It’s hard to believe that it is already May, until you look outside at all the green hillsides. April was a busy month for our section.
On April 27, we held a career panel for community college and transfer students as part of our Paving the Path Initiative. This panel featured 4 successful professional chemists who started their own higher education journeys in community colleges. The event was designed to motivate students who are following that path and address their questions. This was a virtual event, held over Zoom and drew more than 50 participants from Bay Area community colleges. Hartnell College in Salinas, California, hosted a different format for the Zoom call. They gathered chemistry students, faculty, and staff to interact together and socially for a Zoom watch party complete with pizza. SVACS members Jane Frommer and Steve Boyer attended in person to add additional support and discussions about career opportunities for chemists. A follow-up survey sent to all attendees will provide suggestions and improvements for future career panels and events in support of community college and transfer students.
We also completed this year’s Chemistry Olympiad testing. Santa Clara University (SCU) hosted the National Olympiad candidates from the California section and the Silicon Valley section. The exams were conducted in SCU’s brand new chemistry labs. These are beautiful new teaching labs and well worth a visit. In the laboratory practical exam, the students were asked to do two experiments:
- Determine the molar mass and pKa of an unknown monoprotic weak acid
- Design an experiment to determine which cation selected from calcium chloride, magnesium chloride or potassium chloride, would form the strongest cross links and form a hydrogel with sodium alginate. This experiment is tested nightly at some high-end molecular gastronomy restaurants.
There were a lot of puzzled looks as the students read the second challenge, but at the end of the lab session I observed some nice spherical hydrogels. I also observed some sticky messes and clogged pipettes, and flasks.
Lastly, the Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) activities occur annually during April. Instead of one big event, the Silicon Valley section opted to spread out the activities over several months. In Pop-Up Chemistry, our on-going hands-on program at the Redwood City library, we helped the students understand the impact of CO2 on acidification of water. And at the next session at the library which will be held on May 13, we will be exploring the chemistry of algae using algae beads.
We also have 3 CCEW illustrated poems to submit to the National ACS contest. A cute limerick on the theme of Amazing Algae that involved hot dogs was submitted by an 11th grade student at Carlmont High, pictured here. I am impressed by the amazing students living in our region considering the strong performance on the Chemistry Olympiad exams and the creativity shown in the poetry contest.
May won’t be quite as busy a month. We are always looking for volunteers so if you would like to get involved in any of our activities, please reach out to me or to any of the Executive Committee members.
Respectively submitted,
Natalie McClure
