Maylee Green, Patrick Ryan, Quinn Nagle, Angelina Persaud, Dominique Whyte and advisor J. Patrick Abulencia, Ph.D., with their first place award.
QUINN NAGLE/COURTESY
By Angelina Perez & Jill Tuthill, Arts & Entertainment Editor & Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
The executive board for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) chapter at Manhattan University traveled across the United States to San Diego, CA, where they took first place for the K-2 age group in the annual K-12 STEM Outreach Competition under the supervision of J. Patrick Abulencia, Ph.D.
The competition is held by AIChE at their yearly conference, which draws in chemical engineers with a variety of education and experience. According to the AIChE website, the importance of this conference lies in that it, “Unites academic and industry researchers at all career stages to explore topics at the forefront of chemical engineering.” MU has participated in this showcase for the last two years.
Abulencia, AIChE chapter advisor, approached this year’s president of the chapter, senior Quinn Nagle, with the idea of participating in the showcase at the end of last semester where she was able to assemble the team over the summer months and create the module that was presented at the competition.
“Part of my job as the student chapter advisor for AIChE is to identify and offer opportunities for our students,” Abulencia wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “I personally got involved with K-12 outreach a few years ago and presented that competition as a possible venue for our students to compete. I am a big proponent of students working independently on projects, with minimal faculty help. Aside from reminders for deadlines here and there, student teams did the work on their own, which is very satisfying to see.”
Nagle wrote in an email to The Quadrangle about how the preparations for the conference happened in many different areas over a long period of time.
She noted that herself and the executive board first had to decide on an idea for a lesson plan that they could plausibly teach to younger students, and they ultimately decided on acid and base chemistry for students in grades K-2.
Patrick Ryan, a senior chemical engineering major and treasurer for MU’s AIChE chapter, expanded on the lesson that the cohort prepared for the competition.
“We’re presenting on how your stomach acid balances out the foods that you eat to make sure that you’re feeling good,” Ryan said. “We’re using vinegar to stimulate stomach acid, and we’re gonna dip it in different foods to see how the pH changes. I’m so excited.”
Nagle told The Quadrangle about the other work that went into preparing for the competition.
“After settling on that, there were a lot of forms we had to fill out including safety aspects of the experiment, ways to engage the students throughout the lesson with things like worksheets, discussion topics and questions throughout the lesson to ensure they are understanding what is being taught to them,” Nagle wrote.
After submitting all of this content, in addition to vocabulary sheets and an in-depth video of the experiment they planned on doing with the children, they waited for about three weeks before getting the news that they were invited to attend the conference.
“Going into the conference, I was definitely most excited about being able to represent our school and compete in the K-12 competition with a project we all put a lot of work and energy into,” Nagle wrote. “Having a lasting impact when it comes to STEM outreach is really important to me and to our whole department, so even being able to go to San Diego and present to the kids who had the opportunity to attend the competition was really exciting.”
Nagle went on to express that the conference is an irreplaceable opportunity for chemical engineers to expose themselves to the industry outside of the classroom and connect with other people in the same position that they are in.
“Going to a conference like this helps you realize that so many other people are in the same boat, and there are students, professors and professionals all over the world who are so open to talking to you no matter what the question or concern you have is,” Nagle wrote. “These [conferences] are another way for students to apply what they learn in class, outside of class and also help combine creativity and engineering into one project. It is also beneficial for Manhattan University for us to have the ability to compete in these competitions and get our name out there as an engineering school!”
Nagle, Ryan and the rest of their peers not only took first place in the competition, but also took advantage of the other resources available at the conference. The group attended the graduate and career fair in addition to workshops on varying topics in chemical engineering, helping prepare them for their careers in more ways than one.