Dr. Anuradha Vummenthala advises students on the titration of fruit juices to determine total relative acid content during workshop “Acids, Bases and the Scientific Method”.
Our program year is the school year, so by now, we have mostly wound up and wound down. During this past program year, “Chemistry is pHun” outreach activities benefited from the involvement of many excellent volunteers. The efforts of these volunteers made it possible to present 27 programs that reached 1,083 school children at 14 different schools or organizations in the Rockwood and Kirkwood School Districts.
“Chemistry is pHun” presentation at Stanton Elementary School: Will Ridley from the St. Louis Section–ACS with Maryville University students Morgan Bertolino and Caleb Holaway. ©Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.
New partnership
Dr Anuradha Vummenthala, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Maryville University, saw an opportunity for her students to partner with “Chemistry is pHun” and the St Louis Section of ACS and assist with “States of Matter” presentations to 2nd graders in the Rockwood and Kirkwood School Districts. The 2nd grade students enthusiastically received presentations by Maryville students Fujr Ibrahim and Marilyn Vazquez at Pond Elementary School on November 1, and by Morgan Bertolino and Caleb Holaway at Tillman Elementary School on December 16, and Stanton Elementary School on March 7.
Constance Gibbs with Integrated Marketing and Communications at Maryville, proposed an article for the fall issue of the Maryville Magazine describing the partnership, an idea that was endorsed by the Rockwood School District Partners-in-Education program and the 2nd grade teachers at Stanton Elementary School. Photos were taken during the March 7th “States of Matter” program at Stanton Elementary School and plans for an article in Maryville Magazine are underway.
Chemistry is pHun presenters at Expanding Your Horizons Workshop held at Saint Louis University, March 12, 2019. Left to right – Andrea Roma, Dr. Anuradha Vummenthala, Dr. Amy Kerkemeyer and Rhonda Woerndle.
STEM workshops
On March 12 at Saint Louis University, “Chemistry is pHun” presented a workshop titled, “Acids, Bases and the Scientific Method” at the Expanding Your Horizons Conference sponsored by the Mathematics-Science Network of Greater St Louis. The conference is offered each year in the spring to encourage young women in grades 7-10 to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM).
St Louis Section members Dr Amy Kerkemeyer, Rhonda Woerndle, Andrea Roma and Anuradha Vummenthala presented the workshop in three sessions of 20 students each. The presenters described their careers and then worked with the students to conduct an experiment and test their hypotheses for the most acidic juice by titrations of lemon, orange, and grapefruit juice using red cabbage indicator, sodium hydroxide, and citric acid standard.
New venues
Ridge Meadows Elementary School in the Rockwood School District and Tillman Cub Scout Pack 457 in the Kirkwood School District received “States of Matter” presentations for the first time. New volunteers, Andrew Grattendick and Sean Whittemore, graciously donated time for school presentations and helping with supplies procurement, respectively. In addition Sensient Company through Sean Whittemore generously donated food-coloring dyes to be used to color Elmer’s glue for Glue(p) preparation in “States of Matter”.
For more information on volunteer opportunities with “Chemistry is pHun” please contact Will Ridley, email ridleywp@att.net or phone 314-920-1507.
Note added by Editorial Staff
Wow! Just … WOW!
William Ridley, coordinator of the Chemistry is pHun program
Guest author: Will Ridley
Coordinator, “Chemistry is pHun”
“Computers and the physics of complex biological systems”
