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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Instead of asking families to get their kids to a lab, an Alexandria nonprofit spent July bringing the lab to them.
Chrysalis Development Group Corporation ran its Be a Chemist academy at 14 community locations across Alexandria and Fairfax County this month, enrolling 700 students in grades 2 through 8 for five days of hands-on chemistry at no cost to participating families. The sites included community centers, recreation facilities and residential neighborhoods — a deliberate choice to hold the program where students already are.
The Alexandria sites ran in partnership with the city's Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities.
Rather than lecture-style instruction, students rotated through five modules built around actual chemistry careers:
- Cosmetic chemist — working with natural pigments, compounding formulas and testing pH for product safety
- Materials chemist — designing and evaluating polymers against engineering problems
- Medicinal chemist — investigating chemical formulations and the balance of ingredients in common medications
- Forensic chemist — using chromatography and evidence analysis to work simulated investigations
- Water chemist — testing water quality, identifying contaminants and building simple filtration systems
Professional STEM instructors led the sessions, supported by adult volunteers and local high school and college students serving as mentors.
"This program is about helping children see themselves in STEM careers at an early age," said Zohreh Khoshnamak, founder and executive director of Chrysalis Development Group, in a statement announcing the program. "When students are given the opportunity to investigate, experiment, and solve problems in a real laboratory setting, science becomes personal."
Khoshnamak said the aim is for students to come away understanding that the chemistry behind medicines, clean water, consumer products and new technology is something they can learn and eventually lead.
The organization runs a different STEM career focus each summer. Last year's Dr. To Be Academy, built around health science, drew roughly 450 local students.
Chrysalis serves as the exclusive Northern Virginia community partner for GSK's Science in the Summer program and The Franklin Institute, the Philadelphia science museum that administers it regionally.
The nonprofit is continuing to recruit scientists, educators, university students and corporate volunteers to expand the program across Northern Virginia. Its 11th annual Spooky Mad Science Expo is scheduled for Oct. 17.
More information on the program, volunteering and sponsorship is available at chrysalisdg.org.
