Student Outreach:
"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery"
-Jacob Bronowski
The goal of student outreach is to teach students from grades 1 - 12 about science, engineering, and of course chemical engineering. Take part in our award winning outreach activities. For more information or suggestions on any Student Outreach Activity, contact Alan Zagoria.
Recent Activities
Science Night 2010: Rob Sanders, UOP, represented AIChE at Science Night 2010 at Pritzker Elementary School in Chicago. This event, held on Monday, April 26th, engaged students and their families in a pumping demonstration focused on fluid flow and mixing.
Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Career Expo: AIChE was represented at the 2010 STEM Career Expo by Janet Chu, Bill Glogowski, and Jessica Swary of Middough; Rob Sanders and Ellen Kloppenborg of UOP; and Steve Schade. High school students attended this April 7th event at Fermilab, in which they learned principles of chemical engineering, discussed high school and college options, and got to see the basics of fluid flow, mixing, and pumping.
DuPage E-Week: The 26th Annual DuPage Area Engineers Week Expo was held Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Illinois Institute of Technology Rice Campus in Wheaton. The expo was open to all ages, though targeted grades K-8. Those present could learn about the wide variety of engineering disciplines, attend programs on topics like cryogenics and lasers, and participate in a number of hands-on activities. Sola Cardoso, Ellen Kloppenborg, and Rob Sanders (all of UOP) and Steve Schade represented AIChE and chemical engineering to this audience by means of a poster and a pumping display, which showed properties of fluid flow and mixing to all who stopped by.
Future Cities: The Future Cities competition was designed to invigorate the minds of middle school students to provide creative and innovative solutions for a futuristic city of Chicago, a city which will be environmentally responsible while facilitating the needs of an urban society. The objective of the competition was to use SimCity to build a computer model of a futuristic city, build a physical model of their city using creative materials preferably recycled goods only, demonstrate their writing skills through an essay and abstract explaining a engineering design problem and detailing the features of their respective city. Finally, they also had to develop a team presentation on the physical model. Teams of middle school students from around the Chicagoland area competed in this challenge, assisted by engineering mentors, including Riju Konwar and Tim Bannon (both of UOP).
The Regional Competition took place at UIC on January 16, where additional chemical engineers served as judges, including Yehia Fouad, Colin Reid, and Pulak Sharma (all of UOP). AIChE sponsored the Energy Award, which was given to Franklin Middle School for their “Emerald City”.
Chicago ACS Chemistry Day: Ellen Kloppenborg, Rob Sanders, and Beth Carter (all of UOP) hosted an AIChE booth at the Chicago American Chemical Society’s annual Chemistry Day. The event was at DePaul University on Saturday October 24, 2009. There were hands-on exhibits, a Boy Scout merit badge workshop, games, and presentations to let high school students have fun with chemistry.
Current Student Outreach Opportunities
The Student Outreach Committee is looking for volunteers to help us introduce and promote the Chemical Engineering profession to Chicago area children. Whether you're interested in participating in one event or working on the committee itself, we have opportunities.
There are lots of ways to participate:
Contact Alan Zagoria to get more information on any of these activities.
Science Ambassadors: Speak for one day at the school your children attend, or at a school that has requested an engineer to appear for their career day. The AIChE Speaker's Kit has everything you need. See Classroom Visits Made Easy, below.
Chemistry Day Booth: Every year we celebrate chemistry day by setting up a booth at the ACS chemistry day fair. It is usually held in the middle of October. We get a chance to talk with hundreds of middle school and high school students.
National Engineers Week Booth: Every February we celebrate National Engineers Week by setting up a booth at the engineering day hosted by IIT's Wheaton campus. Again, we see hundreds of middle school and high school students, and even participate in the ScavEngineer Hunt.
Judges: Participate as a judge at your child's school's science fair, a Chicago Public Schools Regional Science Fair, or the Future Cities competition. Please let us know if you participate, so that we can keep track of how our members have contributed and share from their experiences.
Get Involved With University Students: We have three student AIChE chapters in our region, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, and University of Illinois at Chicago AIChE Student Chapter. IIT in particular holds weekly meetings on Thursday afternoons and would like a different professional engineer to visit every week to talk about technical, professional or career topics. All the student chapters would enjoy a plant tour you can offer.
Classroom Visits Made Easy
Our goal is to get EVERY MEMBER of the Chicago Local Section to visit just one school this year.
Just think what a difference that would make! Visit your child or grandchild's school, your local
scout troop, or we will try to match you up with a school.
It's easy. Here's what you do:
- Select a school to visit. Alan can help if you need suggestions.
- Select a topic with the teacher. We have canned presentations and hands-on projects in our Speaker's Kit, or talk about something you already know about. Discuss time alotted, student skill level, etc. We strongly recommend you review the Planning Your Presentation guide to help you cover all the bases with your teacher.
- Set a date. Work out a time that is convenient for you and the teacher. Consider setting the timing to maximize the number of students (classes) you reach during your visit.
- Prepare and customize your presentation. Get the presentations and support material you need in the Speakers Kit. If you have any trouble downloading materials, or need hard copies, contact Alan Zagoria.
- Visit the School. Have fun. Fill out the Evaluation Form in the speaker's kit, and return it to Alan Zagoria.
- You never know whom you will influence in one of these visits. It is worthwhile. Even if no children in the room choose to become engineers, you may have influenced their opinions of what engineers do and who they are. Would you have become an engineer if you had never met one?
Presentation Materials & Handouts
- Descriptions of Available Presentations
- Speaker's Kit (full presentations, handouts, and speaker aids)
Links
Outreach
Career Information
- http://www.aiche.org/CareersEducation/
- http://www.discoverengineering.org/
- http://www.engineeradvisor.org/
- http://www.engineergirl.org/
- http://www.cheresources.com/interview.pdf
Student AIChE Chapters
- Illinois Institute of Technology AIChE Chapter
- Northwestern University AIChE Student Chapter
- University of Illinois at Chicago AIChE Student Chapter
Student Outreach Contact Information
Alan Zagoria, Chair
UOP
25 E Algonquin Rd
Des Plaines, IL 60017
Alan.Zagoria@uop.com
847-375-7335