Strengthening High School Chemistry Education Through Teacher Outreach Programs

A strong chemical workforce in the United States will be essential to the ability to address many issues of societal concern in the future, including demand for renewable energy, more advanced materials, and more sophisticated pharmaceuticals. High school chemistry teachers have a critical role to play in engaging and supporting the chemical workforce of the future, but they must be sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled to produce the levels of scientific literacy that students need to succeed.To identify key leverage points for improving high school chemistry education, the National Academies' Chemical Sciences Roundtable held a public workshop, summarized in this volume, that brought together representatives from government, industry, academia, scientific societies, and foundations involved in outreach programs for high school chemistry teachers. Presentations at the workshop, which was held in August 2008, addressed the current status of high school chemistry education; provided examples of public and private outreach programs for high school chemistry teachers; and explored ways to evaluate the success of these outreach programs.Table of ContentsFront Matter1 Overview2 Science and Science Education in the United States3 The High School Chemistry Teacher: Status and Outlook4 Initiatives by Federal Agencies5 Exemplary Programs6 Activities by Nonprofit and For-Profit Organizations7 Future ActionsAppendixesAppendix A: Workshop AgendaAppendix B: BiographiesAppendix C: Poster AbstractsAppendix D: Workshop AttendeesAppendix E: Origin of and Information on the Chemical SciencesRoundtable