Outreach
The School of Physical Sciences is committed to developing and participating in outreach opportunities for underrepresented students that will impact their awareness of and interest in Physical Sciences pathways.
Adventures in Physics
Adventures in Physics is an annual public event that promotes physics for all ages. The event includes a series of lessons depicting concepts of physics through live experiments and demonstrations. After the demonstrations, a UCI physicist will give a lecture on his/her work. A Q&A for high school students about life in college will conclude the event.
AirUCI Outreach
Part of AirUCI's mission is to share research results with the general public by providing outreach opportunities. This is done in addition to the many papers published in scientific journals that reach the scientific community and the multiple presentations given each year at high-level scientific conferences.
Chemistry Academy
The UCI Chemistry Department is thrilled to present the Summer STEM Summit to introduce K-12 students to some of the most relevant scientific topics of our times. As one of the top 10 public universities in the nation and a leader in environmental and climate research, the UCI Chemistry Department brings forth a series of exciting and interactive sessions to explore topics from global warming/climate change to forensics science to cosmetic chemistry. Students will have the unique experience of learning from experts and industry leaders in state of the art chemistry laboratories at UCI. The UCI Chemistry Department is proud to nurture today's youth to be tomorrow's leaders.
Chem-SURF
The Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Chem-SURF) at the University of California, Irvine, is a summer research opportunity for undergraduate students to gain valuable research experience in an academic setting. Participants will engage in original research guided by faculty mentors in UCI’s state-of-the-art research facilities. Students will attend presentations, workshops, and seminars related to career planning, industry, and applying to graduate school.
COSMOS
COSMOS (The California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) is a 4 week, in-residence program for talented high school students hosted by the University of California, Irvine. COSMOS students apply to a specific “cluster”, with each cluster addressing advanced topics in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, including a variety of engineering disciples, pharmaceutical sciences, and computer science (to name a few).
Furche High School Outreach Program (HSOP)
HSOP helps prepare students for a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career. The program is geared towards high school students who are unfamiliar with the academic environment and have few or no other opportunities to participate in research. High school students are introduced to a hands-on research experience in computational and theoretical chemistry. It combines computer science, physics, mathematics, and a whole lot of chemistry to solve scientific problems. The program is directed by Professor Furche and funded by the National Science Foundation.
LEAPS
UCI LEAPS (Laboratory Experiments and Activities in Physical Sciences) program, which offers local middle school students a “A Day at College” experience. The program intends to inspire younger students to pursue higher education in the physical sciences, and provides them with an opportunity to interact with scientists in the field. Students spend time in active chemistry and physics research laboratories performing hands-on experiments that are supplemented with demonstrations from participating lab members.
Math CEO
UC Irvine Math CEO is a free mathematics enrichment program developed by faculty at UC Irvine to serve the underprivileged community of Santa Ana, while developing future teachers of mathematics. Our program introduces kids to critical and mathematical thinking at a young age while providing a road-map to a college education in STEM and hope for a brighter future.
Math Circle
The UCI Math Circle offers two weekly math enrichment sessions for high school and middle school students in the community every week. The main goal to enhance appreciation of mathematics, and teach interesting mathematics not covered in a typical school curriculum.
MATHCOUNTS
Mathcounts is a nationwide program designed to boost the mathematical competency of middle school students in our public school system. The program features a series of competitions with many rounds for teams and individuals at the regional, state, and national levels.
ME 1st
ME1st is 100% free no-cost opportunity for incoming freshman in Physical Sciences to better prepare for success in UCI mathematics courses, such as Calculus. "Mathematics Enrichment for 1st-Generation Students" participants will be given access to a special online pre-calculus course and will meet in-person on the UCI campus for 10-12 hours (six 2 hour classes). Students will attend an actual UCI math lecture, which can count as one of the 6 session. Topics include: study strategies, time management, a crash course in pre-calculus (including college algebra, exponentials, logarithms, and trigonometry).
Orange County Regional Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is the premier team STEM competition in the nation, providing standards- based challenges to K-12 students across all 50 states. UCI hosts the Orange County Regional Science Olympiad for students in 6-12th grade. The one- day event hosts around 1000 students from about 50 local schools. Winners at our regional event often go on to win at the state and national level.
Orange County Science and Engineering Fair
Each February, the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair puts out a call for judges for the Orange County Science & Engineering Fair. The event is usually held in mid-March online.
Judges are needed in math, science, engineering, and other fields to assess projects from students in grades 6-12. Faculty, instructors and graduate students are welcome to apply. Each judge assesses around 6-12 projects asynchronously and then the judging team spends an afternoon interviewing the students/groups individually. The best submissions from this county event can go on to compete at the state and/or international level.
Rising Stargirls
Rising Stargirls is dedicated to encouraging girls of all colors and backgrounds to learn, explore, and discover the universe. The program does this by engaging girls in interactive astronomy workshops using theater, writing, and visual art to address each girls as a whole. This provides an avenue for individual self-expression and personal exploration that is interwoven with scientific engagement and discovery.
SoCal Undergrad Research Symposium
UC Irvine SoCal Undergraduate Chemistry Symposium is a day of science where you can discuss and hear the latest about chemistry and graduate programs with your peers from UC Irvine and other research institutions.
STROBE
STROBE is an NSF Science and Technology Center coordinating six institutions across the US to build the microscopes of tomorrow. Our research includes visible, x-ray, nano-probe, and electron microscopy, and has applications across materials science, basic physics and chemistry, and biological systems.
UCI Chemistry Outreach Program
The UCI Chemistry Outreach Program are teams of graduate and undergraduate students that visit local K–12 schools to perform demonstrations and talk about chemistry. The program is done at no cost to the host schools and provides all materials.