March was a month dedicated to the students in our community!
Synopsys Championship is an annual science fair that showcases students in Santa Clara County who will become our future scientists, technology experts, engineers, and mathematicians. This regional competition celebrates achievement by middle and high school students supported by their parents, teachers, communities, and schools. Silicon Valley ACS is proud to sponsor six awards for students demonstrating original chemistry thought and practice through their projects. These students are tremendously talented, confident, and future-focused. They are thinking about everything from pollution and wastewater management, to machine-learning, to new ways to detect and cure diseases. Anyone concerned about the future of chemistry would have their concerns assuaged by watching last year’s showcase of videos of the tremendous work these kids have done in the sciences. New to this year’s ACS activity at the Synopsys Championship science fair is our newly minted Dave Parker Memorial Award created to honor the fond memory of our dear friend and colleague, Dave Parker.
In the month of March, we also participated in the National Chemistry Olympiad. Approximately 200 high school students participated in the Olympiad at the local level. Some of these students will be selected to represent us at the National and International levels.
We also kicked off 2021’s first session of hands-on at-home science experiments with Pop-Up Chemistry in collaboration with the Redwood City Library. In this first session, kids and their families used chemical reactions to inflate balloons. A huge shout out to Elizabeth Migicovsky for preparing the accompanying video and helping us build an enthusiastic audience.
And now on to the month of April! We turn our attention to our watershed with two expert speakers. We will learn about detecting SARS-Cov-2 in sewage water with Prof. Rolf Halden from Arizona State University on 14 April. On 22 April we will learn about the impact of mercury-mining in the San Francisco Bay / Delta and its watershed with Dr. Mark Marvin-DiPasquale from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). I look forward to seeing you all at these opportunities to learn about societally important aqueous issues. Click through the two links above to register for these on-line events.
We will celebrating our Earth with kids this month by exploring ways to reduce our environmental footprint and learning about how simple choices we make about food we eat, things we use, waste we create and energy we use can have an impact on our Earth through our next Pop-Up Chemistry event – Reducing Our Carbon Footprint.
By the way, Earth Day was officially recognized on April 22, 1970, as a way to demonstrate support for a healthy environment, raise awareness about environmental issues, and remind people that we all need to contribute to a sustainable planet. As we celebrate the 51st anniversary of Earth Day this year, let us all think about how we can live more sustainably.
And now at the risk of sounding like a huge, animated movies fan that our family is, let me share a few lines from a favorite Earth Week song written by Ester Dean, Aaron Pierce, and Tricky Stewart from the movie of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
You can’t reap what you don’t sow
Plant a seed inside the earth
Just one way to know its worth
Let’s celebrate the world’s rebirth
We say let it grow!
