Tied in pairs by bandannas around their arms, chemistry class students explored the halls looking for as many slips of the 60 hidden green and orange papers as they can. On the slips, there are questions relating to a mole and the team that answered the most questions in the allowed time, got extra credit points.

A mole is a representation of the number of atoms or molecules in a compound, equaling 6.02 x 10^23. On October 23, chemists around the world celebrate mole day just as mathematicians celebrate Pi day. Since, October 23 was on a Sunday this year, chemistry classes celebrated mole day on Monday, October 24 by participating in a scavenger hunt during class.

“I liked not having to work for a day,” sophomore Sarah Shepard said. “It was a nice break.”

Not only do the students get extra credit opportunities for winning the scavenger hunt, but 15 extra credit points for making a stuffed animal mole out of a design given my Mrs. Malkmus. Students could also compete for 40 extra credit points given to the grand prize winner voted on my anonymous teachers.

“I had to hand-sew each mole and each outfit,” sophomore Rayna Jacobs said. “It was about a week’s worth of work.”

After all the hard work, Mole day turned out to be another success.

“Mole day shows students that chemistry can be a lot of hard work, but it still can be fun.” Malkmus said.