Molecular Educators

Our team was made up of a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds and ages, including children, undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, a chemistry professor, and an expert in information technology. This range of perspectives allowed our team to both understand our target audience and create effective resources to address areas of need in STEM education.

Our resources have benefitted college-aged students taking general chemistry and organic chemistry by helping to explain challenging concepts in an interactive format. The resources also helped children (and their parents) become interested in science by connecting their favourite things with chemistry. One of the most awesome aspects of our work is that our resources have collectively reached people in more than 165 countries so far.

Be open-minded, don’t be afraid of failing, and seek out opportunities to engage in chemistry in different ways. If you take a class with someone who inspires you, talk to them and see if they can offer you guidance.

The hardest part about creating The Organic Colouring Books was taking the tough subject of organic chemistry and turning it into an understandable idea that kids, like my younger siblings, can learn from and enjoy.

The most rewarding part of this project was seeing kids all over the world actively learning chemistry and having fun while colouring molecules. Working with my sister and my dad was pretty cool too.

Chemistry is important because it’s all around us. It makes up everything and we wouldn’t survive without it.

Our team is motivated by the opportunity to create resources that are fun and interactive, which inspire people of all ages – and all over the world – to be excited about chemistry.

As the chemical sciences are often perceived as a daunting and selective field, creating engaging, accessible resources that reach a broad audience can better connect people to chemistry. By helping the public appreciate the importance of chemical sciences, we can increase scientific literacy in our society, which will ultimately help solve major world problems.

Over the next few years, we plan to expand these interactive resources to include educational tools for broader audiences, including high school chemistry students. We also hope to further develop our virtual reality resources as the technology improves. Eventually, we envision expanding our educational initiatives to other fields in the sciences as well.