Preschool

Science Day, Miniapple International Montessori School

29 June 2015. As part of Miniapple's summer program, the Douglas Group presented child-friendly chemistry "works" for children ages 2-6. Sadie Otte, Sarah Pound, Shengyang Wang, Lafe Purvis, Nick Serratore, Grant Frost, Melissa Hardy, and Chris Douglas volunteered to lead various activities.

Chemistry activities to do with your favorite preschooler:

Making borax-glue polymer slime

Making glow sticks (not available for home)

Making volcanoes with citric acid and baking soda

Cleaning pennies with ketchup

Separating oils and syrups. We used vegetable oil, mineral oil, maple-flavored syrup, honey, water, and dish soap.

Invisible ink with petroleum jelly

Diet cola and Mentos eruptions. Tip: do this outside!

High School

Exploring Careers in Engineering & Physical Science (ECEPS)

17 June 2013. The Douglas Group hosted our fifth annual ECEPS workshop for high school students entering their 10th, 11th, and 12th grades who are interested in pursuing careers in science and engineering.

During our ECEPS workshop, We led our participants in making trichlorophenyl oxalate (TCPO), a fuel for glow sticks.

When our ECEPS participants combined hydrogen peroxide, TCPO, and either rubrene (tetraphenyltetracene) or diphenylanthracene, the compound mixtures glowed.

Our laboratory's research in organic semiconducting and solar harvesting molecules focuses on derivatives of rubrene and diphenylanthracene.

Our outreach efforts are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number CHE-1151547