Education
COURSES
Prof. Odom teaches courses in organic chemistry at UK, including the following undergraduate and graduate courses:
CHE 230 - Organic Chemistry I
CHE 232 - Organic Chemistry II
CHE 533 - Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory (see this video recorded during class)
CHE 580 - Scientific and Technical Writing.
In the Spring of 2021, she is teaching CHE 232.
Prof. Odom has co-taught an Experiential Education Course (EXP 396), which focuses on training undergraduate students how to design and lead inquiry-based STEM workshops. This is taught to prepare students to be workshop leaders in the Expanding Your Horizons Conferences, a one-day STEM conference for middle school girls from Kentucky, which is held annually in April at UK.
Prof. Odom also teaches short courses. Most recently, she taught a 3-week course on Organic Materials and their Applications, which was offered in the College of Engineering at Jilin University in Changchun, China, in 2018.
OUTREACH
In the Odom group, we are dedicated to outreach, both in developing new experiments and participating in activities with a variety of age groups and backgrounds. We will post updates for new activities as we develop them. Here are a few examples of what we’ve been up to. We have a variety of activities have been developed for demonstrations for students of broad age groups and would be happy to visit your school if it is not too far for us. We’ve used these demonstrations at schools and open houses to demonstrate concepts in chemistry and materials science.
Demonstrations
We have developed a variety of activities and demonstrations for students of broad age groups and would be happy to visit your school if it is not too far for us. We’ve used these demonstrations at schools and open houses to demonstrate concepts in chemistry and materials science.
Outreach using Skype
Prof. Odom has initiated outreach to elementary schools throughout the country via the internet. She sent microcapsule samples to elementary schools so that they can perform experiments in their own classrooms. Prof. Odom is shown giving a live demonstration of the pac man self-healing experiment (right) to a group of 5th grade students at Bahia Vista Elementary School in San Rafael, CA (far right).
Samples for Museum Displays
Prof. Odom prepared core-shell microcapsules filled with a red dye (oil red O) dissolved in an organic liquid (dibutylphthalate). These capsules, which contain a poly(urea-formaldehyde) shell wall were then embedded in epoxy. These capsules, which are similar to self-healing core-shell microcapsules for structural polymers, are readily visible when distributed throughout the epoxy matrix. The samples are on permanent display at the Science Storms exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Additionally, Dr. Odom supplied the museum staff with pac men samples, which have been used in demonstrations with high school teachers from around the country.
Science Summer Camps
Prof. Odom has been involved in summer science camps at the Orpheum Children's Science Museum in Champaign, Illinois and will continue to work with local museums as opportunities arise. In the photos below, Prof. Odom designed and organized experiments for the museum's Food Science and Forensic Science day camps. Children in a Food Science day camp are learning how to use simple kitchen ingredients - with a little help from dry ice and liquid nitrogen — to perform science experiments. After the organized experiments, which included making ice cream with liquid nitrogen and volcanoes from baking soda and vinegar, the students in this age group seemed most fascinated with making witches' brews by combining dry ice with various liquids.
If you are interested in visiting the Odom laboratory for a tour, please let us know. It may be possible for us to visit your school or museum, depending on distance and openings in our schedules.