PULLMAN, Wash. — Seventy-five Ferris High School chemistry students will visit Washington State University on Oct. 25 to perform advanced laboratory experiments that they are unable to perform at the high school in Spokane.
Chemistry students from Mead High School and St George’s Academy will also visit WSU chemistry labs later this year.
The high school juniors and seniors will conduct a hydrogenation experiment, converting octene to octane, that relates to gasoline production processes. Participation in the WSU program allows the Spokane students to conduct laboratory procedures that cannot be performed in high school labs due to the need for sophisticated, expensive equipment and the lack of required safety equipment.
Ferris is putting in a Direct Service Line (DSL) to the WSU chemistry department that will allow them to connect to and control laboratory instruments, including a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging machine, so they can complete some of the advanced experiments from their own labs in Spokane. Mead has had a Web line to the WSU chemistry labs for the same purposes for the past two years.
This is the third year that Ferris students have participated in the program, the 16th year for Mead High School, and the second year for St. George’s. The program’s director, Ronald Newton, hopes new funding will permit WSU to offer similar opportunities to students at high schools around the state.
“This new partnership is being offered to help students prepare their students for chemistry courses offered at Washington State University,” said Newton.
NOTES: The Spokane students will arrive at WSU at 9 a.m. and will be in the chemistry labs (Fulmer Hall, Room 446, 427 and 426) until about 11 a.m. before visiting museums and other WSU sites.
Ronald Newton is supervisor for the program. His office is Fulmer Hall 435. He will be on hand beginning about 8 a.m. His phone number is (509) 335-6463.
