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Regional High School Students Visit Westminster for Chemistry Outreach Program

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Posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Students from Sharpsville Area High School and Wilmington Area High School visited Westminster College in May as part of a chemistry outreach program hosted by Dr. Helen Boylan, Professor of Chemistry. The theme of the program was water quality, and both groups had hands-on experiences doing field and laboratory water quality testing.

Merrissa (Malcolm) Nguyen '12 brought approximately 30 Sharpsville chemistry students on May 19 as part of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Ambassadors Program. Through this program, Nguyen collaborates with Boylan who serves as a “Science Coach,” working with Nguyen to plan activities and connect classroom learning to the real world.

Abby Sarver brought approximately 20 Wilmington CHEM II students to campus on May 22 as part of a long-standing collaboration between Boylan and Sarver with the goal of exposing upper-level high school chemistry students to advanced techniques and instrumentation that the students would experience in a college chemistry lab.

Westminster students Jessica Garcia Ramirez (’19) and Robert Hellier (’17) assisted with the laboratory portion of the activities.

“Water quality analysis is an important application of chemistry,” Boylan stated, “And I believe it is important for chemistry students to experience both lab and field work.”

For more information, contact Boylan at boylanhm@westminster.edu or 724-946-6293.