Informal chemistry education/chemistry outreach is ubiquitous with the chemical enterprise. However, little research has focused on the planning, implementation, or evaluation of these events. Results from a previous study suggest that college students involved with collegiate chapters of the American Chemical Society and Alpha Chi Sigma are heavily involved with chemistry outreach, and their most frequently discussed purpose is to teach chemistry content to their audiences. Given this goal, it is timely to investigate how well these college students, who are acting as teachers in outreach environments, understand the chemistry content embedded in the activities they implement during their events. Presented in this paper are the results of a content analysis of semi-structured interviews (N = 37) focused specifically on student understanding of the elephant toothpaste reaction and making liquid nitrogen ice cream at a general chemistry level. Results show prevalent misunderstandings and misconceptions of the content despite the sample being composed primarily of junior and senior chemistry majors. Implications for teaching in both formal and informal environments are presented in light of these findings, as well as potential future investigations of the teaching and learning occurring during chemistry outreach.

中文翻译：

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大学生通过外展进行化学教学：对大象牙膏反应和制备液氮冰淇淋的概念理解

非正式的化学教育/化学推广在化学企业中无处不在。但是，很少有研究集中在这些事件的计划，实施或评估上。先前研究的结果表明，参与美国化学学会和Alpha Chi Sigma的大学课程的大学生积极参与了化学推广，他们最常讨论的目的是向听众讲授化学内容。鉴于此目标，应该及时调查这些在外展环境中充当老师的大学生对他们在活动中实施的活动中所含化学成分的理解程度。本文介绍的是半结构化访谈内容分析的结果（N= 37）着重于学生对大象牙膏反应的理解，并在一般化学水平上制作液氮冰淇淋。尽管样本主要由初级和高级化学专业的学生组成，但结果仍然显示出对内容的普遍误解和误解。根据这些发现，以及在化学外展期间可能发生的有关教与学的未来调查，提出了在正式和非正式环境中对教学的启示。