Mole Day In October Is Really For The Kids

Added: 10/15/2007

When scientists are left to their own devices and they attempt to refine their social skills they can come up with some pretty far out stuff. Mole Day is one example of just how far out they can get. Mole Day is a day that scientists in North America use to try and get students at the high school level and below interested in chemistry and it has led to some very confused parents. Allow me to explain.

I am the parent of a high school student and I was very confused when my boy came home from school one day and announced that he had to have his mother, my wife, make her famous cinnamon rolls for his chemistry class. This was in mid-October and I thought that it was just another way for the teachers at my boy’s school to weasel free cinnamon rolls out of my wife but I soon came to realize that there was a little more to it than that. Science in general is one of the most boring, and complicated, courses in school. Anything to help add a little excitement to learning chemistry would probably be appreciated by everyone. In the late 1980’s there was the beginnings of Mole Day in October and what resulted was a day early in the school year that your child’s chemistry teacher can use to try and stir a little interest in chemistry. For Mole Day in October students are encouraged to bring one thing to class that involved a chemical reaction in any way at all. This obviously includes the chemical reactions that go one when one mixes the all natural ingredients of the best cinnamon rolls in the world together. Mole Day in October is an ingenious way that schools and teachers use to try and get students to understand the real world application of what they learn in the classroom. I, personally, cannot think of any better way to motivate someone to learning about anything like a pan of cinnamon rolls.

Mole Day in October is traditionally celebrated by chemists in North America on October 23 from 6:02am to 6:02 pm. When you write all of that out in the American format for writing dates and times you get 10/23 6:02 to 6:02 or you could rewrite it as 6.02x10 to the 23rd power which is the approximate number for the Avogadro Constant. The Avogadro Constant is the numerical representation of the unit of measurement known as a Mole which is a unit of measurement for all substance. That is about as non-scientific as I can put it and it just goes to show how bored scientists can really get. An article outlining Mole Day in October first appeared in a magazine called The Science Teacher sometime in the 1980’s and it explained that Mole Day in October could be used to get students interested in chemistry by showing real life uses of chemical principles. After reading this article a retired chemistry teacher from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin named Maurice Oehler was inspired to start the National Mole Day Foundation. On May 15, 1991 Oehler made the National Mole Day Foundation official and started to encourage Mole Day in October activities in schools. Anything that has to do with chemical reactions is an option and there are websites dedicated to Mole Day in October that describe activities ranging from scavenger hunts of household items to apparently baking pastries.

Kids love to learn about things that they see in everyday life and the more that educators can come up with clever things like Mole Day in October to help kids take an interest in education the more our kids will learn. I was a little confused about cinnamon rolls in school but when I did the research and learned why then I have to say that I completely approve. My son is one of the top students in his chemistry class and I don’t know if his mom’s cinnamon rolls had anything to do with it but I am totally behind whatever it is that is bringing up his science grades.

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