National Chemistry Week 2020 Goes Virtual and Celebrates 100K Participant Milestone!
COVID forced us to improvise – but it did not impede our vision to offer our annual NCW chemical outreach program to students in the Pittsburgh region!
In 2020, the ACS Pittsburgh Local Section continued its 22-year partnership with the Carnegie Science Center to host a virtual ChemFest celebration! Through a ‘telethon’ delivery approach, classrooms from across the region were invited to participate in the two-day event on October 22 & 23, 2020 following the theme “Sticking with Chemistry.” Chemistry enthusiasts from the Pittsburgh area joined in to remotely offer demonstrations, at-home activities, lab tours & videos, and career discussions.
A total of 126 educators participated in the 2-day telethon, reaching an estimated 4800 students with our content. During a given 15-minute interval of programming, an estimated 400-675 students were watching. In many ways this surpasses the impact of our traditional face-to-face program! Responses we received from educators indicated that this experience was a much-needed supplement to both virtual and in-person teaching this year. We are thrilled to have reached and impacted so many students.
This year also marks a milestone achievement: Since its inaugural run in 1999, the ChemFest/NCW program has reached over 100,000 students in the Pittsburgh region! We were on target to hit this number in 2020 and we are delighted that we were still able to achieve this goal despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic.
For more information on ChemFest, visit the Carnegie Science Center website: https://carnegiesciencecenter.org/educators/themed-field-trips-chemfest/