Students in Niles West teacher Ami LeFevre’s Honors Chemistry class and members of the Chemistry Club represented one of only three high schools in the country that participated in a live webcast on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Digital Learning Network. The students took part in the Sept. 22 webcast with scientists from NASA and the American Chemical Society (ACS) as part of the International Year of Chemistry’s Global Water Experiment.

The webinar originated at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Niles West students took part in the session via a live hook-up in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lab. Schools across the country were able to participate by logging on to the NASA website, watching and typing in questions.  Niles West students were seen in the broadcast and were able to speak directly to the scientists.

In the global experiment, called “Water: A Chemical Solution,” students worldwide are testing local water sources and posting their analysis to an Internet data map where they will be able to view their results and compare them to others.  During the webcast, ACS and NASA scientists performed a filtration and purification experiment and discussed how it relates to water purification on earth and on NASA’s International Space Station.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.