Under the auspices of the Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis (CENTC), an NSF-funded Phase II CCI, a new collaboration between research chemists and their students at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and the Liberty Science Center (LSC) was initiated in 2012. The preliminary result was a highly popular, interactive touchtable that teaches LSC visitors about the wide variety of consumer products that are derived (in part or whole) from fossil fuels. Building on the success of the first exhibit, the collaborators have begun an initiative aimed at facilitating similar installations at additional science centers and museums across the country. Educating the general public about our nation's dependence on fossil fuels and the multitude of consumer products derived from them is an important component of the propagation of scientific literacy. The unique collaborative combination of chemistry students, faculty researchers, and science center personnel with expertise in public engagement has proven to be an effective strategy for communicating basic chemical concepts.

Communicating chemistry: Forging a collaborative bond between college faculty, undergraduate students, and science centers with the goal of educating the general public about our nation's dependence on fossil fuels

248th National Meeting (2014)

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