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Do you remember the exact moment you knew what you wanted to study in college? Was it a career day? Was it a book you read? Or maybe it was a high school experience that ignited a spark? Two professors from the  are striving to create such a moment for local high schoolers.

This collaboration, spearheaded by professors Andrew Wilson and Morgan Balabanoff in the , connects UofL undergraduate and graduate students with Jefferson County Public School high schoolers to create a “near-peer” community designed to spark curiosity in STEM fields.

“Having a college student there at the high school gives them an opportunity to network and discuss what college is like, what is a degree like, and have those soft interactions that make a difference,” Wilson said. 

Heading into its fourth year and continually expanding, the program offers a diverse range of activities designed to expose students to chemistry – whether that’s through laboratory experiments mirroring research at UofL, interactive poster sessions, assistance at science fairs or even a pen pal program.

Cailet Hardtmann-Huckabee, a 10th-grade chemistry teacher at Fairdale High School, agrees that the interactions with college students are eye-opening for the students.

“Allowing students to speak with a variety of people in different stages of progress toward their scientific goals and collegiate journey opens my students’ eyes to the expanse of topics that could be studied and often changes their perception of what it looks like to do science after high school,” she said.

Bridging the science gap 

“Nano Day” serves as a cornerstone of the initiative, providing high school students with hands-on experience in nanoparticle synthesis and characterization. This process generates incredibly tiny particles, often by precisely controlling chemical reactions, enabling the harnessing of their unique properties for diverse applications. Hardtmann-Huckabee said the experiment directly follows their unit on separation methods, during which students learn diverse techniques to separate mixtures based on component properties.

“Since we have increased our collaboration to include a wide variety of experiences throughout the school year, we are able to use the experiences to complement the content we already have planned,” Hardtmann-Huckabee said.

This is often students’ first exposure to professional lab equipment beyond that in a high school setting. Cas Koevoets-Beach, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, has volunteered for two years. Koevoets-Beach said synthesizing nanoparticles gives students “hands-on experience with new techniques and instrumentation that they might not see in their curriculum.”

“It also forces them to make connections between the foundational concepts they’re learning about in their classes like light-matter interactions and properties of light and how they fit into more sophisticated research,” Koevoets-Beach said.

There’s also value to the UofL students that participate, especially those interested in pursuing academia.

“Most of us are used to talking to undergraduate STEM majors or faculty about chemistry, so it’s been a cool challenge to adapt our explanations of chemical concepts and technical directions for younger scientists to help them develop their understanding,” said Koevoets-Beach. “Watching how the high school teachers and our professors have collaborated has been an invaluable lesson in how to better bridge the gap between high school and college science courses.”

New funding provides expanded opportunities

The recently awarded funding to the UofL initiative for the development and distribution of science education materials focused on nanoparticle synthesis to chemistry students across Kentucky.

This grant will enable the creation of educational and experimental kits, expanding nanotechnology opportunities to schools outside of JCPS and further inspire students to pursue STEM fields. Wilson, Balabanoff and graduate students will be putting the kits together this summer.

“The kits will be accompanied by some instructional materials so that the high school teachers can run the labs in their respective schools, and we’ll also do either a virtual training with the high school teachers, or if they’re nearby, then we’ll do an in-person one with them,” said Balabanoff.

Through continued collaboration and the widespread distribution of these innovative kits, UofL’s chemistry department will continue to spark scientific curiosity all across the Commonwealth.

High school teachers interested in receiving a kit shipped to their school should contact Morgan Balabanoff via email.