Chemistry and Biochemistry News

We’re really looking forward to seeing our alumni on October 20th! To register, for the event, please visit: https://sualumni.ticketleap.com/school-of-the-sciences-alumni-affinity-event/t/facebook/

On Saturday, Dr. Michelle Ivey was down at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor collecting water samples to be analyzed using ion chromatography. This semester, Dr. Ivey, along with her research student, chemistry major, Kelsie Kaier, will be developing methods for determining the concentration of ions in natural water samples.

Chemistry faculty members were happy to participate in and provide workshops for this year’s Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) event. Dr. Tracey Mason had a lot of fun teaching the girls about the chemistry of film photography. The students produced a light reactive chemical that was used to produce a negative image of their photograph. Light was shown on the image to expose their pictures. The girls were able to take home the photographs that they had exposed! Dr. Michelle Ivey and Dr. Sara Narayan helped the girls learn about the chemistry of glow sticks. The students mixed two solutions together to produce an illuminated substance of a pretty purple and blue light. The girls took home their glowing necklaces. The faculty enjoyed sharing their love of chemistry with the middle school girls.

The School of the Sciences has been hosting an Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) day-long event for middle school girls for many years. EYH is dedicated to providing gateway STEM experiences for girls that spark interest in STEM activities and careers. This year, 98 middle school girls participated! In addition, we had 75 SU volunteers and STEM professionals to assist the girls with a wide variety of hands-on workshops from a variety of STEM fields. The girls were each able to choose and participate in three hands-on workshops and also to hear from keynote speaker, Alyssa Shedlosky, a robotics engineer with Becton Dickinson. A great day was had by all! Congratulations to Dr. Kim Tucker who coordinated the event.

Dr. Sara Narayan attended the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) in Colorado. She presented a talk on the case studies relating medicine and chemistry that we use in our General, Organic and Biochemistry Laboratory course. She attended many sessions and enjoyed learning new ideas that others use in chemistry courses for nurses.