Faculty members at Hunter College, CUNY participate in various outreach events on campus to increase appreciation and excitement for Chemistry. Using informal science learning activities, we aim to engage students (majors and non-majors) in understanding the impact of chemistry outside of the classroom environment. Undergraduate student’s from the Hunter College ACS student chapter volunteer and help with planning these events. Participation of undergraduates at these events fit with the Hunter College Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO) and CUNY Pathways (General Education Requirement) Learning Outcomes: Practice Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility. Students get the opportunity to collaborate with others, enhance their communication skills and assume leadership roles to promote engagement in STEM education.<br/><br/>Hunter college hosts two big events that provide opportunity for informal STEM learning. Major Madness consists of a series of events to help students explore majors and meet with faculty & visit departments. Accepted Students Day brings high school students who have been accepted to Hunter College to visit the campus. We also promote informal science education during Nano Days- by providing hands on activities on the theme of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology during the last week in March and first week in April, Earth Week - April 22 - 28, National Chemistry Week - October and our annual Chemistry Open House.<br/><br/>Best practices in planning informal STEM learning events and collecting assessment data will be presented. This presentation will explore a framework for the design of chemistry communication activities for engagement in STEM learning that we have used during these events. We believe that we can share our excitement of chemistry, raise public interest for understanding of chemistry around the world and develop scientifically informed consumers by communicating about chemistry through outreach events in informal environments.

Communicating Chemistry to undergraduate students at various outreach events

256th National Meeting (2018)

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