Our education objective is to provide the community especially women, and underrepresented minorities an opportunity to know and study chemistry and science more broadly. We hope to prepare a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to tackle social challenges and complex scientific problems.
If you're interested in experiencing the Polymer Magic Show in your school, or participating in Biomaterials Workshop, South Florida Research Consortium’s Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP), and Young Scholar Program at the University of Miami, kindly get in touch with Dr. Zhang by emailing fxz@@miami.edu.
Polymer Magic Show for K-12 students
“Polymer Magic Show” features minds-on and hands-on activities related to polymeric materials at local elementary and middle schools. Planned experiments include Borax-glue: Slime and Bouncy Balls (polymer crosslinking affect the property of material), Jelly Beads - Alginate Crosslinking (the formation of hydrogel through cross-linking), Superabsorbent Polymer Gel (polymer that can absorb and retain extremely large amounts of water relative to its own mass), Tyndall Effects of Nanomaterials (light scattering of nanomaterials). We will explain the underlying science behand these “magic” phenomena to the young minds, aiming to spark curiosity and excitement for science and potentially ignite a passion for a future career in the STEM field.
We had a great day at Archimedean Academy on polymers! Students really enjoyed the artifical snow, water beads, and all kinds of hands-on fun experiments with sodium alginate. Many thanks to @group_zhang for your amazing efforts!
Biomaterials Workshop for undergraduate and graduate students
We performed hands-on experiments on degradable polymer synthesis, purification, and self-assembly, and used the Tyndall effects to determine if we had made nanoparticles in water. All undergraduate students and graduate students had a great time together!
Young Scholar Program 10-week summer program for high school students
The Young Scholars Program (YSP) is a unique experiential learning summer program that pairs high school students with faculty mentors within the College of Arts and Sciences, so that they may participate in high-level research and scholarly work in a real, working laboratory.
South Florida Research Consortium’s Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP) 10-wwek summer research program for unergraduate students from MDC
The South Florida Research Consortium’s Undergraduate Research Internship Program (URIP) provides high quality, paid research internships to The Honors College STEM students at Miami Dade College at research-intensive universities across South Florida.
