The Institute for Chemistry Literacy Through Computational Science (ICLCS) is a program of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Chemistry, College of Medicine, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and our K-12 partners, Regional Office of Education #38, and A-C Central School District. The vision for the program is to prepare rural Illinois chemistry teachers for the 21st Century through content, computational tools and teaching methodology, and leadership development to meet the following goals:

1. Strengthen high school teachers' and students' understanding of chemistry;
2. Increase students' and teachers' understanding of the application of chemistry to the world around them;
3. Instill in teachers a sense of confidence and competence about their ability to teach chemistry, with a special focus on using computational measures and visualizations of molecular behavior;
4. Enhance and disseminate the traditional high school chemistry curriculum to include the content upgrades and presentation methods;
5. Nurture the sense of community among research faculty and high school teacher participants that is possible with an intensive, long-term program, focusing on the use of the Access Grid and course development tools to enable year-round interaction; and
6. Create a cadre of leaders (Institute Fellows) who will become advocates for excellence in mathematics and science.

These Institute Fellows in Chemistry will be part of a larger reflective learning community that includes university research and teaching faculty, graduate students, school administrators, leaders of professional associations, and corporate partners. Activities include: three annual intensive content-rich two-week residential institutes; year-round online and virtual discussions, data-sharing and support; annual fall and spring regional workshops; presentations and communications via the Access Grid—a virtual collaboration communication technology— by searcher faculty; and intensive work in each participant's respective school.