Chemistry Outreach Project to High Schools Using a Mobile Chemistry Laboratory, ChemKits, and Teacher Workshops

Abstract

The Chemistry Outreach Program (ChOP) of Virginia Tech was a university-based outreach program that addressed the needs of high school chemistry classes in underfunded rural and inner-city school districts. The primary features of ChOP were a mobile chemistry laboratory (MCL), a shipping-based outreach program (ChemKits), and teacher workshops. ChOP targeted schools that lacked basic chemistry equipment and resources, as well as schools where science teachers had limited training in chemistry. The MCL, a fully equipped chemistry laboratory in a 78-foot-long tractor–trailer, visited high school chemistry classes on a regularly scheduled basis. From 2000 to 2004, the MCL served 38 high schools in which 9100 students performed 36,200 experiments. ChemKits, working in concert with the MCL, resulted in an additional 23,450 experiments conducted by students in 33 high schools from 2002 to 2004 and 17 high schools in 2004 to 2005. Teachers attended ChOP workshops in the summer prior to using the MCL or ChemKits in their classrooms. As a result of the collaboration between ChOP and high schools, participating chemistry classes posted an average 37-point gain in their pass rate on standardized state exams in chemistry over a three-year period.