NESACS Promotes Chemistry Education for Grade School Students with the Boston Childrens Museum for National

Chemistry Week

Preparation for National Chemistry Week (NCW) at the Museum of Science (MOS) and the Childrens Museum (Oct. 29,2011) began several weeks before Oct. 23 by running through the experiments for the NCW event. This is an official International Year of Chemistry (IYC) event.

NESACS members: David, Jack, Jennifer and National Chemistry Week Chair, Christine at the Museum of Science Laboratory for National Chemistry Week preparation.

NCW prep at the MOS

National Chemistry Week (NCW) continued at the Boston Childrens Museum on Oct. 29, 2011 for the Grade School Students. This is a joint program with the Boston childrens Museum. The program is from 11 AM-4 PM for visitors on the Museum. The main program is the chemistry experiments.

NESACS Promotes Chemistry Education for Grade School Students with the Boston Childrens Museum for National Chemistry Week

The audience for the demonstration ranged is for ages 3-12 from various visitors to the Museum. You have to continue to captivate them while they are still young. A survey of 15 volunteers at the MOS indicated that 12 students or 75% went into chemistry because of a good high school chemistry teacher. One was a biology major who changed to a chemistry major in her first semester in college because of a good chemistry teacher. The final two had family members (father & grandfather) who influenced them. It is not a large sample but it certainly does indicate the importance of teachers and other influences (like our NESACS programs) on future chemistry careers. The amazing Christine Jaworek- Lopes (Chemistry Professor at Emanuel College), NESACS Chairperson of the subcommittee on NCW also organized this event at the Childrens Museum. She had volunteers from Emanuel College, other schools.

NESACS Promotes Chemistry Education for Grade School Students with the Boston Childrens Museum for National Chemistry Week

We would like to thank the Boston Childrens Museum for hosting this event, the staff of the Childrens, Christine Jaworek- Lopes for organizing the chemistry experiments which are a crucial part of NCW, and the many volunteers who took part during NCW. Photos courtesy of Jennifer Maclachlan, NESACS member

NESACS (http://www.nesacs.org ) is the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society which has more than 7,500 members. The American Chemical Society is the largest scientific society in the world with 163,000 members (http://www.acs.org) .

NESACS Promotes Chemistry Education for Grade School Students with the Boston Childrens Museum for National Chemistry Week