Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 21:53:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Deborah Hunt <dhunt@exploratorium.edu>
To: IFI listservs <advanced1@exploratorium.edu>, intro1@exploratorium.edu,
Subject: National Chemistry Week (fwd)
See a message below for a chemistry celebration next fall.
Deborah
---------------------------------------------------
Deborah Hunt
Internet Resource Specialist
Exploratorium
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Voice: 415-353-0485
Fax: 415-561-0307
email: dhunt@exploratorium.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 16:59:23 EDT
From: Marilynn Sikes <74531.142@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Reply-To: "ISEN- Assoc. of Science-Technology Centers"
<ISEN-ASTC-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
To: ISEN-ASTC-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: National Chemistry Week
To everyone interested in National Chemistry Week!
My name is Marilynn Sikes and I am at Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC.
I just returned from attending the American Chemical Society national meeting in
San Francisco and went to the information session on National Chemistry Week
(NCW) and met with Mike Kenney while I was there so I have some recent
information about this year's NCW.
NCW is always the first full week in November so this year's celebration will
start 11/2/97 and continue through 11/8/97. This year's celebration is a big
one because it is the 10th or NEON (10th element on the periodic chart)
anniversary of NCW which started in1987. Every local section (group) of the
American Chemical Society is doing something special for NCW. If you or your
museum want to get involved ther are several ways you can do this.
1) Get in touch with the NCW coordinator for the local section of the American
Chemical Society in your area. If you need help in finding out who this is,
contact the NCW office of the American Chemical Society (ACS) at:
m_kenny@acs.org or http://www.acs.org/ncw
or you can call (800)227-5558 and contact the Office of Public Outreach
2) Contact Mike Kenny at the National Chemistry Week Office directly for
information. Use the e-mail and phone number listed above.
3) Plan your own chemistry activities for that week.
4) Come to the Chemistry Interest Group at ASTC this fall in St. Louis. I'm
working with Denise Creech of the ACS to plan this and our topic this year is
NCW.
The theme this year is water. For the first time there will be a "unifying
event" for all the local sections. The ACS is sponsoring an experiment that
will be occurring all over the United States and Puerto Rico. Kids, adults,
teachers, families etc. all over the country will be asked to collect samples of
water from their local community during NCW and use special easy-to-use test
strips to measure the amount of calcium ions in their water and find out how
hard or soft the water is in their area. People will then use the internet, fax,
or mail in their data which will be used to create a map which shows the water
hardness across the whole country.
The test strips as well as information and do at home activities will be
available in a special NCW handout ( similar to Wonder Science ) which will be
available from ACS. The NCW coordinator for each local section can request a
certain number of these handouts free of charge and the cost of shipping for
additional copies-- if these handouts are distrbuted the same way as they have
been in the past. Contact your local section NCW coordinator or the national
office for more information. There are also other neat chemistry week goodies
which can be ordered at low cost. Ask for the pamphlet with ordering
information. Some of these items are not available yet but will be soon. Again
contact Mike Kenny at the NCW office. I will post any information updates I get
on the ISEN list-serve.
I'm the NCW coordinator for my local Carolina-Piedmont Section. Working with
your local section is a great way to get access to materials and volunteer
support and a great way for the local section to contact people with a positive
message about chemistry which is what NCW is about anyway.
If you work with your local section, your activities may even be nominated for
the Phoenix Award. The Phoenix Awards are presented each year by the ACS to
recognize local sections for excellence during NCW and there is a catagory for
the best event in a musem or library. The Carolina- Piedmont section and
Discovery Place won a special Phoenix Award for our 1994 NCW activities.
November 1994 was the first large scale celebration of NCW we ever had at
Discovery Place and we used chemistry as the featured science for a week-long
celebration. There were special events and programming each day. We had all
areas of museum staff participate. The graphics department did NCW banners and
signs, the PR department helped with publicity, the education dept. put together
and staffed a teacher resource room featuring chemistry activities, and extra
chemistry shows and demos were scheduled. Volunteers from the local section -
retired chemists, industrial chemists, and chemisty professors and chemistry
students from two local universities - did special shows and demos. Polyvinyl
alcohol slime, gluep, and liquid nitrogen ice cream were really big hits.
There is a lot that can be done and plenty of time to plan it. Start now and
you'll be ready for the International Chemistry Celebration which happens in
1999!
Marilynn Sikes
Discovery Place
301 N. Tryon St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704)372-6261 ext. 419
Internet:74531.142@compuserve.com