CHARM’s Foundations for Outreach & Recruitment of Great Engineers & Scientists (FORGES) brings a group of local high school students to UD’s campus for one week during the summer where they participate in hands-on STEM activities with various departments across campus (e.g., Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Christiana Care’s Gene Editing Institute).
During summer 2025, FORGES participants had an opportunity to contribute to a new study carried out by faculty in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry centered around improving safety and methodology of the classic “golden penny” experiment, a staple activity for many STEM educators. With consent from the students and their parents/guardians, the FORGES cohort participated in the new golden penny experiment, including study evaluations, providing valuable feedback to the study facilitators.
The UD Chemistry & Biochemistry researchers carrying out this research had their findings published in the ACS Journal of Chemical Education, providing teachers with a safer, improved version of the classic experiment/demonstration. With FORGES acknowledged in the article, CHARM continues to contribute to the field of STEM education.
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A Reimagined “Golden Penny” Demonstration: A New Electrochemistry Twist on a Classic Experiment
Center for Hybrid, Active, and Responsive Materials
UD CHARM advances foundational understanding of new materials driven by theoretical and computational predictions paired with cutting-edge experiments to enable the integration of unconventional, ultra-small, building blocks.