Community
Outreach
The Lehigh Valley Section strives to make "Chemistry for Life" a part of the experience of every one of our neighbors within our 7 county area. From school Science Fairs to our ongoing partnerships with The Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, we offer Informal Science Education opportunities to kids of all ages, 8-80!
Demonstrate Science
LVACS chemists make science come alive with demonstration tables at schools and civic institutions. It's also a great way for young chemists such as college students to 'give back' what they have already learned and help the community to understand how chemistry impacts their daily lives. Would you like to be the chemist for fascinated kids and their parents? Extract DNA from strawberries? Make edible waterpods? It's fun and mind-opening.
Are you a community member in the PA counties of Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe or Warren NJ looking for a chemical professional to demonstrate science for your group and talk about the chemical profession? Please contact us!
Here's an example of a recent science fair we attended.
ACS CHEMLUMINARY AWARD WINNER!!
"Chemistry Fun with the Berks Chem Society" on BCTV aired its pilot filmed Feb. 26, 2021 with host Greglynn Gibbs, featuring different ways and different things to use to "make a home-made battery" with special guest, battery expert Robert Coller from Enersys, Reading, PA. Take a look at this show: https://youtu.be/CiChpnzWsZY and two subsequent episodes...
The Chemistry of No-Pop Bubbles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFYi7XaHo0&t=2s.
"Reduce Your Footprint with Shrinky Dinks!": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut7DdsL3p5M.
Da Vinci Science Center
VISIT THE NEW DA VINCI SCIENCE CENTER AT PPL CENTER IN ALLENTOWN!Da Vinci Science Center at PPL Pavilion, 815 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101
The Lehigh Valley section is an active partner with our local science museum, Da Vinci Science Center of Allentown, in "Bringing Science to Life and Lives to Science." Da Vinci's mission meshes splendidly with ACS' mission of "Chemistry for Life" thus making our collaboration truly synergistic. You'll find LVACS chemists celebrating National Chemistry Week (NCW) and Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) here every year! In 2020, LVACS was honored by Da Vinci with its Grand Maestro Award in recognition of its substantial contributions to the scientific community and the Center. Here's what we did for: "Marvelous Metals" (NCW 2019) "Sticking with Chemistry" (NCW 2020) "Take Note: The Chemistry of Paper" (CCEW 2019) “FAST/OR SLOW…Chemistry Makes It GO!” (NCW 2021) "The Buzz about Bugs: insect chemistry" (CCEW 2022) "The Curious Chemistry of Amazing Algae" (CCEW 2023) - seaweed was everywhere! "The Healing Power of Chemistry" (NCW 2023). 2024's event was on Saturday, October 19th, 2024 from 6-9 pm with "Picture Perfect Chemistry!"
RED = ACS CHEMLUMINARY AWARD WINNERS
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NCW 2024
“Picture Perfect Chemistry”
National Chemistry Week (NCW) is a public awareness campaign that promotes the value of chemistry in everyday life. Read more about NCW. Our LVACS NCW Coordinator is Philip Elias, philipjelias@gmail.com. The ACS Program-In-a-Box Watch Party “Picture Perfect Chemistry: Laboratory Imaging and Photography” occurred Wednesday, October 23rd, 6-8 pm. The section’s official watch party place was at Lehigh University this year with free pizza and ACS swag for all MC'd by Steve Boyer, LVACS past chair and YCC Chair. A public Outreach event was held on Saturday, October 19th, 2024 from 6-9 pm at Da Vinci Science Center at PPL Pavilion, 815 W. Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101. Also, the annual Illustrated Poetry Contest for K-12 was sponsored (flyer).
CCEW 2024
“Get a Charge out of Chemistry”
LVACS celebrated CCEW the week of April 21-29, 2024 with the theme, “Get a Charge out of Chemistry.” This year was all about batteries.
The celebration of CCEW 2024 came in three parts:
- Mount Pocono West High School's Night of STEAM on Monday, April 22nd. The celebration was open to all K-12 students in the Pocono Mountain school district.
- Reading Science Center's "Celebrate Science Day" held on the campus of Drexel University College of Medicine, West Reading Campus on Sunday, April 28th 1-5 pm which hosted a huge and diverse crowd totaling 792 (wow!).
- Southern Lehigh Middle School for their 2nd annual STEAM Expo 2024 as we rounded out CCEW 2024 here.
CONTACT: Philip Elias, LVACS CCEW Coordinator philipjelias@gmail.com
Join the fun!
We're always looking for volunteers for a wide variety of outreach events...and each year we award a worthy Volunteer of the Year. Just give us a shout and we'll give you your chemistry magic wand!
Philip Elias, 2024 Outreach VOTY
Philip J. Elias, 2023 LVACS Chair-elect and now assuming the Chair responsibilities for 2024, has been named 2024 Volunteer-of-the-Year for the Lehigh Valley Section by ACS and will compete with other local section volunteers for the title of ACS Volunteer-of-the-Year. Philip graduated from Muhlenberg College (‘22) and has been an engaged member of the LVACS since his senior year. He started volunteering at NCW events and was elected as the section Chair-elect for 2023. In 2023, Philip became the section’s NCW and CCEW coordinator, organizing several outreach events at our local ISE partner, Da Vinci Science Center and with the PA Migrant Education Program’s "Lights on After School" event and STEM Saturdays at the Allentown Public Library. Philip also judged at the Lehigh Valley Science Fair and did demonstrations at Science Fairs within the section such as the Southern Lehigh STEAM Expo and Pocono Mountain West Night of Science for middle and high school students. In addition to these outreach activities, Philip organized the September LVACS meeting at Evonik including lab tours and talks (largest attendance for a section meeting in many years). Philip has grown, over the past 3 years, in his role from participating volunteer to leader of events. He developed the entire program for the September Evonik visit, which brought a company new to the section into partnership with us. He also planned our NCW outreach event at Da Vinci Science Center this year, including all arrangements with Da Vinci staff and ordering of supplies. Thanks, Philip! We’re lucky to have you
