The University of California at Irvine Chemistry Outreach Program directed by Professor James S. Nowick is being supported by the Special Projects Office of the Chemistry Division for a three-year period of transition from a pilot program to long-term funding from the private sector. The Chemistry Outreach Program aims to improve high school students' interest in and knowledge of chemistry by sending teams of graduate and undergraduate students to local high schools. The university students inspire the high school students by performing chemical demonstrations and discussing chemistry, beginning with freshmen students who are encouraged to enroll in chemistry classes. The program, which reaches about two thousand high school students per year at dozens of Southern California high schools, will establish a web site for dissemination of the instructional materials that it develops and for propagation of this model program as a grassroots effort in educational outreach. The Chemistry Outreach Program is a university-based effort to improve scientific literacy and inspire young people to pursue careers in science through the vehicle of chemistry demonstrations and discussions in high schools provided by undergraduate and graduate students from the university.
