(This article, reprinted with pernission, featuring Role Blanchard's chemistry class, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on October 24, 2002)

What in the world would coach Smith say???

What's a mole weigh? No, even less than that
One Bexley teacher celebrates Oct. 23 with explanation of chemistry term

By Kathy Lynn Gray
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Left: Using fun to get a lesson across, Bexley High School teacher Rose Blanchard wears a mole costume while she serenades her students with They call me a Chemistry Nerd The high jinks were part of Mole Day, a celebration of a scientific equation critical to understanding chemistry. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
 

Got mole?

Chemistry students did yesterday -- in 602 billion trillion ways.

That’s the number of particles in one mole -- better known as 6.02 times 10 to the 23rd power -- a term chemistry teachers across the country celebrate each Oct. 23 (10th month, 23rd day. Get it?).

Rose Blanchard’s Bexley High School students swallowed a mole of water (about 3 teaspoons), calculated the number of moles in a 1-liter bottle of water and endured a series of mole tunes with lyrics such as "molar reflections, my mind is running free, making connections between the world and chemistry."

With heads bowed and tongues firmly in cheeks, the class recited the Mole Pledge of Allegiance:

"I pledge allegiance to the mole, and to the atomic mass for which it stands, one SI unit, extremely divisible, with atoms and molecules for all."

A mole, Blanchard explained, is a way to count particles of a chemical. The term is based on the hypothesis by Italian scientist Amadeo Avogadro, who died in 1856, that at a given temperature, equal volumes of gases would contain the same number of molecules.

Blanchard embraced Mole Day when a former neighbor complained he’d spent a whole day interviewing college chemistry majors who couldn’t explain to him what a mole is and its role in chemistry.

"I decided then that my students would be able to answer those questions," she said.
She found others who shared her passion for mole-ledge -- the entire National Mole Day Foundation of about 1,000 chemists and teachers -- and began collecting molerobilia.

Yesterday, stuffed moles of the underground variety peered down at students from shelves as Blanchard and her sidekick, chemistry teacher Jack Minot, made the most of the opportunity to give science a lift.

Blanchard shared the "Ten Commolements," including "Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s mole," and a few lame mole jokes such as "What happens when a mole bites a dog? He becomes Moleicious!"

Students who decorated their lockers in molish attire — face moles, underground moles and spy moles — had the chance to win a mole award.

And Blanchard paraded through the room briefly as Mega Mole — a brown-headed creature with a small, pointy tail — as she sang They call me a Chemistry Nerd.
The silliness seemed to work, even for the easily bored crowd of teens.

"I actually think it’s interesting," said Joe Cleary, 17, who shouted remarks throughout the class. "I’d been confused most of the week about what a mole was, but now I think I understand."

Marissa Stern, 16, said the day was a nice break from all the calculations usually required in the class.

"Tonight, most definitely, I’m going to tell my parents about the songs."

For more mole minutiae, visit http://moleday.org

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