Students Exploring Raman Spectroscopy: Developing Outreach Efforts and Training Young Scientists via Absorption and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).

Abstract

Surfaced-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an active field of spectrochemical analysis, with numerous applications across academia, government, and industry. No less important, however, is the potential of SERS, and related spectroscopies, for educational and outreach purposes. As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is increasingly emphasized in primary school curricula, it is essential to develop programs to support student engagement with spectroscopy and the analytical sciences, in general. Not only do these forms of outreach benefit high school and undergraduate students, but they also provide mentorship opportunities for graduate students and early-career professionals. In this Technical Report, we describe the development and implementation of a 10-week plan to introduce high-school students to spectroscopy, nanoparticle synthesis, and SERS as part of our involvement in the ACS Project SEED program. Our program blended a variety of textbook readings, lectures, on-line simulations, in-lab demonstrations, and especially benchtop experiments to provide an enriching and diverse exposure to analytical science and scientific research. We also reflect on the impact of participating in this program on both the student and graduate-student mentors. The benefits to the particular high school student in this program included improved skills and increased confidence with benchtop techniques, and a new appreciation for chemistry and materials science. The graduate student mentors, in turn, gained teaching experience including designing scientific curricula. We believe SERS is an optimal teaching tool, as it draws on a wide variety of scientific concepts and provides ample opportunity for hands-on experience.