Zoom into a high-school

Do you want to improve your communication skills by presenting your work to high-school students? Each semester, doctoral students and young researchers from different universities in Umeå, Stockholm, Lund, Luleå and Gothenburg offer to visit zoom into Swedish upper secondary school classes. Be one of them.

Information for speakers

The aim of the project is 

  • to offer up-to-date and somewhat interactive chemistry research presentations to Swedish high school students.
  • to promote education and research in Chemistry.
  • to offer possibilities for young researchers to practice outreach to a young audience.

There are coordinators at each participating university. You can also ask jenny.olander@krc.su.se.


Register no later than December/June 1st (dates can vary a bit) to the coordinator at your university. When doing so, you present a captivating title, and two sentences about the content of the presentation. It is good if these sentences include basic content, which makes it easier for the teacher to relate to the course syllabus. In the end of December/June, the lists of titles is presented on this web page (under the Header "Zooma med en doktorand"), for the school teachers to register. 

The Zoom visit takes place during the spring/fall semester at an opportunity that teachers and doctoral students agree on.

During the Zoom visit

You "Zoom" into a high school classroom, give a presentation, a small "tour" in your lab/office and answer the students' questions. In addition, you talk about what it is like to work as a researcher and gives tips on different courses that can lead to it. 

Preparations

When registration for the teachers has been closed, the titles of the presentations are matched with the teachers. After that, each researcher gets the names of 1-2 teachers. 

  1. Send an e-mail to each teacher ASAP and ask them to suggest a few times for the Zoom visit. In most cases, teachers want it to happen during the students' regular chemistry lessons, which are fairly fixed times, but the same from week to week. It is good for you to know that the teachers might not answer the e-mail the same day, since they are quite often occupied with teaching. However if the answer takes a week or more, you should contact your coordinator.
  2. Prepare your presentation, starting from your University's template. If you like, you are welcome to get feedback on the presentation from your coordinator or from jenny.olander@krc.su.se
  3. Book a pre-meeting with the teacher to talk about the students' prior knowledge and agree on some concepts that you can address in the classroom in advance. (Optional but recommended)
  4. Send a Zoom link to "your" teacher together with a survey (from your coordinator) for the students to answer after the presentation.
  5. Have fun!


Information given to the teachers

The visits are intended to be held in one of the following courses:

  • Chemistry courses at high school
  • The second-level science course (for non-science students)  at high school

Each teacher can only book one visit per round, but it is possible to invite several classes at the same time. Register only if you want to invite a doctoral student to your classroom and ask colleagues to register themselves.

If you should be prevented from receiving the visit, you need to contact the doctoral student and jenny.olander@krc.su.se to cancel.

In the list of presentations, you can see which ones are given in English and Swedish, respectively. Each lecture is given up to three times and the first-come, first-served principle will be applied when distributing lectures.

From the High-school Chemistry Syllabus

Teaching in the subject of chemistry should aim at helping students develop knowledge of the concepts, theories. models and methods of chemistry. It should contribute to students developing knowledge of both natural and man-made chemical processes. Teaching should also help students develop their understanding of the importance of chemistry for climate, the environment and the human body, knowledge of different applications of chemistry in areas such as the development of new medicines, new materials and new technologies. Teaching should give students the opportunity to develop a scientific approach to the surrounding world. Teaching should take advantage of current research and students' experiences, curiosity and creativity. Teaching should also help students participate in public debates and discuss ethical issues and views from a scientific perspective. The Swedish National Agency for Education (2011), Syllabus for high school Chemistry

Senast uppdaterad: 2025-10-08

Sidansvarig: Kemilärarnas resurscentrum

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