National Chemistry Week 2015
National Chemistry Week 2015
The Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Chemical Society (NETSACS) coordinated the 25th annual “Celebration of Chemistry for 4th Graders” Tues., Oct. 27, and Wed., Oct 28 as part of the festivities celebrating National Chemistry Week. Twenty-five schools from Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia were invited to bring their fourth grade classes to Eastman’s Toy F. Reid Employee center. There they were treated to a variety of exhibits and demonstrations that illustrate the importance and fun of science in everyday life. This award-winning program is made possible by a dedicated group of volunteers with diverse scientific backgrounds, including chemists, engineers, professors, high school students, retirees, non-profit organizations, museums, parks, industry, student affiliates, high school students, biologists, and archaeologists. Over the course of the consecutive 25 year program we have helped over 33,000 fourth graders see how chemistry helps their everyday life and how STEM-related classes will help them in their future careers.
Safety is essential to an ongoing program like this. With over 33,000 students having attended we have an excellent record. All students, teachers, escorts and volunteers are provided with safety glasses. Escorts are trained on what to do in case of an emergency. We have a “sick student” area for kids who feel bad. We quickly contact their teacher and a plan of action is coordinated. We have a coordination and logistics table so we know where each of the schools are at any point in the day. The escorts are trained to recognize kids who look like they might be getting dizzy from standing too long or locking their knees. We provide water bottles to all the kids, escorts and volunteers. The volunteers are also fed a breakfast snack and lunch. The students eat either before or after their 3hr session. We have even learned to adjust the temperature or specific rooms in advance to avoid anyone getting overheated. The kids love the safety glasses, and although we gather them back at the end of each session, our leadership committee decided that starting in 2016 we will fund giving each child safety glasses to take home.
This continues to be an innovative and growing activity as we improve every year. This year we designed T-shirts to match our theme and bought shirts for all the students and volunteers in honor of our 25th consecutive year of this 2-day event. (This year our T-shirt sponsors included Afilent Technologies, AirGas, Eastman Technology, Eastman Workforce Development, Mettler-Toledo/Autochem, American Institite of Chemical Engineers, Jacobs, Swagelok, VWR International and Wilmad-LabGlass) We also got all the volunteers ACS 25 year NCW pins. We have numerous give-aways for the students, including pencils, “Celebrating Chemistry” magazines, a NCW backpack, mini-moles, NCW tattoos and stickers and a booklet we made exclusively for this year’s theme with chemical demonstrations that can be done in the kitchen. We also encourage all our sponsors to include age-appropriate information, all of which we pack into their backpacks, which are provided to the students by their escorts on the day of the event.
We even had a new special activity this year. We bought Kids and Chemistry kits for each of the 25 schools that attended. During the event we had a workshop where we worked through a kit with a teacher from each school so they could see how the activity worked. Then we provided them with a fresh kit for them to do with their students when they got back to school. It turns out that the “CO2 to the Rescue” kit was a perfect fit with what they were learning at school in preparation for the New Tennessee Testing curriculum.
National Chemistry Week in NETS
National Chemistry Week (NCW) is an outreach program sponsored by the American Chemical Society (ACS) that is designed to enhance public awareness of the contributions chemistry makes to society and our everyday lives.
Click Here for the NCW presentation from our NCW Chair, Dr. Shawn Dougherty.
National Chemistry Week 2012
National Chemistry Week Celebration:
22nd Annual 4th grader’s day Event at Eastman Chemical Company
The Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Chemical Society (NETSACS) announced the 22nd annual “Celebration of Chemistry for 4th Graders” will be held on Tues., Oct. 23, and Wed., Oct 24 as part of the festivities celebrating National Chemistry Week.
24 schools from Northeast Tennesse and Southwest Virgina were invited to bring nearly 1,500 fourth graders to Eastman’s Toy F. Reid Employee center. There they will be treated to a variety of chemistry demonstrations and scientfic exhibits that illustrate the role of science in everyday life. The activities at the award winning and nationally recognized 4th-Graders Day stress the importance of science while also demonstrating that science is fun. A large group of volunteers with backgrounds in diverse scientific disciplines, including chemists, engineers, professors, biologists, and archeaologists come together to make the event possible.
This year marks the 25th year that the American Chemical Society has sponsored National Chemistry Week, and the 22nd year Eastman has hosted the NETSACS sponsored event. This annual outreach program is designed to increase public awareness of the essential contributions of chemistry. This year, the ACS has partnered with the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network to present the theme: “Nanotechnology: The smallest BIG idea in science” to promote education in science of the extremely small scale.
The Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Chemical Society (NETSACS) has a membership of over 300 chemists and engineers from 11 counties in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. To learn more about NETSACS, please visit http://nets.sites.acs.org/
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the largest scientific organization in the world and has more than 164,000 chemists and chemical engineers from all over the world as members. ACS publishes Chemical and Engineering News for its members and other interested professionals. ACS was founded 130 years ago and chartered by an act of Congress in 1937. To learn more about the American Chemical Society, please visit http://acs.org.
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**Media representatives are invited to join the celebration.
Best times for student interviews and candid photographs are 9:30-11 and noon -1:30 each day
Contact:
Lori Ensor
NCW Public Relations
(423)229-6755
lensor@eastman.com
National Chemistry Week 2011
On October 25 and 26, 2011, Eastman Chemical Company and the Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Chemical Society will host the 21s annual award winning “Celebration of Chemistry for 4th Graders.” Over 27,000 children have participated in this event since its inception in 1991.
For questions or to volunteer, please contact one of the following:
| Escorts: Melissa Page (423) 229-6570 | Demonstrations (no lab experience required): Terri Carvagno, (423) 229-3296 | Public Relations: Liz Blakely , (423) 773-9354 |
| School Correspondence: Shawn Dougherty, (423) 229-5973 | NCW T-Shirts: Liu Deng, (423) 229-4677 or for T-Shirt Sponsorship Mary Moore (423) 229-1911 | Working with Industrial Sponsors: Peter Chapman, (423) 229-6791 |
Detail information for the volunteers.
2011 National Chemistry Week T-Shirt Design Winner
Rebekah Salyers, a student from the Northeast State University’s Art Department, has been chosen for the winner of 2011 NCW T-Shirt design.
