D.C. youngsters to learn green chemistry experiments from college students on June 24

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2010 –– Kids from 4 to 12-years of age will work with college students to make organic glue from milk and use blackberry juice to create dye-sensitized solar cells and measure energy absorbed from the sun.

These are two of the four experiments that college students will first learn in the morning on Thursday, June 24, and then teach to 150 Washington, D.C., kids in the afternoon as part of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute’s® (GCI) Green Chemistry Student Workshop in outreach.

College students from across the nation will attend this workshop following a week of lectures, keynote speeches, and other sessions on green chemistry research and policy issues as part of the 14th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference, to be held June 21-23 at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington.

“Green chemistry is science the way nature does it – with renewable and biodegradable materials that don’t pollute the environment, that use energy-efficient processes and provide products created from non-hazardous chemicals,” said Robert Peoples, Ph.D., director of ACS GCI. “The conference promotes those ideas. The outreach workshop will teach a new generation to design experiments using the 12 principles of green chemistry.”

Youngsters participating in the experiments hail from the YMCA National Capital Summer Camp and also from Campfire USA, many of whom might not have a chance to roll up their sleeves for hands-on science otherwise. In partnership with the ACS GCI®, Beyond Benign, an organization that develops curriculum and green chemistry outreach for all educational levels, will lead the experiments.

Where: National Education Association’s headquarters, 1201 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

When: Thursday, June 24, 2010. Youngsters to conduct experiments 3 – 4:30 p.m., Eastern Time

Who: College students teaching youngsters green chemistry experiments. Media photographers and reporters are encouraged to attend.

Beyond Benign is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization that promotes science, driven by principles of green chemistry in order to create an environmentally, socially, and economically prosperous world.

ACS Green Chemistry Institute® is an organization focused on catalyzing and enabling the implementation of green chemistry and engineering across the global chemical enterprise. ACS GCI operates industrial roundtables; conducts conferences, seminars, and training; maintains an international network of 26 green chemistry chapters and is leading the effort to establish the first consensus standard for greener chemical products and processes in the United States with its partner NSF International.

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