By Peter Jaeger, Chemistry Outreach Manager
As one of our core tenets, outreach at the Department of Chemistry is built to advance three priorities. First, we make the department visible through engagement with other departments on campus and with the community. Second, we seek to make the department accessible by supporting the community in thinking about issues they are facing. Third, we provide high-quality, meaningful contexts for learning for everyone.
Some opportunities meet all of these three requirements. However, it’s rare when they fulfill all of these priorities and give us a chance to bring a commitment to our community into the classroom. This year, a unique collaboration between campus departments and the City of Madison will do just that.
One of the main roads in and out of downtown Madison, John Nolan Drive, is scheduled for major reconstruction this fall. As part of this project, the city hopes to increase the climate resilience of this area via cultivating a more dense tree canopy. Outreach Program Manager, Peter Jaeger, met Anna Bierbrauer, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, who was working with the City of Madison on having students in her course design public spaces adjacent to John Nolan Drive and Lake Monona. Their discussion focused on how the relevant instrumentation and expertise of the Department of Chemistry might support tree canopy health via the analysis and testing of stormwater runoff.
Peter and Assistant Professor Ryan Stowe began attending planning meetings for the project with Anna, City and county officials, and the design firm providing the plans for the project. “We really want to be visible and help groups in our community work on the messy, real-world challenges that they face every day, and we want our students to be involved in that,” explained Peter. It became clear to Ryan and Peter that the project provided an opportunity to build a course for students to use their chemistry knowledge and skills to contribute to real-life decisions.
To consider what would be needed for this vision to become reality, Ryan and Peter approached Analytical Lab Director Amanda Buchberger for ideas about how to develop a testing protocol and where stormwater runoff analysis might fit into her Fundamentals of Analytical Science course. “When I hear something relevant to our analytical chemistry students, I always want to find ways to add it to our courses,” Amanda shared. “Why wouldn’t we want to expose our students to authentic experiences?” The first “project lab” will happen in the Fall of 2025, and Amanda is grateful to have campus and departmental partners who are excited to help students imagine how chemistry is important outside the classroom.
“As we expand what our students can do, I feel fortunate that our Ted and Mary Kellner Instrument Laboratory can expose our students not only to real-world chemistry problems but also modern-day analysis tools,” explained Amanda. By embracing outreach and community engagement as a core tenet, the department has become more visible to departments across campus and, through its collaborative involvement in planning, has been able to put the community of Madison at the center of the classroom.”