 |
| Elementary students are making ice cream with Ian Gould |
 |
| McClintock High School Science Club visited Glassblowing Facility |
 |
| SAACS students giving demo at the homecoming event |
Our K20 (kindergarten through graduate) Outreach Program aims to ignite a spark in our future scientists. We believe if we cultivate the natural curiosity of children at a young age we will be able to get them aware of, and excited about, science in their futures. We believe further that, over time, this will have a hugely beneficial impact on our society. Undergraduate students, our Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SAACS), graduate students, postdoctoral researchers as well as faculty are involved in our effort. The SAACS students, coordinated by faculty member Wilson Francisco and president Charlene Bashore, visit a wide variety of elementary and middle schools across the Phoenix metropolitan area, giving students hands-on demonstrations concerning light, magnetism, chemiluminescence, changes of state (with the help of liquid nitrogen) and much more.
Ian Gould and his wife Denna also bring students to campus as part of a program called “I’m College Bound”. Statistics show that high performing students whose parents did not attend college are four times less likely to go to college than similarly gifted students whose parents attended college. For many children, the only college-educated person who they regularly interact with is their teacher. So they are missing role models. We try to get as many ASU students (as diverse a group as possible) into the classroom to act as role models. The chemistry involved (matched to the appropriate grade level curriculum) concerns a lot of experiments using, for example, light-powered radios and exploding hydrogen balloons relating to energy storage and conversion.
We also participate in many events in the wider community. We are involved with the annual Science and Engineering Fair that will be held later this month (March 18-21) at the Phoenix Convention Center. Faculty members will also be participating in a hands-on science day for elementary age children at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on April 12th.
We are uniquely fortunate in the department in having two wonderfully adept female glassblowers (this field being one of the last bastions of male dominance), Janice Kyle (scientific glassware designer) and Christine Roeger (scientific glassware designer and supervisor of the glassblowing facility). Janice and Christine not only expertly make sophisticated glassware for faculty and students all over campus but they also participate in several well- received outreach activities. Small groups of high school students, most recently from McClintock High School in Tempe, come to the facility on campus to watch glassblowing demonstrations and learn how to make artistic scientific equipment. One example of their work is a barometer in the shape of a swan. Janice and Christine also participate in much larger community and ASU events e.g. ASU Homecoming (regularly in the fall) and SeeASU www.asu.edu/seeasu.
High school students also have very important outreach needs. High school chemistry students regularly come to the department to “shadow” graduate students and postdocs in order to gain a taste of what it is like to be a chemist or biochemist on campus. They get to tour several state-of-the-art research facilities as part of their visit. In order to help high school students transition from school to college it is also necessary to go out to schools and talk to students about their career possibilities, whether they lie in industry, teaching or institutional research. Typically, students are unaware of the wide variety of careers that are available, or of the numerous sources of scholarship funding that could help sustain them though undergraduate and also graduate degrees. Hopefully these outreach activities of our staff and students will inspire students to seek the benefits, and satisfactions of higher education.
If you would like more information about our outreach activities please call Jenny Green at (480) 965-1430 or email jenny.green@asu.edu. |
