make a difference for students: in the classroom.

“I asked myself what I was thinking about when I lay down at night — was it my research program or was it how to make my classes better?” she said. “And it was always how to make my classes better.”

In "flipping" her classrooms, Prado has reimagined the lecture hall as a more engaging, personal and connected learning space.

Flip it

Prado brought that clarity with her to Auburn’s large lecture halls, where teaching general chemistry and organic chemistry to hundreds of students pushed her to rethink the traditional lecture model and make the classroom more engaging, personal and connected.

She decided to “flip” her classroom teaching style, recording her lectures for students to watch in advance and freeing up class time for problem-solving, discussion and immediate feedback.

“My course evaluations showed that flipping a class from a traditional lecture to an active lecture made a huge difference in students’ overall experience in the class,” she said.

For Prado, flipping the classroom also means reimagining the classroom itself, starting with the spaces where students learn. She champions classrooms where fixed rows of seating give way to small tables and rolling chairs for collaboration — an idea donor support could help expand across COSAM.

“If we change the furniture in our lecture halls, the students can more easily turn to their neighbor and collaborate,” she said. “It seems like it’s such a small thing, but that actually changes how they learn chemistry, interact with one another and feel connected to the class.”

Assistance for learning

Even with a flipped classroom, Prado knew one instructor could only reach so far in a large lecture hall. To give more immediate support, she turned to COSAM’s Learning Assistant (LA) program, in which students are trained to assist faculty teaching courses they have already successfully completed.

Auburn’s Office of Academic Insight has found that students in LA-supported courses are 11% less likely to withdraw or earn a low grade. LAs themselves gain professional experience, confidence and clarity — benefits former LA Amy Hudson credited with helping her pursue medical school this fall.

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For 10 years, COSAM’s Learning Assistant program has empowered undergraduates to support active learning in STEM courses — boosting student success, building confidence and transforming career paths.

“As a student, I was very grateful to the organic chemistry LAs who helped me better understand what I was learning,” she said. “And being an LA, I loved seeing my students succeed and have their own ‘a-ha!’ moments.”

Prado said donor investment in the LA program would offer a powerful return: stronger student support, more effective teaching and hands-on leadership experience for those serving as assistants.

“When it’s just me in a classroom of 200, I can’t answer every question on my own,” she said. “But with five or six Learning Assistants, we can spread out, reach more students and give them immediate support.”

Improving instruction

In 2023, Prado was awarded a Faculty Fellowship through the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, which supports faculty working to improve instruction and student success at Auburn.

The fellowship gave Prado’s work greater visibility, momentum and reach, helping her expand what she already loved doing: connecting faculty, strengthening classroom instruction and developing learning groups and workshops for non-tenure track faculty.

“Becoming a Biggio Faculty Fellow gave my work a new level of purpose and credibility,” she said. “I wasn’t just ‘Rachel the senior lecturer’ anymore; I was ‘Rachel the Biggio Faculty Fellow,’ with a platform that helped validate the changes I wanted to make.”

With support from a National Science Foundation grant, Prado and two colleagues launched the Auburn University Summer STEM Institute (AUSSI) in 2024, a weeklong program that helps campus educators strengthen their teaching through evidence-based strategies emphasizing student engagement, belonging and deeper learning.

Prado sees an opportunity for Auburn to build on its strong support for faculty dedicated to teaching. While endowed professorships help retain top research faculty, she believes a similar investment could elevate the teaching-focused faculty shaping students’ daily classroom experience.

“I think an endowed lectureship would make a huge difference,” she said. “To invest in the teaching faculty and empower them to be leaders inside the college would be transformational and pay off dividends.”

Bringing people together

At its core, Prado’s work is about building connections — linking students to resources, colleagues to collaborators and faculty to the support they need — to strengthen the classroom experience.

A big part of that work is contributing to the I-STEM Connectory, which she calls “a new center where we can help facilitate collaborations to strengthen informal STEM education,” and helping create COSAM’s non-tenure track faculty committee. Prado believes investing in outstanding teaching faculty is one of the most direct ways to strengthen the Auburn student experience — and the Auburn Family can help make that possible.

“There are so many ways donors can make a meaningful impact in COSAM — from sponsoring a single LA position or helping transform a classroom to creating an endowed lectureship for teaching-focused faculty. Each of these gifts can create an extraordinary ripple effect, touching the lives of countless students.”