Chemical engineering workshops were held this summer for local area middle school and high school teachers. Both workshops gave teachers the tools to make science more interesting to students by performing hands-on experiments that they can use in the classroom, and discussing the real-world applications of the experiments. "The students want something exotic that explodes, but the closer the experiment is to everyday life, the more they can learn," said Michael Courtney, a teacher at Springdale High School, as he performed an experiment that tested the pH of various household products such as buttermilk and dishwashing liquid.

The high school teachers' workshop was sponsored by the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers and organized by Dr. Ed Clausen, a professor in the UA chemical engineering department. In addition to the workshop, the department will provide support during the school year by meeting with the teachers and their classes.

This was the second year that the workshop for middle school teachers has been held. Each year it is organized jointly by the Colleges of Education and Engineering. This year’s workshop was sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education in the first year of a three year program. The workshops are designed to help teachers satisfy the specific learning objectives that have been set for them. The teachers learned about additional resources where they can go for help in developing curriculum for their classes, as well as guidelines and information on lab safety. Teachers from several Northwest Arkansas Middle Schools attended the workshop.

"We are trying to give them tools that they can use in the classroom to help get the students more interested in science. It’s one thing to look at a picture in a book. It's a heck of a lot better to go and actually do something hands-on, because most kids are hands-on learners," said Clausen. Both workshops were a great success.