Science Coaches program pairs chemists with schoolteachers

In fall 2023, high school students at The Thacher School in Ojai, California, analyzed a forged artwork in their classroom that the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields had purchased. “The students used polarized light microscopy to study the fiber content of this forged Moroccan embroidery,” says Gregory Smith, a conservation scientist at the museum. Smith described to the high school students how his team used forensic science to discover the forgery.

Smith and Thacher science teacher Christopher Vyhnal partner through the Science Coaches program, an outreach initiative that pairs professional chemists with teachers who are members of the American Association of Chemistry Teachers. “By bringing a coach into a classroom, students are able to interact with a scientist—sometimes for the first time—and it gives them firsthand exposure to chemistry as a career and the impact scientists make on real life,” says Adam Boyd, American Chemical Society director of K–12 education, engagement, and outreach. The Science Coaches program has grown steadily since it launched in 2010 with 32 coaching partnerships. The 2024–25 school year has about 250 partnerships.

Seeing real-world applications of science helps students engage more actively with their learning, says Vyhnal. “I used to be asked all the time: ‘Why do we have to know this?’ Now that question is preempted.” He also notes that his enthusiasm for the program has rubbed off on his students. “It’s tangible for them when they see how excited Greg and I are. That just gets them engaged in a way that teaching to an AP [Advanced Placement] chemistry exam never did.” One student who attended the forensic science workshop went on to do a paid summer internship with local art conservators. Another chose to convert an inexpensive computer camera into an infrared camera for art analysis as their capstone project. “Greg remotely assisted in the design and testing of this camera setup,” says Vyhnal.

The impact of Smith and Vyhnal’s partnership has spread beyond Thacher students. Classroom activities resulting from the collaboration have been published in chemistry education journals. Last summer, Vyhnal also spent a 6-week sabbatical with Smith and his team at the museum analyzing paintings and developing classroom resources—work they plan to publish in the future. During the sabbatical, the pair also co-ran a Chemistry of Art workshop for high school teachers with the ACS Indiana Local Section. “We developed a summer day-long workshop to introduce high school teachers to the idea that chemistry courses could involve cultural heritage and archaeological materials,” says Smith.

“I think any experience for a teacher to connect to what’s going on outside the classroom is a positive thing,” says Todd Smeltz, a high school chemistry teacher at Upper Dauphin Area High School in Elizabethville, Pennsylvania. For the past 3 years, Smeltz has partnered with Zachary Gray, managing director of the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization at Pennsylvania State University.

Each year, Gray attends a careers day at the school. “Zach will come in, and he’ll talk about nanotechnology careers with groups of students,” says Smeltz. Gray also runs lab activity sessions related to nanotechnology for Smeltz’s students. “Last year, we found a low-cost and safe way of teaching a very complex process used in the semiconductor industry called photolithography,” says Gray. “The students gained a lot from that experience as far as understanding what the process is and how it connects to things that they are familiar with, like their cell phones,” adds Smeltz. This year, for the first time, the students will be visiting Gray at Pennsylvania State University. “We are hoping that they can get [to see] how an electron scanning microscope and atomic force microscope works and maybe get a tour of . . . the nanofabrication lab,” says Smeltz.

Each participating school receives a $550 Flinn Scientific gift certificate. Typical purchases include lab equipment and consumables for activities undertaken during a coach’s visit. Science coach Susan Allison, a science specialist at Dawson Education Service Cooperative in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, has also helped teachers select equipment to improve lab safety. For example, Cami Wells from Magnet Cove High School, one of her 2023–24 partners, used the voucher to help purchase the school’s first acid cabinet.

Over the past 3 years, Allison has worked with four high schools. “I target the rural schools,” says Allison. “My teachers [often] have safety questions on the disposal of chemicals.” She coaches them on safe disposal techniques and provides activity ideas on how to use up excess chemicals creatively. “A lot of my schools have extra copper(II) chloride or copper(II) sulfate, and I will give them labs where they can use that up in a displacement reaction with aluminum or iron,” Allison says. “The copper precipitates out and . . . makes a great visual lab for the students.”

Allison has also run hands-on activities in class, helped teachers organize chemical closets, and spoken to students about science careers. The latter is one of her main motivators for participating in the program. “We as chemists need to widen the pipeline to bring more students into the field. That really is our collective responsibility,” says Allison.

About 80% of Science Coaches partnerships involve high school teachers, 10% involve middle school teachers, and 10% involve elementary school teachers. Danielle Garrett, an associate professor of chemistry education at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, has coached Eric Barbour, a fourth-grade science teacher at the nearby Donelson Christian Academy, for 2 years. She also coached his predecessor for 9 years.

At the start of each academic year, Barbour shows a video Garrett created to introduce herself to the new cohort of students. “The video introduces me, who I am, what I do, and where I work,” she says. Next, she visits the school for a question-and-answer session with the students. “They can ask anything they want about chemistry or what it is to be a chemist. They come up with some amazing questions,” she says. Garrett then visits the school during the fall and spring semesters to run hands-on activities. Last fall, the students used handheld spectroscopes to explore the spectra of LEDs and the relationship between energy, wavelength, and frequency of light.

At the end of the spring semester, Donelson Christian Academy fourth graders visit Belmont University for a day. Here, they do hands-on activities such as testing the pH of household products and using Alka-Seltzer tablets and vinegar to explore neutralization reactions. The day ends with a flame test demonstration. “What I love about that field trip is that it’s a culmination of everything they’ve done [with Garrett] throughout the year. They get to combine all these pieces of knowledge in a day of hands-on science, and they absolutely love it,” Barbour says.

Participating in the Science Coaches program has “given me opportunities to have my students be exposed to worlds of science that I just don’t have the capability to expose them to on my own,” says Barbour. The program also has professional benefits for the science coaches. Learning how science is taught in grade schools and high schools is valuable for coaches who teach in colleges and universities. Evidence of outreach work for grant applications is another benefit, says Allison. Smith also appreciates the opportunity to change perceptions and help students see the links between the arts and the sciences. “It’s an opportunity to . . . show them that science has always been integral to art and archaeology and vice versa,” he says. Most coaches report high personal satisfaction from being involved in the program. “It’s a joyful, fun, rewarding experience,” says Garrett.

Applications for the 2025–26 school year are now open. Application details for both teachers and coaches are available at teachchemistry.org/professional-development/science-coaches.