Background The Mobile Chemistry Laboratory is a major component of the Chemistry Outreach Program of Virginia Tech. The MCL is a 78-ft "tractor/transporter" that houses modern chemical instrumentation and laboratory space. It travels to regional high schools in Southwestern Virginia, Southside Virginia, and the Richmond area. Teacher that use the MCL are first trained on the MCL curriculum in summer workshops. The MCL is provided to participating schools at no cost. The MCL program began in Fall 2000. The ChemKit Program began in Fall 2002. This program involves shipping the complete experiment to the teachers. The six experiments in the program do not involve advanced instrumentation. During the four year period (2000 - 2004), the Chemistry Outreach Program provided the opportunity for 35,000 student conducted experiments to be performed on the MCL. In the two year period (2003-2004), the ChemKit Program provided 17,500 student experiments. Schools that use the Chemistry Outreach Program report significant gains in their student pass rate on the Chemistry Standards of Learning Exam. The MCL program is the result of corporate funding, federal funding, and university allocations. A more complete description of the MCL and this outreach program as well as present and past newsletters are available as pdf files. Other MCL links Article from Chemical and Engineering News NSF Proposal Summary MCL List of Sponsors MCL Team MCL Brochure, (1.2 MB pdf file) Article from Roanoke Times (October 2002) walk through of the mobile lab (7.8 Mb in in the QuickTime format). Interview with WVTR with Gary Ingram in Petersburg, September 2002 (17.8 Mb) The MCL at Galax High School with Leslie Mutter May 2003 (10 Mb)

Chemistry Outreach Program Department of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 voice: 540.231.7575, fax: 540.231.3255, email: long@vt.edu A University Sharing the Power of Knowledge