"The Polymer Science of Everyday Things" is an exciting multifaceted K-12 Workshop and Symposium to be held at the National American Chemical Society Meeting, Washington, DC, 16-20 August, 2009. The Workshop-Symposium has the goal of providing K-12 science teachers with information and instructional tools in a unique and powerful format. The Workshop-Symposium is synergistically planned to incorporate K 12 teacher participation and instruction and to explain how ?everyday things? depend on polymer science for their ubiquity. To achieve these goals a combination of features are employed. (1) The special focus is ?Impact of Polymers in Global Energy and Transportation?. Workshop-Symposium topics are focused on how the special and wide ranging properties of polymers lead to use in transportation, energy conservation, batteries, and solar cells. (2) For the Workshop, three two person teams are formed consisting of a Symposium speaker / expert and a Polymer Ambassador, who is a high school teacher specially trained in polymer science (?teachers teaching teachers?). Together, the three scientist/polymer ambassador teams develop three integrated presentations for the K-12 teacher Workshop. (3) The topics selected for the Workshop are automobile paints, automobile nanocomposites, and polymers used in airplanes The Workshop topics will afford ?platforms? to put together teaching modules or hands-on kits that impact K-12 education.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:
Polymers or ?plastics? are used in many facets of ?everyday life?. "The Polymer Science of Everyday Things" is primarily an educational event comprised of a Workshop for K-12 teachers coupled with a scientific Symposium expanding on the topics presented in the Workshop. It will be held at the National American Chemical Society (ACS) Meeting in Washington, DC, 16-20 August, 2009. To maximize K-12 teacher participation, the Workshop-Symposium is planned in conjunction with the ACS Division of Chemical Education High School Day. The Workshop-Symposium is organized to effect information transfer between manufacturers, scientists, and teachers so as to provide K-12 teacher education about timely scientific developments that led to popularly-used products. The Workshop-Symposium focuses on providing K-12 science teachers with information and instructional tools in a unique and powerful format that will explain the ?Impact of Polymers in Global Energy and Transportation?. A Workshop ?product? is planned, that is, an instructional kit that can be used in K-12 science instruction. The Workshop-Symposium carries a multiplier effect as the information and instructional tools provided to the expected 70 high school teachers will in turn influence thousands of students who may be ?turned on to science? as a result.
