“Units are life or death!” I tell my students. I often use the following example:
Let’s say we’re all on a boat and Mary falls overboard. I turn to you and yell, “Quick, get me 12 of rope or Mary will die.” You bring me 12 centimeters but I needed 12 feet and alas, glug, glug, gurgle, gasp, poor Mary is dead. Units are important.
There are twenty four hours in a day, four cups in a pint, twelve inches in a foot, one thousand meters in a kilometer, one hundred centigrams in a gram and to convert from Celsius to Kelvin, you add 273. You should be familiar with these English and metric system units, but do you remember the mole? If you do, thank a Chemistry teacher.
My favorite unit is the mole. One mole is equal to 6.02 x 10^23 atoms. This unit is one that many of us don’t use in everyday life, so you might not be familiar with it unless of course, you’re a chemist. I don’t love this unit for the help it gives me in my day-to-day, for, even as a Chemistry teacher, I don’t use it every day. I love this unit for what it does for my students. It gets them excited about Chemistry.
The National Mole Day Foundation was created in 1991. Each year, they come up with a new mole-centric theme and encourage teachers and students to celebrate. I started celebrating Mole Day with my students in 2007. I wrote my first Mole Day-themed blog ten years later in 2017 to document our fun (check more pictures on our Instagram if you’ve got a minute or 60 seconds).
In 2018, the National Mole Day Foundation outdid themselves and made the 2018 theme "Moley Potter," a play on Harry Potter. To celebrate, we transformed Beekman into Hogwarts. The faculty dressed like Hogwarts teachers, and each floor of the building had a little touch of the magic of Harry Potter. As you wandered through the halls, you saw suits of armor, a whomping willow, a boggart in a cabinet, and Sir Cadogan and the Fat Lady’s portraits. Moaning Myrtle was lurking in the bathroom, a huge stuffed basilisk hung from our very own chamber of secrets, and a photo booth was set up in front of a Platform 9 3/4 backdrop. The students made wands, had their fortunes read by Trelawney (portrayed by our College Counselor, Krista, in disguise), and attended Potions and Divinity (reading tea leaves) classes during their free periods. While watching Harry Potter, the Chemistry classes had to calculate the number of moles of gold in a golden snitch, the molar mass of their polyester wizard robes, and the atoms of chocolate in a chocolate frog. Let’s just say it was magical.
This year’s theme was "Despicamole Me," a play on the Despicable Me movies. The faculty and students dressed as minions and characters from the animated movie. I don’t know that we topped last year’s celebration, but there were 400 yellow, blue, and purple balloons, a ball pit, a banana ring toss, Minion Bingo and a Banana Hunt and Memory Match scavenger hunt. There were, of course, calculations involved! The students watched 10 Minion mini-movies and completed relevant mole, metric conversion, molar mass, and density problems.
Sadly, this is my last year at Beekman, and my last Beekman Mole Day. My husband and I will be relocating to Texas at the end of the year. Since units are so important, I figured I’d take a moment to sum up my time here in a couple of units. I have been teaching at Beekman for 13 years. That equates to a whopping 409,968,000 seconds. My 5-foot frame, (that’s 152.4 cm), has stared down and disciplined students much larger than myself and yet still seemed big enough to comfort and hug those same kiddos when they needed it. I have lost at least a liter or two of sweat chaperoning prom every year with my bestie, the Physics teacher, Linli. This was not because chaperoning was tough, but because we had such a good time dancing all night with the students.
I have traveled with students to the Galapagos and Iceland, and yearly to the Central Park Zoo to study animal behavior and the Natural History Museum to study evolution, conservation, the senses, you name it. That’s close to 20,000 miles, or 32,186.88 Km. Students in the Benevolent Blue Jays who have helped me carry cans at Thanksgiving to the fire station, dog and cat food to the Humane Society, diapers and wipes to Good +, clothes to Little Essentials, and hats and scarves to WIN and Homes for the Homeless can attest that it sure felt like we’ve donated hundreds of kilograms to needy causes. All of this has happened in NYC’s extreme temperatures that can reach highs in the 100s and lows below 0° F or 37.7° C to 273 K.
What does all this add up to? Beekman, you’re one in a Minion, I mean, million and I will definitely miss you and our Mole Day celebrations. With all the atoms I’m made of and more than any unit could possibly express, Beekman administration, faculty and students, past and present, I thank you for celebrating Mole Day with me.