Researching chemicals

One of the fun things the Water Library gets to do is participate in outreach and today was a great treat. The UW Madison offers the PEOPLE program - the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence and young women enrolled in the program and interested in STEM fields visited Steenbock Library to learn how to use library resources to research a chemical. A recent contamination event of the chemical tetrachloroethylene near Madison presented the young researchers with the opportunity of learn about hazardous chemicals, accidental spills and how researchers find information that credible, accurate, relevant to help make decision on how to proceed. Here are some of the tools the students used:

• Research Guide for the students
• Wikipedia article on tetrachloroethylene
• Fact Sheet from Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services
• Tox Town, National Library of Medicine