End of an era: Lessons learned from 10 years of outreach at a NSF-funded center

Abstract

Since 2005, the Center for Chem. Innovation (CCI) Solar Fuels has focused on one of the "holy-grails" of 21st Century chem. - the efficient and economical conversion of solar energy into stored chem. fuel, where researchers investigate the crit. science underpinning the solar-driven decompn. of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The CCI's outreach program has been deeply integrated into the research mission of the Center. Specifically, the outreach program developed three main themes. The first is real-time research experiences aimed at discovering inexpensive, stable oxide semiconductors that can efficiently photoelectrolyze water to a useable fuel, hydrogen. This manifested in three distinct projects developed at different stages by researchers at different universities: SHArK in 2008, SEAL in 2011, and HARPOON in 2013. The second project, Juice from Juice, is a classroom expt. aimed at middle and high school teachers where their students can build dye-sensitized solar cells from blackberry juice in a succinct, NGSS aligned lesson. Various extensions and addnl. resources have been developed over the years. The third theme was collaborations with informal science education groups such as local science clubs, museums and science festivals, where renewable energy activities were brought directly to the public. Lastly, in addn. to leadership and mentoring experiences gained by participation in outreach projects, the center also provided important professional development opportunities to undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral students. As the end comes for the CCI Solar Fuels outreach program, we provide insight into the lessons learned from the various outreach activities which could be applied to the broader impacts and outreach communities.