Student Organizations

Get Involved – Join a Club!

Joining a student club or organization is a great way to get involved. You’ll meet people who share the same interests – building lifelong friendships – while gaining professional experience, and honing your leadership skills.

Our department is home to an award-winning student chapter of the American Chemical Society. This club gives students interested in chemistry or related fields an opportunity to increase their knowledge of the field, explore career possibilities and interact with chemistry professors and other students with similar interests.

Outstanding Chapter Award Received.

UNI's ACS Student Affiliate Chapter has received an Outstanding Chapter Award for 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2018-2019, 2019-2020.

"This chapter was extremely successful at promoting chemistry in their school and sharing their love of chemistry with the local community. This concern is evident by the number of chapter meetings they scheduled to appropriately advance their activities. This will go a long way in encouraging young people in northern Iowa to consider chemistry as a career. Furthermore, the chapter is well funded due to university support of student travel to meetings and a couple of smaller grants. It appears to me that if your chapter wants to do something, you find the resources and get it done. Excellent job!" - ACS Faculty Advisors

ACS outstanding chapter award seal

Meet the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society.

2023-2024 Officers:

Co-Presidents: Emma Bopp and Megan Unger
Vice President: Tatiana Barriga
Secretary: Maddy Waters
Treasurer: Emma Gardner
Social Chair: Jacqueline Heggen

Advisors:

Dr. Martin Chin
Dr. Colin Weeks

Two students performing a fire experiment in classroom.

OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT

ACS Halloween House

Each year, the UNI Chapter of the ACS helps organize the annual Halloween House. This community outreach and engagement event brings hundreds of local children to McCollum Science Hall to showcase UNI’s science departments. During the event, students perform Halloween-themed science demonstrations and supervise hands-on activities in rooms such as the “Pirates’ Cove”, “Frankenstein’s Lab”, “Creepy Crawlies” and “Triassic Terrors”.

Halloween House – Frequently Asked Questions:

Is this event scary?

This event is not a haunted house and none of the activities are intended to be scary. However, very young children may be frightened by some of the Halloween elements (students in costume, Halloween decorations, etc.).

Is my child too young to attend this event?

This event was planned with elementary age children in mind, although we frequently have guests outside of this age range. Older children will still enjoy the science demonstrations while younger children may wish to spend more time on the educational craft projects or at the table serving liquid nitrogen ice cream! However, the chemical demonstration shows may be inappropriate for very young children (especially infants), as there are reactions that create a loud “bang” and a flash of light that can be startling. (The audience is warned before each of these demonstrations.)

Is this an educational event?

Halloween House is meant to be a fun introduction to science.The activities and demonstrations are entertaining in addition to incorporating educational components.

Why do some of the rooms have specific show times while others don’t?

Three of the demonstration rooms have specific show times, running at half hour intervals, while the five remaining rooms for demonstrations or hands-on activities will be continuously open.The chemical demonstrations require a substantial amount of planning in order to have enough of each reagent prepared, so it is practical to have a set number of shows.Having specific show times for these demonstrations is also useful for maintaining crowd control and ensuring the safety of our guests.

ACS Activities:

Fall

Student and Faculty BBQ
National Chemistry Week Activities: Halloween House
Family Weekend Magic Show
Student and Faculty Holiday Party

Spring

National Meeting
Spring Banquet

Want to get involved?

Email: acsofficers@uni.edu

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