Thanks to a CIRT Scholarly Grant, I was able to present at the 2018 Joint Mathematical Meetings (http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/national/jmm2018/2197_intro) in San Diego. My talk, "Balancing Chemical Reactions: a Modeling-based Exploration of Solutions of Linear Systems", uses the case study of balancing chemical reaction in a college algebra course to highlight how active learning pedagogy can promote deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and at the same time provide learners with concrete applications of algebra. In addition, I was able to connect with colleagues from around the world and discuss pedagogical challenges and new ideas in Mathematics.