This award provides partial support to a symposium titled "The Polymer Science of Everyday Things" including a half-day workshop for K-12 teachers. It will be held at the National ACS Meeting, Philadelphia PA, 19-20 August, 2012. The symposium and workshop will be focused on "Impact of Polymers in Energy Generation, Storage and Savings". NSF funds will be used primarily to facilitate attendance of K-12 teachers. Topics will include polymer insulation, energy reflecting paints, energy efficient lighting, as well as applications of polymers in energy generation including batteries and photovoltaics.
Teachers teaching teachers about the applications of polymers is a primary goal of this workshop and symposium. With this objective, broader impacts are achieved by presentations to high school teachers of information readily incorporated in their courses. As such, maximum leverage for information transfer is achieved by the student multiplication factor. For the workshop four speakers are planned, including two industrial experts and two Polymer Ambassadors (who are teachers specially trained in polymer science).
" Symposium and K-12 Workshop was held at the National ACS Meeting, Philadelphia PA, 19-20 August, 2012. The intellectual merit of this symposium and workshop comprises explaining how things that people encounter and use everyday depend on polymer science. The special focus for the Philadelphia meeting was "Impact of Polymers in Energy Generation, Storage and Savings". NSF funds were used primarily to facilitate attendance of K-12 teachers from the Philadelphia area and "Polymer Ambassadors" who are specially chosen and trained high school teachers. Teachers teaching teachers about the applications of polymers was the primary goal of this Workshop and Symposium With this objective, broader impacts are achieved by presentations to high school teachers of information readily incorporated in their courses. As such, maximum leverage for information transfer is achieved by the student multiplication factor. For the Workshop, four speakers included two industrial experts and two Polymer Ambassadors. Importantly, the scientific professionals co-presented topics with Polymer Ambassadors (specially trained high school teachers). With this approach there was suitable modulation of presentation level, appropriateness, and "connection" of the Polymer Ambassadors with the audience of teachers. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The picture provided shows the teachers, American Chemical Society Polymer Chemistry Division "Ambassadors" , and scientist / lecturers participating in the Polymer Science of Everyday Things Workshop, Philadelphia, August 2012. NSF support was gratefully acknowledged in presentations and all handouts and announcements. More information is provided in the Final Report.
