‘Mean Green Chemistry Team’ wows TexPREP students
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DALLAS – The University of North Texas “Mean Green Chemistry Demo Team” performed experiments for Dallas-area Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program (TexPREP) students at the University of North Texas at Dallas July 2. Several of the experiments produced loud explosions that startled university staff.
TexPREP classes are held on university campuses across the Dallas area. They take field trips every Thursday. Today’s presentation was the field trip for the week. The TexPREP classes will visit the Peterbilt Motors manufacturing plant at 3200 Airport Road in Denton at 10 a.m. July 23.
UNT Associate Professor of Chemistry Diana Mason travels around the world presenting her chemistry experiments. This marked her 100th performance. Joining her was Plano East Senior High chemistry teacher Anna Bayless. Mason is the great, great, great, great grandniece of Col. William Barret Travis, commander of the Texas forces at the battle of the Alamo.
UNT Dallas agreed to be a host site for the TexPREP program. Students attend classes seven weeks during the summer for four years. The courses emphasize mathematical logic and reasoning as a basis for problem solving. Guest speakers, hands-on projects, field trips and special events help students develop critical thinking, abstract reasoning and systematic analysis. The campus hosts the Year 2 program June 15 - July 31.
A University of Texas at San Antonio mathematics professor, Manuel Berriozabal, founded TexPREP in 1979 to increase the number of minority students and females who pursue careers in math, science, engineering and technology. According to TexPREP materials, it is “an intellectually demanding, mathematics-based, academic enrichment program for middle and high school students.”
The free program is open to students in seventh through tenth grades that have an interest in and demonstrate an aptitude for mathematics, technology and science. Students reapply every year and are awarded high school elective credit for each summer of TexPREP courses successfully completed.
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