Chemistry outreach mixes learning, fantasy fun

The department’s Chemistry Outreach Program seeks to connect trained student volunteers with the wider Princeton community — young students in particular — in hopes of sparking an interest in chemistry. The program, which includes Harry Potter-esque magical potions, looking-glass molecules from “Alice in Wonderland” and maps from “Treasure Island,” has expanded from 17 students in its first year to 31 undergraduate students and three graduate students. The program was established in September 1997 by professor Warren Warren (now chair of the department of chemistry at Duke University), professor Andrew Bocarsly and lecture demonstrator Kathryn Wagner.

The program encourages all students who have completed or are currently enrolled in a chemistry laboratory course to volunteer and provides training in safety and outreach skills. Safety is a key priority for Wagner, the head of the program, who recalls only one instance in which she ever had to use the fire extinguisher.

Those who participate in at least one outreach event receive a detailed thank-you letter on Class Day, but requirements for a certificate of appreciation from the department of chemistry are much more stringent. The certificate requires 18 hours of outreach activities in at least 12 hands-on activities for elementary school children, which require them to make a presentation and demonstrate a working knowledge of the Socratic method.

Despite the requirements, Wagner emphasized the open nature of the program.

“You really don’t need to know a lot of chemistry. [The demonstrations are] practical; they’re applying what you’ve learned.”

John Willis ’13, one of the program’s volunteers, said that the program caters to its target audience by making the demonstrations colorful and explosive.

“The experiments are designed to be exciting and engaging for younger students, so there are lots of dramatic color changes and explosions,” he said. “We usually blow up a couple balloons of hydrogen and light alcohol a couple of different ways, and honestly it is usually as much fun for us to do as it is for the students to see.”

Willis said that the student volunteers usually perform the demonstrations so that Professor Wagner can talk to the crowd.

In the group’s most recent event, which took place on Alumni Day, members presented “The Chemistry of Magic” for 150 alumni and their guests. Usually, the program’s audience mostly consists of middle school students and their teachers, as the group performs demonstrations at local schools and gives tours of Frick Chemistry Laboratory.

Wagner has found participating students to be very dedicated to the outreach, citing the case of a chemical engineer who contributed many more hours than needed and “even gave up watching a championship football game.”

“The thing that keeps you going is the expression on the kids’ faces and the fact that the bored high school students who shouldn’t be having fun in science actually have fun,” she said.