ACS Regional Meetings High School Teacher Day - Frequently Asked Questions

By Kim Duncan on February 21, 2019

Over the years, ACS Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers have reached out to the ACS Education Division for ideas to help them with their planning processes. The following list provides a few of the questions that previous Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers have shared with our offices.

A successful High School Teacher Day program is super rewarding, but it does require a lot of time and personnel. These events often leverage Regional Meeting infrastructure, but they will frequently require different considerations than the rest of the Regional Meeting.

How have Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers contacted and/or promoted their programs to potential attendees?

  • Identifying and soliciting the assistance of a local high school chemistry teacher who has access to an email network of other area high school chemistry teachers
  • Promoting through state science teacher organization web sites and/or listservs
  • Promoting through local teacher affiliate groups (these are local groups of high school chemistry teachers that exist in some areas of the country)
  • Purchasing an email list (usually $300 - $500) of area high school chemistry teachers from a company such as Market Data Retrieval (MDR)
  • Promote the event as a professional development program and provide those who attend a certificate of participation.

How can the ACS Education Division assist Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers?

  • We can provide:
    • Promotional material featuring ACS programs, products, and services (includes safety resources!);
    • Copies of ChemMatters magazine.
    • Door prizes (as available)
  • We can share information about your program through our various networks of teachers.
  • Depending on the region, we may be able to assist in making connections to local teachers. Not sure? Ask us! We may be able to help you make some connections! In the past, some of these local teachers have helped to promote the ACS Regional Meeting’s High School Day Teacher program; in other cases, they have given presentations.

What other ideas have previous ACS Regional Meeting High School Day organizers shared and/or found useful?

  • It is important to pick a date for a High School Day that works for teachers.
    • Investigate the calendars of schools in the area to see when they have semester exams, state testing, and holiday breaks.
    • Programming outside of, but affiliated with the Regional Meeting; consider creative programming (Mon/Tues PM)
  • Some ACS Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers have reported that it is useful to consider programming that aligns with local, state, or national standards.
  • Programming such as “share-a-thons” or “make and takes”, which provide attendees with the opportunity to share their favorite lesson or activity, are also popular.
  • Some ACS Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers like to distribute door prizes at their program – some have purchased one or more subscriptions to ChemMatters or memberships to AACT to share via drawings.
  • Some ACS Regional Meeting High School Teacher Day organizers have provided each teacher with a subscription to ChemMatters (bulk pricing is available).
  • Some have provided stipends and/or reduced/no registration fee for ACS Regional Meetings.

Where do I go to learn more about…?

ACS Education Division: www.acs.org/education

ACS-Hach Programs (Scholarships and Grants): www.acs.org/hach

American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT): www.teachchemistry.org

ChemMatters magazine: www.acs.org/chemmatters

ACS Safety: www.acs.org/safety

Who should I contact to continue the conversation?

Feel free to reach out to Kimberly Duncan (k_duncan@acs.org), ACS K-12 Professional Learning Associate, for more information.