Environmental Progress - Autumn 1996

Teaching the Teachers: Illinois EPA, Abbott Labs, Lake County Educators Team Up for Pollution Prevention

Focus is on "microscale chemistry" in school labs

Nineteen high school science teachers in Lake County recently got some hands-on experience in more efficient management of chemicals in the classroom while reducing the amount of hazardous waste for costly disposal.

Illinois EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention teamed up with Abbott Laboratories, Lake County Educational Services and Argonne National Laboratory for a two-day seminar in July on "microscale chemistry."

The teachers learned how to conduct experiments with less waste of chemicals and received practical tips on ordering and managing their inventory of chemicals better.

"Most high schools have an excess of chemicals in stock due to many years of teaching laboratory experiments. Different teachers may have purchased duplicate chemicals without knowing it or new teachers may have changed the experiments and, as a results, the necessary chemicals," commented Keri Luly, of Illinois EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention.

"The seminar was intended to educate teachers not to buy large quantities and substitute less toxic chemicals to do the same experiment," she added.

"It was very worthwhile. I liked the idea of being able to get across chemistry concepts to my students while using a minimal amount of chemicals and very little disposal," said participant Ron Urich, a chemistry teacher at Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, one of the locations for the seminar.

"Each of us got a really good background on the actual techniques we can use and I think that will carry over into the classroom," he added.

"I think it was a really strong model for business, education and governmental agencies all working together and gathering the resources to address a problem in one place," said Ann Reichel of Lake County Educational Services about the seminar.

The seminar provided some new practical techniques for reducing the amount of waste at Stevenson High, said Director of Science Beth Giglio.

"We are continually trying to reduce the amount of chemical waste we produce and our teachers picked up some strategies we can use."

The teachers participating in the seminar were given a microscale chemistry kit by Abbott to take back to their classrooms in the fall. It included a variety of glassware and other items for demonstrating experiments.

Microscale chemistry experts from Argonne assisted with the classroom demonstrations using the kits.

"By teaching microscale chemistry techniques we are not just solving the school lab problems but we're teaching students about scaling down when they do chemistry so they develop good habits when they go on to college and then into industry," said Glenn Gabriel, Pollution Prevention Programs Coordinator for Abbott. Gabriel said the teachers and schools that participated in the July seminar are also being encouraged to do follow-up presentations to colleagues, including making presentations at conferences.

Luly said the Illinois EPA hopes to join with corporate partners and Argonne to sponsor additional seminars in other regions of the state in the future.