Nicholas R. Natale, Kirsten Canady, Alexander C. Natale, Jennifer Sorenson, and Trinidad J. Villalobos. University of Idaho, Moscow, ID
Our goal is to interest the students and teachers in the Native American community in chemistry, and make resources available from the American Chemical Society (ACS) accessible. We've used an Academic Service-Learning class to encourage student participation in our outreach programs. The umbrella concept for this program is called "A Periodic Table of the Moles", which we will briefly describe. Thanks to a Local Section Innovative Activity Grant to the Washington-Idaho Border Section, we sponsored dances at local student pow-wows for the youngest children, and made contact - by way of hands-on demonstrations - with the kids, parents and teachers. Over this past year we have accomplished our goal, with the help of the student chemistry clubs, and held activities at each of the college campuses in our Washington-Idaho Border Section. The main events were the Native American Awareness week pow-wow on the Lewis-Clark State University campus on March 10, the Pah-Loots-Pu pow-wow at Washington State University on April 16, and the Tutxinmepu pow-wow on the University of Idaho (UI) campus on October 29. We also held hands-on demonstrations during Environmental Education and Cultural Knowledge Day for Lapwai Elementary on the Nez Perce Reservation on May 25, and performed an Almost Mole day demo on October 22 as part of Native Youth day at UI. Finally, a dedication ceremony was held as “A Periodic Table of the Moles” was officially donated to the UI on Mole Day, October 23, 2005. An important aspect of AS-L is the "reflection piece", and we have used student presentations at scientific meetings, such as the Idaho Academy of Science and regional ACS meetings, to accomplish this aim, and give the undergraduate participants useful experience.
Web Page:
oxygen.chem.uidaho.edu/ifcheng/a_periodic_table_of_the_moles.htm
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