ACS NEWS
Phoenix Awards Presented To Sections For National Chemistry Week Programs Ernest L. Carpenter, C&EN Washington A t a ceremony during the Ameri/ % can Chemical Society's national J L S L meeting last month in Chicago, 19 local sections were presented Phoenix Awards for top-rated projects carried out last year for National Chemistry Week (NCW). The winning sections, cited in several categories as in previous years, were selected from 64 nominees by the ACS Task Force on National Chemistry Week, chaired by Director-at-Large Joan E. Shields. Categories and winners for the Phoenix Awards for projects in 1994 are as follows: • Best activity with elementary schools—Central Massachusetts Section, with honorable mention to Texas A&M Section. Central Massachusetts expanded its pilot program of visiting elementary schools and increased the number of students reached from 350 in 1993 to 3,400 in 1994. In these visits, chemists from local colleges and industries gave classroom presentations on topics ranging from gene splicing to chemiluminescence. The Texas A&M Section took chemistry demonstrations and activities to more than 17 elementary schools, with the audiences averaging from 150 to 200 students at each site. Other sections nominated: Erie, Kansas City, and South Carolina. • Best activity with high schools— Memphis Section, with honorable mention to Auburn Section. Memphis, in conjunction with a high school teachers association, sponsored an essay contest entitled "How Chemistry Benefits Our Lives/' Winners received cash prizes and read their essays at the local section dinner meeting. At one school, a "Poetry Book of the Periodic Table" was created by students researching each element and then writing verses about them. Auburn established communication among high school teachers using an electronic bulletin board, providing a forum for the
teachers to exchange questions concerning chemical education. Many of these teachers had no on-site peers. Other sections nominated: Corning, Richland, and Toledo. • Best activity with student affiliates—Kentucky Lake Section, with honorable mention to Oklahoma Section. In Kentucky, student affiliates from Murray State University worked with the section in sponsoring a chemistry treasure hunt for high school students as part of an annual scholarship tournament. The hunt progressed as ACS National Chemistry Week and public outreach students solved simple staffers (from left) Nancy Gray, Denise Creech, and chemistry problems, the Shirley tord at Phoenix Awards ceremony. answers to which were various room numbers in their science sion was provided for hundreds of mibuilding. Other activities were carried nority students in four counties. Several out by student affiliates from Bethel subsections of the New York Section College and the University of Tennes- conducted activities that focused on see, Martin. In Oklahoma, University reaching minority students. Demonstraof Central Oklahoma student affiliates tions and hands-on activities were held held their second annual "Element at the American Museum of Natural Day" during which faculty members History in New York City and at other appeared in class dressed as their favor- sites, reaching more than 2,500 students. ite element. Student affiliates helped the Other sections nominated: Indiana, classes vote for the best-dressed ele- Northeastern, and San Antonio. ments. Other sections nominated: Cali• Best activity in a museum or lifornia and Puerto Rico. brary—Milwaukee Section, with honor• Best activity with underrepresent- able mention to Chicago Section. Miled minority students—Kanawha Valley waukee sponsored free admissions for and North Carolina Sections, with hon- elementary school classes to a hands-on orable mention to New York Section. science museum, at which section volKanawha Valley conducted chemical unteers presented 45-minute demonstrademonstrations in elementary schools tions during the entire week, reaching that serve a low-income and minority more than 3,000 schoolchildren, a majorpopulation. In addition, the section's ity from central city schools. Chicago technicians group raised scholarship conducted activities at the Adler Planemoney by selling NCW T-shirts. Schol- tarium, providing more than 4,000 visiarships were provided for minority stu- tors with the opportunity to become a dents majoring in chemistry or a medical live wire for a hand battery, roll the dice field at an ACS-accredited school. North in a game of nuclear decay, pull on a Carolina sponsored Family Science Day one-armed bandit to create quarks, and at a science museum where free admis- explore atomic stability in the Valley of SEPTEMBER 25,1995 C&EN
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the Isotopes. Other sections nominated: Cleveland, Jacksonville, St. Louis, and Western New York. • Best open house—Southern Indi ana and University of Kansas Sections. Southern Indiana held an open house at the Indiana University, Bloomington, chemistry building. It was planned by chemistry graduate students and offered a variety of activities, including tours of numerous labs, poster contests, and an open-forum teachers room that included demonstrations, discussions, and free re sources. The University of Kansas' open house, a Carnival of Chemistry, in volved over 75 volunteers and attracted more than 800 participants. In addition to hands-on activities and demonstra tions, the carnival presented games such as fishing for chemicals, in which kids got to catch small prizes tagged with in formation about their chemical composi tion. Other sections nominated: IllinoisIowa, Norwich, and Purdue. • Best shopping mall event—Upper Ohio Valley Section, with honorable mention to Orange County Section. Up per Ohio Valley sponsored a Chem Fair at the Grand Central Mall in Vienna, W.Va., in which eight local industries and three local colleges participated. Displays aimed to inform the local pop ulation how the chemicals produced in local plants are used in everyday con sumer products. Orange County fea tured several activities at a local mall, in cluding the display of 100 posters made by fifth graders as part of a poster con test, displays from local industries, and chemical demonstrations. Other sections nominated: Brazosport, Sabine-Neches, and Wabash Valley. • Best media coverage of an event— Northeast Tennessee Section, with hon orable mention to Greater Houston Section. Northeast Tennessee public re lations efforts resulted in 19 separate media events—radio, TV, and newspa per articles—covering its Celebration of Chemistry for Fourth Graders at East man Chemical. All told, the section me dia coverage of NCW events reached more than half a million regional view ers. Greater Houston publicized its events to an audience of more than 4 mil lion, with articles appearing in local news papers and industry newsletters, and with TV coverage of its Kids Science Expo on four local channels. Other sec tions nominated: Hampton Roads, Nash ville, and Philadelphia. • Greatest industrial involvement— 70
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Cincinnati Section, with honorable men tion to Eastern New York Section. Cin cinnati involved several chemical com panies in projects that included chemical demonstrations at elementary schools, open houses, lab tours, and Boy Scout activities. Eastern New York held an ex position in a museum that highlighted 11 area companies, plus several schools and government agencies; it attracted more than 1,300 people. Other section nominated: Tulsa. • Greatest membership involve ment—Central Utah Section, with hon orable mention to Central Wisconsin Section. Central Utah's activities in volved more than 20% of its members and featured elementary and high school chemistry contests, school dem onstrations that reached more than 2,700 students, and a three-day poster session for undergraduates at Brigham Young University attended by more than 1,000 people. It also held an open house, with BYU student affiliates performing dem onstrations and discussing the chemical nature of household items. Central Wis consin involved more than 20% of its members in such activities as contests, school visits, a shopping mall demon stration, and a university lab tour and open house. Other sections nominated: Chattanooga and Mark Twain. • Best overall community involve ment—Baton Rouge Section, with hon orable mention to San Diego Section. Ba ton Rouge's program was actively sup ported by 34 corporate or community organizations. Section activities includ ed, among other things, training 75 vol unteers at a chemical demonstrations workshop, demonstrations at local schools (reaching more than 10,000 chil dren), and a poster contest for elementa ry schoolchildren, after which more than 200 of the posters were displayed at an arts and science center for four months. San Diego held its Chem Expo in Balboa Park, attracting more than 2,000 people for a variety of activities. Volunteers in cluded area student affiliates, Fire De partment personnel, pharmaceutical and chemical companies, government agen cies, and minority chemist and chemical engineer groups. Other sections nomi nated: North Jersey, Mo-Kan-Ok, Sioux Valley, and Wilson Dam. • Most creative activity—Kalamazoo Section, with honorable mention to Lake Superior Section. Kalamazoo, among other things, creatively combined the arts and sciences by conducting a "mu
sical prelude to NCW," in which Joseph Nagyvary, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M Universi ty, who also studies and makes violins, discussed "Decoding the Stradivarius: The Material, the Sound, and the Mys tique." A recital followed the presenta tion, in which the sound of one of Nagyvary's instruments was compared with that of instruments used by four local musicians. Lake Superior conducted a "Knights in Science Armour" event at the College of St. Scholastica to demon strate how magical chemistry can be. Other sections nominated: Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wyoming. • Outstanding and unique pro grams—Carolina-Piedmont, Lehigh Val ley, Santa Clara Valley, Savannah River, and Western Connecticut Sections. Caro lina-Piedmont sponsored week-long ac tivities at a museum, including three chemistry demonstration shows. Chem istry was also directly tied to ongoing museum youth programs. Lehigh Valley showed both persistence and fast think ing in planning chemical demonstrations at a local mall. The section's original re quest for mall space was turned down because after Nov. 1 the mall insists on having a holiday theme. In response, the NCW coordinator proposed on the spot a series of demonstrations on the chem istry of Christmas. Among the features were red and green slime, and the chem istry of candle making. Santa Clara's NCW Committee invit ed its 200 Volunteers in Public Outreach (VIPs) to a lunch-mixer-workshop with area chemistry teachers, resulting in the teachers' liking the Kids & Chemistry kits so much that they plan to use them in their programs at elementary schools using high school student volunteers. Savannah River created a living peri odic table at the University of South Carolina, Aiken. Funds for constructing the table were raised by individuals and corporations who "bought an element." Western Connecticut held a clever and well-attended workshop, showing how to teach scientific principles using toys. In addition to the awards presented to sections, a new award was presented for the first time—the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach, sponsored by the ACS Council Committee on Public Rela tions. The award was presented to its namesake, former ACS President Helen M. Free, who was cited for advancing ACS public outreach activities, including NCW, for many years. Π
(page 647); sodium carbonate, monohydrate (page 649); sodium chlorate (page 652); sodium metabisulfite (page 678); sodium phosphate, dibasic heptahydrate (page 698); sodium phosphate, monobasic monohydrate (page 700); sodium phosphate, tribasic dodecahydrate (page 701); sodium pyrophosphate decahydrate (page 703); sodium sulfate (page 705); sodium sulfite (page 710); sodium tungstate dihydrate (page 719); sulfurous acid (page 742); zinc acetate (page 783); zinc oxide (page 787); and zinc sulfate heptahydrate (page 789). For Insoluble in Dilute Hydrochloric Acid (page 171) test for barium carbonate, retain first two sentences. Delete remainder and substitute "ignore any slight haze that is produced. Filter through a tared filtering crucible. Wash thoroughly with dilute hydrochloric acid (1+9) and dry at 105 °C." For Sample Stock Solution (page 291, Edward W. Money (above) line 2) for iron test for cuprous chloride, and Agnar Pytte. add 5 mL of nitric acid instead of 2 mL In addition to his determina- of hydrochloric acid. For Sodium test for lithium carbontion of the weight of oxygen, Morley also worked with Al- ate (page 417), in the table change the bert A. Michelson to conduct Sample Wt (g) to 0.01 g. For Assay for mercurous nitrate what many consider the single most significant experiment in dihydrate (page 469), change requirephysics. Morley and Michelson mea- ment to >97.0%. For Nitrate test for molybdenum trisured the speed of light in different directions with great precision. The exper- oxide (page 482, line 1), substitute "Grind iment was designed to detect Earth's 1.0 g" for "Triturate 17 g." motion through "the ether," a substance For Sodium test for potassium chlohypothesized to occupy all of space. rate (page 550), in the table, change Their measurement showed light's ve- Sample Wt to 0.1 g. locity to be unaffected by "ether drift." For Nickel test for potassium hydroxMichelson became the first American to ide (page 574), use the procedure for Sowin a Nobel Prize in science as a result dium Hydroxide on page 675. Delete Ni of his studies on the velocity of light. The from table on page 575. result of the 1887 Michelson-Morley exFor Assay spec of sodium acetate triperiment was used to justify Einstein's hydrate (page 628), change range to special theory of relativity. • 99.0-101.0%. For Heavy Metals test for sodium bisulfite (page 639, line 5), replace 5.0 g with 3.0 g. For Sulfate and Sulfite test for su209); cadmium sulfate, 8/3 hydrate (page crose, add final sentence after "boil": 212); cuprous chloride (page 289); ferric "Omit evaporation to dryness and folchloride hexahydrate (page 336); D-glu- low method 1 for remainder of test." cose, anhydrous (page 353); hydriodic For Assay for zinc (page 782, line 3), acid, 47% (page 364); hydrobromic acid change "30 mL" to "300 mL" (page 368); magnesium sulfate heptahy- For Nitrate test for zinc oxide (page drate (page 445); potassium carbonate 788) substitute the following proce(page 541); potassium carbonate ses- dure: "NITRATE. (Page 29). For sample quihydrate (page 544); potassium chlo- solution A, dissolve 0.5 g of sample in rate (page 547); potassium hydrogen sul- 5 mL of hydrochloric acid (1 + 1). For fite (page 570); potassium sulfate (page control solution B, use 5 mL of hydro601); sodium carbonate (page 644); sodi- chloric acid (1 + 1) and 1.5 mL of stanum carbonate alkalimetric standard dard nitrate solution." •
Morley's oxygen determination is third National Historic Chemical Landmark In a ceremony last week at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, ACS Immediate Past President Ned D. Heindel dedicated the fourth ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark. Heindel presented Agnar Pytte, president of the university, with a plaque commemorating Edward W. Morley's determination of the atomic weight of oxygen. Morley's scientific paper "On the Densities of Oxygen and Hydrogen and on the Ratio of Their Atomic Weights" was published by the Smithsonian Institution in July 1895. "Atomic weight values were vital for determining chemical composition, understanding novel reactions, calculating reacting quantities in industrial processes—in short, for virtually all operations in pure and applied chemistry," noted Alan J. Rocke, Henry Eldridge Bourne Professor of History at Case Western Reserve. Atomic weights for most other elements were determined by synthesis or analysis of oxides, so the accuracy of these weights depended directly on the atomic weight of oxygen. "A small error in the value for oxygen, a relatively light element, would be magnified proportionally for the heavier elements," said Rocke.
Changes in analytical reagents specifications At its last meeting, the ACS Committee on Analytical Reagents approved the following changes for the eighth edition of "Reagent Chemicals: ACS Specifications": Delete the Arsenic spec and test from the following reagent chemicals: aluminum potassium sulfate dodecahydrate (page 114); aluminum sulfate, hydrated (page 116); ammonium phosphate, dibasic (page 147); ammonium phosphate, monobasic (page 149); boric acid (page 190); cadmium sulfate, anhydrous (page
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