During summer 2018, the Princeton Center for Complex Materials gave 16 underrepresented high school students from Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey, the opportunity to learn materials science, sustainability, including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and coding from Princeton University professors and researchers. The Princeton University Materials Academy (PUMA) is an education outreach program for minority high school students and it is part of the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Materials Research Engineering and Science Center (MRSEC). PUMA has been serving the community of Trenton for over 15 years with daily lectures from Princeton professors, workshops, tours and access to Princeton University laboratories, a glimpse into a truly academic environment. We have reached almost 300 students from 2003-2018, with many students repeating multiple years. 100% of our PUMA students have graduated high school and 98% have gone on for college, compared with the overall Trenton district graduation rate of 48% and a free and reduced lunch of 83%. This year, we discuss new initiatives and partnerships with Princeton’s makerspace “StudioLab”, a Princeton Council on Science and Technology space for collaboration and creation across disciplines (STEM, arts, humanities and social sciences). This partnership allowed us to include coding and wearable technology, that the students designed and manufactured themselves, as additional components to the program, while meeting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In addition to this, we will also discuss our launch of a new evaluation system with pre- and post- content and attitude tests. We also plan to share the curriculum online to enhance PCCM’s PUMA reach and to help teachers and high school students at a national level. <br/>

Princeton University Materials Academy new initiatives

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.