The University of Northern Colorado will host more than 1,500 college and high school chemistry teachers July 31-Aug. 4 during the American Chemical Society's 2016 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. It will be the largest conference hosted by UNC.

The conference provides hundreds of presentations, workshops and exhibits at which chemistry educators share and learn new ideas, strategies and techniques for improving their courses and involving their students in active learning.

According to UNC Chemistry Professor Richard Schwenz, who spearheaded the effort to bring the conference to UNC and is chair of the event's organizing committee, the BCCE is the largest event of its kind, with the majority of attendees from the United States but some coming from as far away as Asia, Africa and Australia.

The conference also is the largest UNC has hosted, according to Roxie Wilson, senior conference coordinator in UNC's Conference Services department.

"We've had around 1,000 participants in some of UNC's women's volleyball and men's basketball camps in the past," Wilson said. "But this conference is much larger and more complicated from a logistics standpoint."

For example, the conference will include 100 half-day symposia and 100 workshops, and there'll be 15-18 simultaneous sessions each day, some of which have to be in rooms that meet both size and equipment requirements.

Wilson noted that Schwenz and she have been working on the 2016 BCCE for seven years, including attending the 2012 conference at Penn State University and the 2014 conference at Grand Valley State University.

Schwenz said he expects the conference will have a significant impact on the local economy. Half of the registrants have opted to stay in local motels rather than in North Hall, a UNC residence hall built in 2009 that includes both multi-bedroom suites and single-occupancy private rooms.

While a daily lunch is included in the conference registration fee, the only dinner that's included is a Monday night picnic, so Schwenz thinks local restaurants also will see an increase in business, as might retail shops that stock items conference-goers will buy as souvenirs.

"In addition to the revenue the conference is generating for UNC, I think it's safe to say that the Greeley area will benefit from what could be as much as a $500,000 impact," Schwenz said.

Schwenz said the conference won't be all work and no play. Non-conference activities available include tours of local microbreweries, a 5k run/walk around campus and a golf tournament at the Greeley Country Club.

Complete information about the 2016 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at UNC is at http://www.unco.edu/bcce2016.

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Feeding 1,500 People

According to UNC Executive Chef Aran Essig, his staff will prepare the following for the conference's Monday night picnic:

• Brisket: 330 pounds
• Chicken Breasts: 225 pounds
• Coleslaw: 200 pounds
• Colorado Corn on the Cob: 1,200 ears
• Baked Beans: 200 pounds
• Fresh Fruit Salad: 350 pounds
• Assorted Cookies: 160 dozen

Serendipity and Science

Award-winning science fiction author and UNC alumna Connie Willis will give the conference's opening keynote address, which will delve into the surprising similarities between science and art, and the complex, comical, often accidental and sometimes unbelievable methods by which science has made discoveries ranging from radioactivity to penicillin to the Big Bang.

Rockin' Chemists

The BCCE will close with a conference tradition - a performance by Al D. Hyde and the Key Tones. The band, which plays only at the biennial conference, is made up of chemistry teachers who practice each night of the conference to prepare for a final night performance of their ‘60s and ‘70s repertoire.