Chem-Bridge is a collaborative program between The University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Science, UT-Austin's Office of Community and School Relations, and participating high schools in Texas. The program allows high school students to earn three hours of college chemistry credit upon satisfactory completion of the course, while earning concurrent high school credit for an advanced science class that serves as an Advanced Measure under the Texas Education Agency Distinguished Achievement Program.  Fall 2006 starts the fourth year of the program and will serve over 400 students from 22 high schools in the Austin, Beaumont, Houston, Laredo, and San Antonio school districts. 

The primary objectives of Chem-Bridge are:

• to engage students in high-need learning communities in a rigorous science curriculum that will better prepare them for college-level science coursework;
• to deliver a range of professional development activities to improve the instructional ability of chemistry teachers in the partner schools through interactive curriculum design and collaboration with national experts in the field.

Chem-Bridge, an innovative, first of its kind program, consists of five elements:

• a dual-credit (high school/university) chemistry course
• a week-long summer teacher development workshop
• a two-day winter teacher development workshop
• guidance by University of Texas at Austin Department of Chemistry
• high school student visitation to The University of Texas at Austin