Communication pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
ConfChem Conference on A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical EducationThe Continuing Celebration of IYC 2011: What the IUPAC Polymer Division Is Doing To Keep Things Going Christopher K. Ober* Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: The IUPAC polymer division regards the International Year of Chemistry as a starting point for ongoing engagement with the public to better communicate the important role of polymer chemistry in serving society. Prior to that we had started a polymer division education Web site to distribute the contents of an educational CD focused on polymers. This Web site became our principal tool for IYC activities including a video and essay contest aimed at high school and university students, an international funding call, and a list of polymer division sponsored IYC events and conferences. In addition, it provides links to educational Web sites around the world, videos related to polymer scientists and polymer division award winners, and simple definitions of common polymer terms. This communication discusses the results of a student competition, an international funding call designed by national funding agencies to develop best practices for multinational research programs, and noteworthy aspects of the educational Web site and summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem online conference A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education, held from May 18 to June 29, 2012 and hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE) and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. KEYWORDS: Continuing Education, General Public, Polymer Chemistry, Public Understanding/Outreach
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IYC activities. More information about the Web site and a summary of other IYC activities carried out by IUPAC can be found at the Committee on Computers in Chemical Education Web site.1 For the IYC, two specific sections of the Web site were developed. The first was related to IYC activities. The number of visits to the Web site was tracked, and it was found that the IYC activities were a significant draw and increased overall traffic to the Web site. The second was related to the polymer division’s international funding call in partnership with the Committee on Chemical Research Funding (CCRF) to study best practices in multicountry (3 or more) collaborations related to polymer chemistry. This successful competition currently provides research funds for seven programs at a total amount of ∼$7 M over a three-year period. A highlight of IYC was an international contest for either a video or an essay submission entitled “A World Without Polymers?” The objective of this activity was to encourage a greater understanding by the public of the significance of polymers to everyone’s quality of life in the words of students. The contest was addressed to university and high-school students around the globe and harnessed their immense creativity. The contest invited submission of either a video or
he Polymer Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) looks upon the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) as the start of an ongoing effort to better communicate the value of polymer chemistry to society. The division has built the IUPAC Polymer Education Web site and used it as a tool to reach out to students and educators. At the present time, the IUPAC polymer education Web site is one of the highest rated sites on this topic on all the major search engines. All IYC activity was managed through the Web site, which was created in 2004 as a means of distributing the contents of a free educational CD describing polymer chemistry. The site is now designed to provide a means to communicate with teachers, students, and the public about polymer chemistry and its merits to society. This Web site will continue after the IYC has finished and consists of several sections as well as links to other IUPAC divisional Web sites. The most widely visited Web page explains simply “what is a polymer?” The second most widely visited part of the Web site has links to numerous videos highlighting intellectual leaders in polymer chemistry. We expect that a multilingual glossary created for IYC with terms of polymer chemistry in six languages will become equally well visited. Other components of the Web site include links to other educational Web sites, advanced downloadable educational information on polymer chemistry, and a record of our © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: October 8, 2013 1559
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed3007988 | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 1559−1560
Journal of Chemical Education
Communication
an essay on the theme of “A World Without Polymers?”, that is, how the world might be if there were no polymers now or in the future. There were three winners in each category: video and essay. The award winning videos and essays aimed at the general public are available online and beautifully convey the vital role that polymers play in improving society and our quality of life. Each winning entry earned for their school a 12-month subscription to Chemistry International, the news magazine of IUPAC, and a copy of the IUPAC Polymer Division Purple Book, a book that provides useful definitions for many terms in polymer chemistry. The first place winners in each category were invited to attend the World Chemical Congress (WCC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday, August 2, 2011. A formal ceremony was held at the Symposium for Younger Polymer Chemists and the six winning individuals and groups were announced. We were fortunate to have Yvonne Lann take part in the ceremony, a student from Malaysia who won the video contest. Our experience with the video and essay competition and the success of these efforts have encouraged us to continue these activities beyond IYC. Our division plans to hold a video and essay competition again in 2014. We are also working with the Committee on Chemistry Research Funding (CCRF) to take the experience we gained with the international funding call and to identify new funding topics, particularly around the theme of sustainability. In particular, our experience taught us that the IYC activities increased interest in our Web site and brought in people from around the globe. By continuing to enhance the Web site, foster multi-investigator research programs, and hold further student competitions, we will continue in the spirit of public outreach initiated during IYC. In the end though, after an analysis of our most visited Web pages, what continues to bring the most people to our Web site is the simple question, “What is a polymer?”. This is fitting given the important role of IUPAC in defining the terminology and nomenclature of chemistry. This paper was discussed from June 8 to June 14 during the spring 2012 ConfChem online conference, A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education. This conference was jointly hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE) and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education, and can be accessed at http://www.ccce.divched. org/spring2012confchem.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
Full paper from the ConfChem conference. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) The Committee on Computers in Chemical Education Web site. http://www.ccce.divched.org/spring2012confchem
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed3007988 | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 1559−1560
