Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss. – A program led by faculty members in Mississippi State University’s Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering is providing area science teachers with an expanded knowledge of polymer science to take back to their schools this fall.

From July 11 through July 22, nine area middle and high school science teachers are taking part in a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Teachers program. Through lectures and laboratory research activity, the participating teachers gain knowledge in the field of polymer science they can use in their own classroom instruction.

MSU chemical engineering faculty members Santanu Kundu and Keisha Walters are leading the program through the school’s Soft Materials Laboratory and Polymer and Surface Engineering Laboratories. During the lessons and research activities, participating teachers are guided by MSU faculty, graduate students and postgraduate researchers.

Heather Yoder, a 5th grade math and science teacher at Virgil Jones Jr. Elementary in Brooksville, said the activities have taught her lessons she can apply while teaching chemical and physical properties.  

“Having this knowledge, we can bring it back to our students and make them more aware of the opportunities around them,” Yoder said. “They just miss that. They don’t know (these labs) are here at Mississippi State or know that this science exists, so this is something we can bring back to them and show them.”

Throughout the two-week experience, teachers work to develop learning modules for polymer science that can be brought back to their classrooms. They also learn about different polymers and their properties. Michael Adam, a science teacher at Starkville High School, said he could use polymers as a different way to look at biology.

“In biology, a lot of cell biology is polymers,” Adam said. “They’re just naturally, biologically occurring polymers. So I’m taking this as a new way of teaching cell biology, from a polymer science perspective, at least introducing the different biological polymers – DNA, proteins, enzymes, sugars.”

In addition to improving the classroom experience, teachers said they also have enjoyed the opportunity to make connections with MSU researchers, which could lead to future guest lectures, field trips and other collaborations.

Adam said the summer program will benefit students because it provides another way for him to introduce students to the fields of polymer science and engineering in a way that they can easily comprehend.

“I don’t teach the highly gifted kids, so my students tend to be more intimidated when they hear about engineering, but if we take that back and show them that this is simple and easy and things you can actually learn to do, they may start to look at these types of fields as a career for them,” Adam said.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.