Happy Mole Day!

Damn, I'm tired! Why - you ask? Well - today is National Mole Day. We chemistry teachers bill it as the most important day in Chemistry, and East Anchorage H.S., we go all out. Mole day was started by some teachers in Wisconsin to celebrate Avogadro's Number: 6.02 x 10^23 (can't figure out how to make an exponent). A mole is essentially a counting unit analogous to a dozen. If I say I have 1 dozen skeins of yarn, everyone (even non-knitters) know I have 12 skeins of yarn. A dozen always refers to a quantity of 12. The same can be said for a mole, except it refers to a quantity much larger - 6.02 x 10^23 (602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) So - if I had a mole of skeins of yarn - that would infer I have 6.02 x 10^23 skeins of yarn. Holy Cow!

So - to celebrate, we invite our chemistry students to arrive at school at 6:02 am on October 23. We meet at the front flag pole where we light candles and sing silly songs about Mole Day (Happy Mole Day to You, and We've Got The Whole Mole in Our Hands). After the outside festivities conclude, we move into the warmth of the building (it was 33°F this morning with a light dusting of snow) to enjoy juice, doughnuts, and participate in the Mol-ympics.

We had close to 200 chemistry students arrive at school this morning prior to 6:02. What's our secret (besides the fact they all just love chemistry?) = EXTRA CREDIT! Yup -kids will do just about anything for extra credit points - even wake up before God & come to school. It's a pretty amazing sight to behold. In addition to arriving so early, students also had to create a stuffed mole & enter it in the annual Mole Fashion show. Below you are some of the entries:

Dr. Seuss Moles - One Chem. Teacher is a Dr. Seuss Fan

The "Incredimoles" - This took 1st Place Overall (and I'm proud to say they were created by a student of mine who also dressed the part of the little designer - "No Capes!")

There were some 'punny' moles - like the S'Mole (again - another student of mine!) Isn't this clever?

Moles supporting a good cause were on scene!

Even the "king" was present for Mole Day! (See photo at beginning of blog) I even had a student submit a mole wearing a tiny knit sweater - complete with cables. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of that!

School does not begin here until 7:30. So - we have a bit of time to fill and keep students supervised, thus the creation of the "Mol-ympics". Events included:

"Molesical Chairs"

"6.02 Avocado Relay" - One entry made Guacamole :0)

We launched moles with the "Mole-A-Put"

We also had the "Mole Legged" Race upstairs on the track. Too bad I wasn't there to capture the exciting competition.

In a nutshell - "East High is the place to Mole Things Over". A great time was had by all & I doubt students will ever forget Avogadro's number!

Oh yeah - we start the indoctrination about Mole Day at a very young age. Here are the boys sporting their Mole Day T-Shits. Too bad I forgot to take the camera off of the night scene shooting mode - made for a blurry pic. That's what I get when I get up at 4:30 am.

Ciao - nap time!