The Santa Clara Valley Section celebrated National Chemistry Week (NCW)
2009 by
recognizing the 140th anniversary of Mendeleev’s periodic
table with
the theme of "Chemistry—It’s Elemental!"The Section planned and implemented two successful events and
hosted a
local NCW poster contest during 2009.
Leading off the official NCW celebration for 2009
was a wildly successful
annual public outreach booth held on Saturday, October 17th
at the
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose.A record number of children (approximately
75) and their families came to take a spin on the Wheel of Chemistry
Fortune
where Santa Clara University student volunteers showcased the elements
by
enticing the kids to name an element, given its symbol, and win a prize
purchased from the ACS
online store (pencils, nan-o-moles, stickers, tattoos, and T-shirts).The successful attendance was attributed to
the public and accessible downtown venue and to advertising in several
sources,
including fliers distributed by local Section members via email, online
media
calendars and contribution of past NCW photos and event details to Bay
Area
Parent (a free print magazine available in Santa Clara Valley.)
Among other fun hands-on activities,
participants were able to learn the elemental differences between Oreo
cookie
dirt and organic dirt, and to extract elemental iron metal from their
Total
breakfast
cereal.Children experimented to find the
best household liquids (water, ketchup, soda, vinegar and vinegar with
catalytic salt) to clean copper pennies.The
slime lab was a hit as usual, and crowd-favorite UV bead bracelets
were again a great draw for the children.
Copies of "Celebrating Chemistry" were distributed.The enthusiasm of the young "chemists" was surpassed only by the
enthusiasm of our amazing student volunteers.Twenty students from Santa Clara University (led by Dr. Linda
Brunauer)
and San Jose State University volunteered at the event.Local Section member Lois Durham documented
the event via excellent photographs and other local Section members
assisted in
leading the students.The event was
best summed up by one young boy who, upon seeing how well vinegar with
catalytic salt cleaned his copper penny, exclaimed, “That’s awesome!”
For the second featured event on
Wednesday, October 28th, Brian Malow presented "Rational
Comedy
for an Irrational Planet" – an evening of science humor at the Rooster
T.
Feathers Comedy Club in Sunnyvale.Over
40 ACS members and guests requested free tickets (purchased through the
NCW
budget) and packed the comedy club for a hilarious evening of
science-flavored
stand-up by opening act Robert Mac and headliner Brian Malow.At the end of the show, Brian entertained
questions from the audience, and the local Section people even had a
chance to query
him on his feelings about the redefinition of the kilogram and other
chemistry
hot topics.The local Section first
heard of Brian Malow through an article in C&E News, and after
about a year
of planning and talks with Mr. Malow, the event was an unqualified
success!Feedback received from the
attendees was positive, and local Section members were excited to
attend this
new and unique NCW event.
The Santa Clara Valley Section also
sponsored the annual K-12 local section poster contest and received six
entries
from Palma High School in Salinas, from which one poster was selected
for
submission to the national contest.Next year the Section hopes to engender participation from even
more
local schools and groups through a strong advertising and networking
campaign.
Abby
Kennedy,
Chair
National
Chemistry
Week
Committee
