The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was involved in several community outreach programs throughout the last few weeks. Some of those events are highlighted below:
Girl Scouts Day:
On February 25th, Girl Scouts Day was sponsored by Lockheed Martin and hosted in collaboration with WISE and the Girl Scouts of the Midlands. This event is held annually during Engineers Week as a way to expose young middle school aged Scouts to the STEM fields. 100 Scouts came to Clemson to learn about STEM through the Chemistry, Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Departments. Our department showcased polymers through activities making Gluep and bouncy balls.
STEM Day:
STEM day is a program hosted through Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) targeting middle school boys and girls in the Upstate. On February 18th, three workshop facilitators in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Computer Science introduced the STEM fields to local underrepresented students. The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department showcased polymers through activities making Gluep and bouncy balls. This event exposed approximately 60 students to STEM.
CULSOC Biotechnology Camp:
Clemson’s Life Sciences Outreach Center hosted a Biotechnology Camp on February 17th. During the camp, our department taught high school students from a magnet school in Charleston, SC about filtration. The students learned about physical and enzymatic treatment of water and compared the two techniques in an activity “treating” unfiltered, organic apple juice. They also built physical filters using water bottles, rocks, sand, cotton balls, and coffee filters. They enzymatically treated the apple juice with pectinase, and then compared the resulting clarity of the solutions with a turbidometer.
