[neact] Re: NEACT Summer Conference - please respond
- From: FAITH HUGHES <faithmhughes@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:33:39 +0000
Try IONICS in Watertown,MA. It's a privately held (15 yrs ago when I worked
there) watertreatment co which makes the plants for Saudi etc Now they are a
water distributor as well. For a while they had a medical products
division...may still have one...which sells a small device to separate proteins
from water solutions. The process is electolytically driven and partly
propriatery. Interesting work in interesting places.
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:01:32 -0500
From: jj@xxxxxxxx
Subject: [neact] NEACT Summer Conference - please respond
To: neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi all,
This summer’s NEACT conference will be held Aug 1-4 at St. Joseph’s in Maine.
It is 30 minutes outside of Portland; 2 hours north of Boston. In recognition
of the UN declaring 2011 the International Year of Chemistry, we have decided
to have the theme of this year’s summer conference be: Chemistry in Today’s
World. I have been thinking about the presentations for this topic and have
listed below several I would like to see. I welcome your suggestions for
speakers and other ideas for presentations.
One type of presentation under this topic would include teaching in today’s
world. Presentations could include what is the public’s view of chemistry and
how can we, as chemistry teachers influence that. Also, given the recession, I
would love someone to lead a workshop or presentation on ideas of how to teach
effectively with overly large class sizes. We should have a presentation on
teaching critical thinking and the scientific method vs. teaching content to
meet the requirements of the various standardized and AP tests. I would also
like to see a workshop on how to teach critical thinking. Texting is becoming
the bane of many teachers – does anyone want to lead a workshop on how we can
use this type of ubiquitous technology for our advantage? We keep hearing
that we are way behind other countries in Math and Science. What are the other
countries doing differently? Can we learn from them?
Another type of presentation could be around world issues: The third world
has many issues that chemistry can mitigate or solve. One of the biggest
issues is safe drinking water. I would like to see a presentation on the
challenges and chemistry solutions that are out there to bring clean water to
people. I recall a Chematters article from several years ago that talked about
some communities that once they built wells became terribly sick due to Arsenic
leaching into them. I’m sure that there are a plethora of great water related
labs that someone could connect to that presentation with a workshop. Food is
another huge issue facing much of the world. How is genetic modification,
pesticides, organic farming and such addressing these issues? Another good
presentation would be from someone who can explain the various roles that
chemistry played in cleaning up the BP oil spill.
One of the roles that we as educators face is trying to connect chemistry to
the “real” world. As part of this, many schools have started teaching a
forensic science course at their schools. There were several requests in the
feedback forms after the last conference to have some forensic workshops (with
the focus on the chemistry more than the bio).
I am currently trying to see if we can have an additional component of the
summer conference include an in-depth safety training.
These are ideas – I’m sure that you can come up with even better ones under
this theme. I need your help in coming up with good presentations and
workshops and help finding presenters. If you can give me any suggestions on
people to contact who might be able to talk on the ideas suggested above, or
ones that you come up with, PLEASE contact me. I can’t do this without your
help. Feel free to volunteer yourself! Our budget is pretty low, as we try to
keep the conference cost down so keep that in mind when thinking of speakers.
However we have found that sometimes even professionals from industry are
willing to speak for free or just a small honorarium given who we are.
Thanks so much for your continuing support for NEACT and all your great ideas.
Jerusha Vogel
NEACT President
2011 Summer Conference Program Chair
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