Mole Day!

October 20, 2010


Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature of Science, 1954


Celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 10 ^23), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was engendered to foster interest in chemistry. Many schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry. Trinity was no exception to this celebration. As the Trinity Chemistry Club, we put together an event open to students, professors, or any fellow chemistry lovers. The goal of our event was to entertain the audience with fun experiments and educate them about mole day and the chemistry behind our experiments.


In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro’s Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858). The relationship between one mole of a substance and how much physical substance one mole represents is difficult for many students to imagine. Thus, there are several examples to exhibit just how large one mole of a substance truly is:
•One mole of paper would make a stack that would reach to the moon more than 80 billion times.
•One mole of blood cells would be more than the total number of blood cells found in every human on earth.
•One mole of seconds is about 19 quadrillion years, 4,240,666 times the age of the earth, or 954,150 times the age of the universe itself.


Not only did we talk about what a mole is, we also performed 9 exciting experiments: nitrogen tri-iodide, fire resistant chemistry tests, the silver mirror reaction, the miracle reaction: changing water to wine to milk to beer, methanol rocket, elephant toothpaste, the oscillating clock reaction, colored fire,helium balloons and our trademark experiment: liquid nitrogen ice cream.

HHMI Science Academy

October 1, 2010

"People do not grow old no matter how long we live. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born."

  

Albert Einstein

© All Rights Reserved to Kimberly Messersmith

In accordance with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant, Trinity University hosts the HHMI Trinity Science Academy on our campus. This program brings 7^th grade science students from Bonham, Harris, Hawthorne, Twain, and Wheatley middle schools (SAISD) to the Trinity campus to participate in science experiments. Not only does this engage the students in scientific discovery, but it also allows the students to experience what life as a college science student might be like. The goal isn’t to solicit these students to come to Trinity, but to motivate these underprivileged students to be college bound.

This Friday, the second floor of Mars McClean was packed with Wheatley middle school students. Whenever I arrived, the students were excitedly lining up for lunch. Trinity faculty, Trinity students, and Wheatley students shared a lunch together around the Miller fountain. As I sat down with a group of students, I tried to understand their interests and how their day was going. There were varying interests around the group such as football, band, basketball, and several others. From this discussion, we were able to springboard into how you could still do the activities you love in college. For most of the students, college seemed like another lifetime, but I hope it planted the seed that the opportunity is open to them. After lunch, I did an experiment with a group of 10 students figuring out how much sugar is in 50 mL of regular Caprisun, 100% juice Caprisun, Cranberry juice, and Hawiian Punch. By doing this experiment, the students learned about theoretical and experimental yield, units, and the scientific process. Furthermore, we were able to discuss how to read nutritional facts labels and compare the amount of sugar to the morning experiment with sodas. Many of the students declared they would no longer drink sodas because of the experiments they did today. Although this could be a one-day pledge, I believe it effectively demonstrates how the discovery of knowledge can change our actions. My hope is that these students not only discovered more about science but also more about themselves, and this gain may increase the ambitions and goals for themselves.