WU chemistry club awarded $500 grant
Waynesburg University’s chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) already plays an active role in high school outreach and the recruitment of potential students. However, the chapter still felt there was room to grow and recently received a $500 grant from the ACS to pursue new objectives.
According to Evonne Baldauff, chair of the Chemistry and Forensic Science Department and faculty advisor for ACS, the Waynesburg chapter is especially active when it comes to interacting with high school students, in addition to the professional development events for chapter members.
“We have a lot of different outreach programs that we run every year,” said Baldauff. “For example: we’ve done the homeschool program for the past 10 years; we have a haunted lab that we do every fall; we go to conferences; we do social events.”
With the awarded grant funds, the chapter is planning to establish a program called College Chemistry Connection, where university students will design and teach lessons to high school Advanced Chemistry students, using various pieces of equipment. The university will collaborate with a participating high school to prepare the students for lessons.
Baldauff said while faculty members will supervise the lessons, students will be the main facilitators-a detail especially beneficial for chemistry education majors like the ACS Chapter President Kristen Wilson.
The chapter’s regular involvement with high school chemistry students was an important aspect in completing their grant application. After submitting their year-end report to the American Chemical Society, the chapter decided there was an opportunity to improve their relationship with students at Waynesburg Central High School, said Baldauff.
“While we work with the high school students that are homeschooled and we have Science Day, we don’t really do any very focused attention to science students at Waynesburg Central,” said Baldauff. “And since they’re so close, and we know their teacher, we thought, ‘Well let’s see what he might be interested in doing…'”
From there, the Waynesburg chapter learned that the high school students have limited experience working with instrumentation, and would benefit from tutorials with the university.
“So we put together the grant kind of based on what he needed and how we can fulfill that need,” said Baldauff.
Baldauff said that the chapter’s established reputation of student outreach was valuable for their grant application, as it assured the American Chemical Society the goal could be accomplished.
“You have to submit your idea but you also have to explain why you could carry out your idea,” she said. “Which was great because we have so much outreach experience already.”
Baldauff expects the new initiative to be a positive experience for the students at Waynesburg Central High School, perhaps encouraging many to pursue chemistry, or a related field, in the future.
“I think the College Chemistry Connection is really a novel idea. And I hope that it ends with the high school students thinking that ‘Wow maybe science is something that I would like to do in college and as a career,'” said Baldauff. “I’m really hopeful that it will steer those students. And hopefully they like Waynesburg too.”