Past Outreach Events

Summer Teacher Workshop in Environmental Chemistry
 
While we no longer offer this course, from 2005 through 2014 AirUCI presented an annual two-week summer Environmental Chemistry workshop for science teachers in grades 7-12.  View our brochure
 
Chemistry Professor John "Mickey" Laux of Orange Coast College was a main organizer of our teacher workshop along with UCI Chemistry Professor and AirUCI PI Sergey Nizkorodov.  Dr. Laux has seen our results firsthand in his classes at OCC.  One of his top three General Chemistry students out of 140 in Spring 2009 told him she was NOT a chemistry person in high school until she took a class with Valerie Thompson, one of the high school teachers who attended our 2007 workshop.  Valerie was so motivating to this student that she changed her major to Chemistry, and Valerie recommended that she take Mickey's class at OCC due to the impact of our program on Valerie's class syllabus.  This is one of several anecdotes that illustrate how the dividends of our workshop are still coming full circle and continue to broadly impact science students throughout the region—at least 60,000 students to date! 

Watch Dr. Laux teach one of our classes                Visit our Teacher Workshop page                    Download our Teacher Resources page
 

Past Outreach Events
These items are not listed in our newer pages.  Check our News page for more recent outreach.
 
On May 6, 2011, AirUCI hosted 21 high school science students and three of their teachers from Nova Academy in Santa Ana on a tour of our labs.  We provided parking passes for their three vans and light refreshments after their tour.  AirUCI Project Scientist Lisa Wingen organized the tour. 
 
AirUCI researchers Nicole Richards and Emily Bruns proctored a competitive exam funded by the Orange County chapter of the American Chemical Society at Cal-State Fullerton on April 30, 2011.  High school students who score highest on the test receive recognition by ACS.
 
AirUCI PIs Sergey Nizkorodov and Michael Kleinman served as judges at the 30th Annual Irvine Unified School District Science Fair on March 2, 2011, held at University High School.
 
On November 13, 2010, Prof. Nizkorodov and Amanda McMillan from his research group participated in UCI's Future of Science Conference at the Beckman Center. They demonstrated research projects during their hour-plus session and promoted AirUCI's Summer Teacher Workshop.  AirUCI PI Bill Cooper was the keynote speaker at this event.
 
On November 5, 2010, AirUCI graduate researchers Nicole Richards and Emily Bruns gave a presentation at Lincoln Elementary School in Santa Ana, CA on issues related to animal habitat destruction caused by global warming.
 
AirUCI graduate researchers Emily Bruns and Nicole Richards participated along with Prof. Nizkorodov in the Ask-A-Scientist Night, held at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School in Irvine, CA on October 20, 2010.
 
On June 3, 2010, AirUCI graduate researchers Emily Bruns and Nicole Richards gave a presentation to an Advanced Placement Chemistry class at Northwood High School in Irvine.
 
In April, 2010, AirUCI graduate researcher Nicole Richards participated in a graduate student panel on the UCI campus sponsored by UC Leads, which provides fellowships across the UC system for undergraduate students from communities that are underrepresented in science education.
 
On July 25, 2008 Girls Inc. sponsored by the SAGE program brought 65 girls aged 12-15 to UCI for a day of science.  UCI Iota Sigma Pi chapter treasurer—and AirUCI researcher—Nicole Barrentine worked to organize a kaleidoscope event with funding provided by Iota Sigma Pi and AirUCI.  The girls got to build their very own kaleidoscopes using materials purchased by Iota Sigma Pi and in the process were introduced to the science of optics.
 
On May 20th, 2008 AirUCI graduate researcher Chris Harmon was a judge at the California State Science Fair on the campus of the University of Southern California.
 
AirUCI graduate researchers Chris Harmon and Adam Bateman gave classroom presentations on Chemistry in the Atmosphere on February 25, 2008 at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, CA.
 
On May 25, 2006, AirUCI researchers Huda Shaka and Jennie Thomas presented a talk entitled Chemistry in the Atmosphere to the AP Chemistry class at Northwood High school in Irvine.
 
Professor Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, director of AirUCI, spoke at the ACS Orange County Section dinner and High School Awards banquet on Thursday, May 11, 2006 at Concordia University in Irvine.  Her talk, entitled Chemistry, Careers, and Climate Change, was directed to the students in attendance and touched on areas of AirUCI's research while discussing career opportunities in the field of atmospheric chemistry.
 
AirUCI hosted a visit from representatives of the National Academy of Engineering and the California Air Resources Board on April 5, 2006.  They brought with them several researchers from China, and the entire group toured our labs and heard an overview of our research and our institute.
 
On April 5, 2006, AirUCI hosted students from Dana Hills High School in Dana Point.  The students spent more than two hours touring our labs and viewing research project demonstrations presented by the AirUCI team.  They also met in our conference room to hear Dr. Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and Dr. Sergey Nizkorodov present an overview of our research and our institute.  This event was organized by Dr. Lisa Wingen.
 
AirUCI researchers Jennie Thomas, Huda Shaka, and Chris Harmon visited Dana Hills High School in Dana Point on March 29, 2006 and gave a 90-minute presentation to 70 students about atmospheric chemistry.  They gave demonstrations of aerosol formation in the atmosphere and a PowerPoint presentation, and they also provided good insight into what it's like to work at the EPA and potential career paths for chemists.
 
In March, 2006, AirUCI researcher Huda Shaka judged two local science fairs. On March 1st she was at the School Science Fair at New Horizon Elementary School in Irvine.  On March 2nd she judged the Irvine Unified School District Science Fair at University High School, Irvine.  Huda was acting as a representative of AirUCI and the Outreach committee of the Iota Sigma Pi chapter at UCI (Women in Chemistry Sorority).
 
On November 19, 2005, Professor Sergey Nizkorodov offered a workshop entitled “Educating High School Students about Energy Use, Air Pollution, and Climate Problems” at the Orange County Science Education Association (OCSEA) Fall conference. The workshop was aimed at high school science teachers, and several grade 9-12 California curriculum content standards in Earth Sciences were addressed.
 
Dr. Lisa Wingen, AirUCI Project Scientist, gave a presentation on August 10, 2005 to a group of teachers from the Summer Science Institute. The teachers reviewed 8th grade California standards in physical sciences. After her presentation, Dr. Wingen led a tour of our labs that included demonstrations of our various research apparatus and brief descriptions of our research.
 
On August 5, 2005, AirUCI researcher Huda Shaka addressed a workshop organized by Dr. George Miller of UCI through the UCI Center for Science in the Public Interest program. The title of her presentation was "Acids and Bases in the Atmosphere" and the audience was made up of high school Chemistry teachers.
 
AirUCI researchers Jennie Thomas and Huda Shaka were judges at the California State Science Fair, held on May 24, 2005 at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, Los Angeles. Huda judged the Environmental Sciences division and Jennie judged the Chemistry division. On May 25 and May 31, Huda and Jennie also visited the AP chemistry classes at Northwood High School in Irvine, CA and gave presentations on atmospheric chemistry.