New Orleans-Area Schools Receive $50,000 in Science Equipment Grants Courtesy of Pittcon Conference

Non-profit Conference’s Outreach Program Features Science Workshops and the Supplies for Teachers to Perform the Experiments in their Own Classrooms

Pittsburgh, PA – February 20, 2015 – One day before welcoming delegates from around the world to the largest annual conference and expo on laboratory science, the nonprofit Pittcon conference will launch Science Week, a program of free science workshops and demonstrations for teachers and students in the greater New Orleans area. Pittcon’s Science Week will be held Saturday, March 7 through Wednesday, March 11, 2015, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, and 100 teachers and several hundred elementary through high school students are registered to attend. In addition to offering the workshops, Pittcon will present a total of $50,000 in science equipment grants to schools with educators participating in the teacher workshops. The grants enable the schools to purchase equipment demonstrated in the workshops so teachers can implement the science experiments in their own classrooms, or they can use the grants to purchase other science-related equipment of their choice from select companies. Schools sending one teacher receive $500, two teachers receive $750, and three teachers receive $1,000, with grants capped at $1,000 per participating school.

Pittcon annually offers Science Week in each of the cities where it holds its convention as part of the nonprofit conference’s mission of supporting and enhancing science education. The conference, to be held March 8-12, 2015, at the Convention Center, will draw more than 18,000 delegates from 90 countries.

More than 100 teachers will join a day of workshops on either Saturday, March 7 or Sunday, March 8, 2015. Among the dozen workshop topics offered are: Light, Color & Spectroscopy for Kids; Safety in the School Science Laboratory; and STEM Careers in Chemistry.

Then, several hundred elementary and middle school students, grades 4 through 7, will participate in a morning of science workshops held from 9:00 a.m. to Noon, Monday, March 9 through Wednesday, March 11. Classes of students rotate between six of seven workshops, on topics from Chromatography: Coloring with Science to Learning Science Through Toys, and A Passion for Polymers to the Pittcon Planetarium.

In addition, from 10:00 a.m. to Noon, on Wednesday, March 11, up to 1,000 students, grades 8 through 12, will join an educational and entertaining hands-on science lecture and demonstration, “Wonders of Physics,” presented by Mike Randall, a nationally recognized science demonstrator and educator from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and sponsored by Waters.

All Science Week programs are free. Teachers pay a $25 registration fee for the weekend teacher workshops. Pre-registration is required.
In honor of the International Year of Light in 2015, of which Pittcon is an associate sponsor, several of the workshop topics relate to light. To preview Science Week, on Monday, February 9, 2015, Pittcon brought a science workshop, titled “Light & Color,” to 70 fourth graders at the ReNEW Dolores T. Aaron Academy on Curran Boulevard in New Orleans.

Pittcon, together with its co-sponsoring technical societies The Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh and The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, donates more than one million dollars each year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities, including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science center, libraries and museums.

Pittcon and Science Week were last held in New Orleans when the conference met in the city in 2008.


About Pittcon
Pittcon® is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is the premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science.

Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.

Visit pittcon.org for more information.