Our team at the Pre-college committee continues with the activities as we are geared to complete our goals for the year. We identified Goal 3 from the strategic plan as our guiding goal for our committee.
Goal 3: Identifying and Communicating Value. Build and communicate the unique benefits and role of the Division of Chemical Education.
Recapping, we started a newsletter to spread out information on the many activities available to our members in the pre-college education levels. In addition, we have a live document listing all the resources specifically designed to assist our pre-college educators. We were able to establish a good relationship with the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT)by publishing the two documents and events in their website.
Report Pre-College Committee
July 205 – January 2026
Here is what has been happening since our last report.
July 2025
- Birds of a Feather Event at the Chemical Education Conference 2025 at the Colorado School of Mines
Our committee hosted a Birds of a Feather event at the conference, as a Town Hall type of event in which questions were asked to our audience to figure out what the main needs they have at their high schools, the resources the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society they were familiar with, whether they use them or not. We got interesting feedback from this event. Examples of these inputs are: teachers needed more opportunities to learn best practices from their peers, teachers were not using the high school exam, or did not know they could, or sometimes they could not afford them.
- August 2025
Outstanding Committee Service Award
We had the privilege to have one of our members , Dr, Michael Marino, nominated and later awarded an Outstanding Committee Service Award. He was recognized at the ACS Fall 2025 in San Diego, CA
- Operations Manual Update
We started the process of updating the committee’s Operations Manual at the request of Dr. Bussey, president of the Chemical Education Division.
We held meetings with this purpose on:
August 17, 2025 – Overview of current Operations Manual (last revision was done in 1986)
October 22, 2025 – Changes/Updates overview
November 14, 2025 – Final changes and vote to approve the updated version.
December 3, 2025 -Updated Operations Manual Submitted to the Division Chair.
September 2025
No meetings were held. All members agreed to focus on duties related to the start of the academic year
October 2025 – December 2025
- Symposia Contributions
Our committee has been busy producing ideas to bring to the ACS National meetings to reach out to pre-college educators in the places where the ACS National meetings take place. The following are the topics approved and under consideration(submitted) thus far:
- ACS Spring, March 2026 @ Atlanta , GA
Symposium: Sustainable Lab Program for General Chemistry, presider: Esther Hines(approved)
- BCCE July 2026 @ Madison, WI
Birds of a Feather Event – Getting to Know Your Pre-College Committee (submitted)
- ACS Fall August 2026 @ Chicago, IL
Symposium: Bridging the Gap: From Educational Research Theory to High School Classroom Practice, presider: Dr. Michael Marino & Kathryn Mehltretter (approved)
Teachers’ Day Symposia Sunday, August, 23 2026
- Chemistry and Art, proposed by Kathryn Mehltretter (submitted)
- Laboratory Safety in High School by Esther Hines (submitted)
- Students with Disabilities in the Chemistry Classroom by Michael Marino (in progress)
January 2026
- Creation of Pre-College Committee - AACT Liaison
We have a member in our committee, Michael Mury, acting as a liaison with the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT) starting in January 2026. The Operations Manual's next update will reflect this addition. The idea is to improve our communication with high school teacher members.
- Updated Newsletter: Winter 2026 posted
- ACS Leadership Institute
Proposal to have the chair of the Pre-college committee attend this course prior to assuming his/her role. Set aside funding for this purpose.
- Budget for 2025/2026
Goals for 2026
Goal 3, Identifying and communicating Value (continue in 2026)
We will continue working towards this goal by collaborating with other divisions and/or committees. For example, the Division of Professional Relations comprises the subdivisions of Chemists with Disabilities, International Chemists, Younger Chemists, Women Chemists, and ACS Pride, to name a few.
Goal 2, Strategy 1
Professional Learning Opportunities. Implement at least three new professional learning programs, at least one of which addresses each of secondary practitioners, postsecondary practitioners, and chem ed researchers by Q3 2025, Q3 2026(?)
500
Expenses $118.44 – Door prizes awarded to attendees to the Pre-College Committee and AACT joint social event at the 2025 CHEMED conference in Golden, Colorado.
The attendees enjoyed getting books about the influence of chemistry in history and laboratory kits to use.
The attendees enjoyed getting books about the influence of chemistry in history and laboratory kits to use. We will continue these joint events in the future.
We have itemized the expected expenses for the meetings to be held in 2026. We would like to include memberships to the Division and to the Laboratory Safety Institute.