Some Recent Highlights 2015-16
Highlights of the two past years:
- Student Chapters of the ACS at University of New England and UMaine organized National Chemistry Week activities around the theme of “Solving Mysteries through Chemistry”. Thanks to Amy Kiersted, at UNE, for taking on the role of ACS Student Group Coordinator, as an extension of her work on the ACS Undergraduate Programs Advisory Board.
- MEACS provided funding to several student groups to attend the National ACS meeting and the North East Regional Meetings in Binghamton (Oct. 2016) and Ithaca (June 2015).
- The Section continues the Award Program to recognize excellence in student achievement in chemistry at the undergraduate level. Thanks to Natalie Machamer (UMaine) for coordinating with the Chemistry Departments at Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, and St. Joseph’s Colleges, UMaine, Husson University, Univ. of New England, and the Univ. of Southern Maine.
- The Section held two Climate Science Workshops at UMaine and Unity College in Oct. 2016 to provide scientific and chemical background and hands-on laboratory experiments for middle school and high school teachers to use in classrooms across the state. Thanks to Frank Shaw, Jim Webb, Nicky Spaulding, Paige Brown (Bangor HS), Steve Norton, Jim Killarney, the UMaine Students Chapter and MEACS members, as well as Unity College, the University of Maine’s Dept. of Chemistry, Laboratory for Surface Science, Climate Change Institute, and the RISE Center, for co-sponsoring the events.
- The Chemistry Olympiad has been coordinated for the past two years by Jim Killarney (Unity College). In April 2016, teachers across the state administered the exam to 158 students and the finalists competed in the Local Section exam and Lab Practical.
