Connections to Chemistry: A National Chemistry Week Tradition in the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society

Connections Program 2011

#SERMACS2011 Symposium: Social Media in Science Oral PM Session

RM_SERMACS

Ann Sullivan, Thomas Devore

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Oral Session
Social Media in Science (Oral) - PM Session When:           Wednesday October 26, 2011
Location:	Omni Richmond Hotel
Room:	Roanoke
Organizers:	Kenneth Podraza, Thomas Devore
Presiders:	Alex Martin
Duration:	2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
	The Social Media in Science Symposium presenters at the meet and greet luncheon before the symposium. #SERMACS2011 Social Media in Science Symposium presenters luncheonL to R:Jennifer Maclachlan, Ashton T. Griffin, Nathalie Herring, A. Martin, Ken Podraza, Laura Provan, Barbara Reisner, Thomas Devore, Kevin Major and F. Vera-Luna — with Ashton T. Griffin and Fernando Luna Vera at The Tobacco Company Restaurant
	Pres Time	Pub #	Presentation Title
	2:00 pm		Introductory Remarks
	2:05 pm	43	Labs, Camera, Action! Disseminating science in the digital age Natalie P Herring, Kevin J Major.  Natalie P Herring1, Kevin J Major2,  (1) Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University (2) Department of Chemistry & Nanoscale Science Program, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Through the use of social media, scientists and aspiring students are able to use videos to their advantage. Scientists are able to star in their own videos by recording a lecture, sharing their thoughts on recent papers or topics, staging a tutorial, or recording a simulation. With the evolution of social media, these types of presentations are now widely available on the Internet and may be used as excellent tools for students to learn new topics. Here, we will discuss the use of social media, mainly video sharing sites, for the dissemination of research and understanding of new topics.
	2:25 pm	44	My Twitter tool-box: How I utilize Twitter for my small chemical business Jennifer L. Maclachlan,  PID Analyzers, LLC, As a small chemical business owner, social media has had an incredible impact on how we engage with customers, prospective clients, vendors, other industy professionals and the media. I will describe how I use Twitter for my business, my favorite Twitter application: Hoot Suite, participation in Tweet-ups and how I utilize Twitter to enhance our overall social media marketing presence both within the Twittersphere and out on Google.
	2:45 pm	45	Using social media in the teaching of chemistry at Wayne Community College Ashton T. Griffin,  Wayne Community College Today's students arrive in our chemistry classrooms with their smart phones, their laptops, tablets or net books. Ear buds are often attached to iPods or some other MP3-playing device that we have to ask them to remove when they enter our classrooms. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube often compete for their attention. As chemistry faculty, we are asked to maintain faculty Webpages and often utilize course management systems like Blackboard or Moodle in our teaching. Chemistry faculty often has been slow to adopt and utilize social media like Twitter and Facebook in their teaching. But those of us who have embraced new social media trends have found that it allows us to better connect with our students and provides our students with a vast array of ways to learn more about chemistry and its place in our society. Over the last three years, I have utilized technology and social media to improve my teaching of chemistry at the community college level. I can do the same thing for you. Join me in this presentation as I share some of the tips that worked best for me in this new social media-driven world.
	3:05 pm	46	What's a geezer to do when twenty-first century technology collides with nineteenth century pedagogy? Prof Thomas C. DeVore,  Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, James Madison University, MSC Although the communication revolution is changing most aspects of campus life, the pedagogy used in the class rooms has been more evolution than revolution. In this talk, some of the challenges to traditional methods used to prepare students for careers in chemistry generated by the communication revolution will be presented. Since many of the questions raised by these challenges as well as effective ways to integrate twenty-first century into the curriculum remain to be answered, this talk is designed to stimulate discussion rather than to provide answers.
	3:25 pm		Break
	3:35 pm	47	The Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource: Collaboration and community building using Web 2.0 Barbara A. Reisner,  Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, James Madison University [p]VIPEr, the Virtual Inorganic Pedagogical Electronic Resource (http://www.ionicviper.org), is an online teaching materials repository and interactive social networking environment for inorganic chemistry educators. The rise of Web 2.0 - the social or participatory web - has enabled us to think differently about our cultures of teaching and learning. Through VIPEr, our distributed community of inorganic chemists has seen the beginnings of cultural changes that benefit both faculty development and student learning. By encouraging a shift to smaller online publication units, or “learning objects,” we facilitate better assessment of student learning and easy translation to different educational environments. By promoting a culture of open sharing, we have increased the quantity and variety of teaching materials available to instructors and students. We can share the vast and varied expertise of the community through VIPEr's social, online environment. This presentation will showcase the VIPEr website and provide examples of how VIPEr can facilitate a conversation within a disciplinary community that can enhance teaching practices. Learn why we come for the content but stay for the community.
	3:55 pm	48	Science popularization through Facebook Fernando Luna Vera PhD,  Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University Scientific news or content usually do not make it into social media news-feed or updates of people outside a scientific field. Even though social media has the ability to deliver and distribute information to specific audiences its complimentary part is also important: you can reach everybody within your contact list, scientist and non-scientist. This capacity opens up the opportunity to educate general audiences in relevant important scientific issues. But, how to reach big audiences in such a dynamic environment like Facebook?. Herein it is shown with some data what variables can be important to make people out of science fields to read and try to learn from post and status updates.
	4:15 pm	49	The value of a Facebook business page Jennifer L. Maclachlan,PID Analyzers, LLC Is there value in a Facebook business page? Yes. Is it measureable? Yes. I will present a case study of my small chemical business and how we have grown our Facebook business page from having only employees "liking" us to having customers, friends and other industry professionals interact with us on our Facebook business page. Studying our Facebook analytics assists us in providing followers and others (searchable on Google) to read and share our content. I will discuss how we leverage social media via our Faceook page to create and share content from our blogs related to our business, enhancing our monthly E-Newsletter campaign, our cooperation with local universities and our chemistry outreach by using the original Facebook posts to share to other social media vehicles such as Twitter and Linked-In.
	4:35 pm	50	Social media for scientific outreach Laura N Provan M.A. U.S. Pharmacopeia Social media - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIN - have proven cost- and time-effective megaphones for USP, a nonprofit, pharmaceutical standards-setting organization with operations around the world. USP's social media initiative started two years ago and has delivered measurable value in reaching our varied audiences: customers, regulators, journalists, members, public health officials, and the general public. I will show how we have built our Twitter following; how use of YouTube videos has helped position USP as a thought leader; and how our use of two separate Facebook pages has engaged key stakeholders and helped drive attendance at our conferences. I'll also explain how new media have been accepted in a 200-year-old, traditional organization.
	4:55 pm		Concluding Remarks #SERMACS2011 Social Media in Science Symposium presenters  L to R: Kevin Major, Ken Podraza, Thomas Devore, Laura Provan,Jennifer Maclachlan, A. Martin, F. Luna-Vera, Ashton T. Griffin, Barbara Reisner and Nathalie Herring

#SERMACS2011: Using Social Media in the Teaching of Chemistry at WCC

I met my fellow Social Media in Science Symposium presenter, Ashton T. Griffin,  last week. Where would Social Media in Science Symposium presenters meet before the symposium? 

On Twitter of course. 

He responded to my Tweet:

pidgirl Jennifer Maclachlan

PLEASE RT -> schmap.it/mw1u1z #SERMACS2011 Social Media in Science Symposium: Twitter for business <- SPREAD THE WORD!

7 Oct

in reply to ↑

@Chem_Coach Ashton T. Griffin

@pidgirl I will see you there. I am also presenting.

7 Oct via TweetCaster for Android

And then:

@Chem_Coach Ashton T. Griffin

@pidgirl Do you know about any of the other presenters at the social media in science session? #sermacs11

Here is where the conversation begins with the Q & A:

pidgirl Jennifer Maclachlan

@

@Chem_Coach I have not seen the schedule yet. I'll add it to my event when it is available. What are you presenting at #SERMACS2011?

7 Oct

in reply to ↑

@Chem_Coach Ashton T. Griffin

@pidgirl I will be talking about my use of social media to teach chemistry at WCC. #Moodle, Twitter, Google +, Texting, WebAssign etc.

7 Oct via web

7 Oct

in reply to ↑

@pidgirl Jennifer Maclachlan

@Chem_Coach Can you email me your abstract and time you are speaking so I can add it to my blog and schmap? #SERMACS2011

7 Oct via web

Chem_Coach Ashton T. Griffin

@pidgirl DM me an email address and I will send it.

7 Oct Favorite Retweet Reply

Here is @Chem_Coach's Social Media in Science Symposium abstract. I'm really looking forward to this talk.

45 - Using social media in the teaching of chemistry at Wayne Community College
		Authors:  Ashton T. Griffin,
		Presentation Time: 2:45 PM
		Location: Omni Richmond Hotel
		Room: Roanoke

Project Abstract:  Using Social Media in the Teaching of Chemistry at Wayne Community College by 
Ashton T. Griffin

Wednesday October 26, 2011 Richmond, VA #SERMACS2011 Presentation Start Time: 3:05 pm to Presentation End Time: 3:25 pm



Today's students arrive in our chemistry classrooms with their smart
phones, their laptops, tablets or net books.  Ear buds are often
attached to iPods or some other MP3-playing device that we have to ask
them to remove when they enter our classrooms.  Social media sites like
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube often compete for their attention.  As
chemistry faculty, we are asked to maintain faculty Webpages and often
utilize course management systems like Blackboard or Moodle in our
teaching.

Chemistry faculty often has been slow to adopt and utilize social media
like Twitter and Facebook in their teaching.  But those of us who have
embraced new social media trends have found that it allows us to better
connect with our students and provides our students with a vast array of
ways to learn more about chemistry and its place in our society.

Over the last three years, I have utilized technology and social media
to improve my teaching of chemistry at the community college level.  I
can do the same thing for you.  Join me in this presentation as I share
some of the tips that worked best for me in this new social media-driven
world.

National Chemistry Week in the Northeastern Section: preparing to be #Spellbound #IYC2011

How kids become scientists: Produced for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, the video series Spellbound, tells the story of scientists whose childhood curiosity about everyday things helped them launch careers in the lab, win Nobel Prizes and make other achievements. Their early childhood experiences may encourage young people into careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This episode features Bassam Shakhashiri, Ph.D, Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison 2011 President-Elect, American Chemical Society  

Photo courtesy of George Ruger. Bassam at the Connecticut Valley Section event.

 #NCW Kick-Off Event at Museum of Science Boston

We are really looking forward to Bassam kicking off the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society National Chemistry Week event at the Museum of Science on Sunday October 23, 2011. Lectures and demonstrations at 1pm and 4pm.This is the 11th year that this program has run.

 L to R: Hillary Butts, Allison Harbottle, Mike Lynch, Lauren Gagnon

Local area chemistry college student volunteers will be located throughout the museum performing hands-on-science activities for museum attendees in accordance with this year's National Chemistry Week theme: Chemistry, Our Life, Our Health. Activities include: making hand-sanitizer, making UV-ray bead bracelets and testing foods for iron, Vitamin C and starch.

 

Preparations have begun:

Hand-sanitizer from scratch

The bead indicates it's time for sunscreen...

Mike and Lauren were having fun with goldenrod paper: writing disappearing messages (of love)

The NCW volunteers practiced the

experiments last weekend in the comfort of the laboratory in the basement of the Museum of Science (see photos above). The tests were timed at each bench and modifications were made to make them field-friendly ie) preparing for being stationed at a table in the museum and engaging passer-bys with their chemistry experiment on Sunday October 23. 

To reserve tickets for Bassam's lecture/chemistry demonstration, click here. Admission to the museum is required for the 1pm lecture.

Connecticut Valley Section of the American Chemical Society celebrates it's Centennial Anniversary

Guest post by George Ruger, Chair Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society

Photos courtesy of George Ruger

The official celebration for the Connecticut Valley Section's (CVS) 100th Anniversary was held on Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  ACS President-Elect Bassam Shakhashiri started off the festivities by presenting a certificate to celebrate the milestone to Mark Peczuh, Chair of the Connecticut Valley Section.  Then he talked about his 4 Presidential Initiatives and his theme during his Presidential year, Advancing Chemistry / Communicating Chemistry. 


The morning speaker was Dan Nocera, Professor from MIT.  Based on Dan's data, we are currently using 14 terawatts of energy on the planet, but we will need an additional 16 terawatts of energy by 2050.  Why so much more?  It is largely expected that by the year 2050 the world population will grow from nearly 7 billion people today to 9 billion people.  In addition, over the next 40 years there will be another 3 billion people in poor countries who will be looking for access to energy.  Therefore there will be twice as many people looking for access to the energy supply by 2050, and that goes on the assumption that the energy needs of the legacy world will not increase.  For energy in the non-legacy world, cost is the first issue, not efficiency.  High efficiency comes with a high cost.  The key, in Dan's opinion, is in providing the non-legacy world a carbon-neutral, sustainable energy supply.  Dan's work is largely focusing on obtaining energy from solar power.  He is looking at photosynthesis in plants for inspiration and trying to find a cost efficient way to generate energy that can be done in small scale in parts of the world that don't have access to the power grid. 

Lunch was provided to the attendees.  They also had the opportunity to view posters from the CVS which paid tribute to the history of the section and highlighted some of the important figures of the section, including those who are ACS Fellows.  One poster was dedicated to letters from other sections who congratulated the CVS on their 100th Anniversary.  A few of the 18 local sections in the Northeast Region sent letters and also sent representatives to the event.  The crowd had over 100 people, many of them high school kids from nearby schools. 

The afternoon speaker was Bassam Shakhashiri.  He was wearing his red SCIENCE IS FUN t-shirt for this portion of the event.  Bassam commented that everything around us is made of chemicals.  He also said those of us in the science-rich sector should share what we know with the science poor sector.  There is a gap between the sectors, and that gap is widening to the detriment of both sectors.  Bassam also talked about some of the reasons for communication- to inform, to engage, to educate, to advocate, and to persuade.  He also mentioned the Science and Engineering Indicators 2010, a report given every two years to Congress, and said we should all be familiar with what is in it. 

For the Science Is Fun demonstration, Bassam started by raising up a match.  He let it go and it dropped to the table.  He said "That is Physics."  Then he struck it on the side of the match box and the match lit to a brilliant flame.  He replied "That is Chemistry!"  Bassam also lit what looked like a dollar bill and it burned to a big flash, leaving no ashes behind.  Then he confessed that it wasn't a real dollar bill, but flash paper that looked like a dollar bill.  Then he sought a volunteer from the audience to donate a real bill.  He soaked the bill in a liquid and then lit the bill.  The bill seemed to burn with a bright yellow flame but actually remained intact.  The liquid burned off but didn't damage the bill.  He asked the audience what the liquid might be.  Then he said it was a mixture of alcohol and water.  Bassam also made use of 6 1000ml graduated cylinders.  There were three colors, and two cylinders had each color.  He added dry ice to one of the two of each color and we observed the color changes.  He talked a little bit about the Chemistry behind the color changes and then added the dry ice to the others.  Bassam also demonstrated Bernoulli's Principle by blowing up a long cylindrical plastic tube using only the air in his lungs, plus a little help from the surrounding air. 


In conclusion, Bassam said that all forms of science need to work together, including Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.

At the end of the event three cakes dedicated to the 100 year old Connecticut Valley Section were cut and eaten.  

No party is complete without cake.