Mole Day!!

**Warning - This Post Contains NO Knitting Content**

Greetings fellow nerds!

Today is National Mole Day! A day to celebrate Avogadro's Number 6.02 x 10^23 - a way to relate quantity of atoms to masses of atoms. At East High School, we celebrate by arriving at school by 6:02 am. We gather with our students around the school's flag pole to sing mole songs ("Happy Mole Day to You" and "We've Got The Whole Mole, In Our Hands") at 6:02 am. After singing, we enter the school to enjoy juice, doughnuts, and East High's version of the "Mole-ympics". (Aren't we clever...) Students participate in the "Mole-legged" Race, "Mole-sical" Chairs, "Mole-a-Put", and the Avocado Relay.

Why do we do this? To show students that chemistry is fun and learning can be silly. I'll tell you - my students never forget Avogadro's number. Now, they may forget how to do math/chemistry equations, but they never forget the actual number. I suppose it is worth getting up so darned early. Of course - a little extra credit thrown in works as an excellent incentive to get teenagers to drag their bums out of bed & show up to school an hour and a half before 1st period.In addition to getting up 'before God', to receive the full extra credit points, students were required to make a mole & dress it up. Moles were entered in the East High Next Top Mole contest. The mole above is an "Eskimole" - aren't our students so clever? Of course, being as tired as I was (my eyelids feel as if there are 100 lb weights attached to them), I forgot to take pictures of the other entries.

My boys have grown up with Mole Day. I remember when they were itty-bitty, scooping them out of their crib & carting them off in their car seat in the wee morning hours. Orion even made it on the local news during the 2001 Mole Day.

There is a bit of a lag between the end of the morning Mole Day festivities and when I drive them to school, so how do my boys pass the time? Check it out:

"Mole Vader & Mole" (Although it looks like a strange mole mating ritual)

Good vs Evil

Not a flying pizza, but a "Mole Destroyer"

I'm sure George Lucas really meant "Mole Star" instead of "Death Star" - must have been some crazy 1970's typo.

Yes - the Brain Washing has begun....

Just need to prop toothpicks under my eyelids & then I'm off to knitting class to perform major surgery. I'm STEEKING my Icelandic sweater tonight. Wish me luck....

I leave you with our house guest for the weekend....

Hi Mom!! (in case you're reading blogs this weekend....)

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!