Meetings & Events

Upcoming Events
(click anywhere on calendar image above to view the latest event information)

   
April 2024
 
Section Meeting / Undergraduate Poster Session

Thursday, April 18th, 4:30-9:00pm

Speaker: Shon Neal, NASA

DeSales University, University Center
Details, Abstracts and Registration HERE

**RSVP by April 8th**

Please post flyer!


CONTACT: Sara Hayik, Sara.Hayik@desales.edu
 
 
PLEASE CONSIDER VOLUNTEERING FOR THE FOLLOWING STEM/STEAM EVENTS:
DEMONSTRATE THE EXCITEMENT AND VALUE OF CHEMISTRY FOR OUR DIVERSE COMMUNITY!
 
Last year we participated in Pocono Mt West’s first Night of Science for all their elementary schools. They’d love to have us back. This year it is going to be a Night of STEAM for all of their K-12 students in the district and their families on Monday, April 22nd in honor of Earth Day from 5-8 pm at the Pocono Mountain West High School. We’ll do battery builds and other cool demos.

Night of STEAM at Pocono Mt. West High School
Monday, April 22nd (Earth Day!), 5-8 pm
Pocono Mt. West High School
181 Panther Ln, Pocono Summit, PA 18346
Google Maps Directions
CONTACT: Steve Boyer, sboyer11@esu.edu
 
 
The Reading Science Center is planning its first outdoor "Celebrate Science Day" on Sunday, April 28th from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. This will take place on the campus of Drexel University College of Medicine, West Reading, PA. They anticipate about 400 families will attend.  It will be a mix of STEM-related demonstrations, including experiments from the Reading Science Center, resources and lessons from the Drexel Med faculty and students, an aquaponics van, therapy dogs, inflatable firehouse, concessions, music, etc., etc.! We’ll focus on this year’s Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) battery-related demos.
 
Celebrate Science Day (& CCEW!) in W. Reading
Sunday, April 28th , 1-5 pm
Drexel College of Medicine, West Reading Campus
50 Innovation Way, Wyomissing, PA 19610
Google Maps Directions
CONTACT: Philip Elias, philipjelias@gmail.com
 
 
SLMS has invited us to be part of their Second Annual SLSD STEAM Expo scheduled for Monday 4/29/24 from 6-8 pm at Southern Lehigh Middle School. Like last year, we’ll have a table and spot on their STEAM Passport, which families will use to navigate the building and explore STEAM opportunities. We’re planning take-away and hands-on interactive experiences in order to engage students and families. We had some fantastic exhibits last year and are so excited to participate again!
 Check out the linked flyer for more information. 
 
Southern Lehigh MS STEAM Expo
Monday, April 29th , 6-8 pm
Southern Lehigh Middle School
3715 Preston Lane, Center Valley, PA 18034
Google Maps Directions
CONTACT: Philip Elias, philipjelias@gmail.com
 
YEARLY MEETING AND EVENT SCHEDULE
The section holds regular meetings about 8 times per academic year, September-November and January-May. There are also special events scheduled throughout the year such as celebrations around National Chemistry Week (incorporating Mole Day, October 23) and Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (incorporating Earth Day, April 22). Recurring meeting themes include: student poster session, careers night, industry tours, high school teachers night and awards night. LVACS participates in many local Science Fairs throughout the year. Family events typically take in local sports (LV Iron Pigs AAA baseball; LV Phantoms hockey) or sample local food/beverage emporia. Keep watching this page for timely announcements of our next events! 
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January 25th Section Meeting at Moravian University Explored AI and Chemistry
https://youtu.be/MN5hxD3d7MM
Wolfram|Alpha's Jason Sonnenberg's talk with LVACS in January 2024 "Chemical Superpowers with ChatGPT + Wolfram" explored how ChatGPT is a much smarter “chemistry assistant” when given access to Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language. The resulting Wolfram GPT can generate chemical structures in two- and three-dimensions which the ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4 can not. Additionally it can also pull from expert-curated chemical data and propagate experimental uncertainty in chemical conversions and computations. Wolfram|Alpha & ChatGPT 3.5 are both free resources, while Wolfram GPT & ChatGPT 4 require a subscription from OpenAI.
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A lecture by Lauren Zarzar of Penn State University entitled “Color from Colorless Materials.” Lauren is an assistant professor of chemistry and an affiliate of the Materials Research Institute. The Zarzar Lab studies stimuli-responsive materials, the behavior of active matter, and laser fabrication methods to synthesize and pattern both inorganic and organic materials. https://www.zarzarlab.com/. In this lecture, Lauren explained why interference (structural) color can arise from even microscale structures (~ 100 microns) by Total Internal Reflection, such as when water droplets of different sizes form by condensation on a clean, low energy surface.

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Nigel Sanders, webmaster@lvacs.org
+1 (610) 597-5645
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Chester Crane, crane@musselpolymers.com
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LEHIGH VALLEY SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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