Chemistry celebrates Mole Day

Chemistry is not an easy concept to grasp, and can be stressful for many students. Tupelo High School Chemistry teacher Teresa Ware joined her students in celebrating Mole Day. She incorporated it into her lesson without making things boring. 

“[Students] come up with 10 things each worth 10 points that shows that they understand what the concept is. That might be a writen a poem, singing a song, make a poster, make a video, or bring some food. We really like when they bring food,” Ware said.

Mole day is used to recognize a unit created by Avagadro.

“It teaches this counting unit, like a dozen, but it’s 6.02×10 to the 23rd. It’s how many atoms there are in 12 grams of carbon 12. Basically a way for chemists to keep track of large numbers of small things like numbers of atoms,” Ware said.

Mole day is celebrated by chemistry students worldwide. Many teachers and students look forward to having Mole day.

“It started in the early 1980s. I think a few high schools and colleges started it and then picked up speed, now all over the world, people celebrate it,” Ware said. 

Ware and other chemistry teachers celebrate Mole Day twice a year for students. 

“We do it in the spring too. We just make up a date in the spring because we want our second semester chemistry classes to be able to celebrate mole day as well,” Ware said.

Chemistry student Jevon Edwards explains his excitement for Mole day.

“The first time celebrating mole day was very fun because it was new and we had never done anything like it before. I liked the food and the projects. It’s the most fun and creative school project I have ever done,” Edwards said.

Food is a big part of Mole day and although very tasty, can even play a teaching role in Chemistry. 

“We either chose food that might correlate to moles or we would change the labels on the food and add a pun. I brought Mola Cola,” Edwards said.