St. Albert's Day: Interacting With the Community through Science

Chapter 7

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St. Albert’s Day: Interacting With the Community through Science Outreach Avery E. Wagner and Elizabeth A. Jensen* Chemistry Department, Aquinas College, 1607 Robinson Road SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506 *E-mail: [email protected]

The Aquinas Chemistry Society, a Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society, organizes an annual outreach event targeting local fourth-grade students. Bringing together undergraduates from a variety of science disciplines, the event features demonstrations and hands-on activities. St. Albert’s Day is one of the most highly anticipated events. In this chapter, we describe the organization, timeline, and lessons learned that allow the event to be successful every year.

Introduction Aquinas College is a Catholic college providing a liberal arts education in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The college has around 2000 students, predominantly undergraduates, including about 15 chemistry majors. Founded by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids in 1886, Dominican traditions are continued on campus today under the four charisms: Prayer, Study, Service, and Community. Four full time professors and one full time staff member serve the chemistry department, which offers a BS degree in chemistry. Natural science departments at Aquinas are housed in Albertus Magnus Hall, named for Saint Albert the Great, a German bishop who lived in the thirteenth century and is remembered as a scientist and teacher. He discovered the element arsenic and investigated the properties of many minerals during his lifetime, and was a believer in performing experiments to explore knowledge.

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The Aquinas Chemistry Society (ACS) is a Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society. Chartered in 1983, the ACS has become one of the most active and visible student organizations on campus. ACS has been recognized by the Aquinas College Student Senate as “Student Organization of the Month” several times. In the past five years the Chapter has earned three Commendable and two Honorable Mention awards from the American Chemical Society as well as three Green Chapter awards. ACS tries to provide a wide range of activities throughout the academic year. In addition to our monthly business meetings, the Chapter organizes several highly successful annual events. Soon after classes begin in the fall, ACS organizes a picnic and kickball game against the biology student club with a traveling trophy awarded to the winning team. In October, a week’s worth of events are scheduled to celebrate National Chemistry Week. These usually include a periodic table of cookies, a science-themed movie night, and participation in Chemistry at the Mall with the local section. Before final exam week in December, ACS organizes an all-night event in the science building with snacks, games, movies, and professors providing review sessions. The Chapter regularly collaborates with the chemistry faculty to invite speakers to campus to talk about research or careers in chemistry. ACS has annually participated in Battle of the Chem Clubs at Michigan State University in January, finishing in fourth place each of the past two years against a dozen other schools. In April, ACS hosts a banquet for all the science and math students and staff. There is a catered dinner, an invited speaker, and presentations of year-end awards by each department. Besides this, ACS provides free tutoring throughout the year for all students taking chemistry classes.

St. Albert’s Day One of the events ACS is most proud of is St. Albert’s Day, held in mid-November (St. Albert’s Feast Day is November 15). For this event, entire fourth grade classes from the local Catholic elementary schools are invited to Albertus Magnus Hall for science demonstrations and hands-on activities in order to increase the students’ enthusiasm for science. ACS coordinates with the other Aquinas science clubs to develop activities, which take place in several different laboratories and classrooms in the science building. There are usually about ten different activities set up and one or two science students run each station. “Tour guides” take small groups of students (usually six to eight children in each group plus a teacher or parent) through the different stations, spending about ten minutes at each station. St. Albert’s Day has been hosted annually by our Chapter since at least the 1980’s, thus it is a well-known event among the science departments. ACS members look forward to participating in the event every year, even “calling dibs” on certain favorite demonstrations. It is used to recruit new members to the Chapter who are interested in working with children and exploring the fun side of chemistry. Being involved in such a long-standing tradition connects current chemistry students with each other and with generations of past students which helps to give the Chapter members a sense of community. 68

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Planning Timeline In September the date is finalized, aiming for the week of St. Albert’s Feast Day. Wednesdays tend to be lighter class days for Aquinas students, so they have more time to volunteer, and fewer laboratory sections are scheduled on Wednesdays so the rooms are available. Volunteers are solicited at our first Chapter meeting of the semester and a description of the event is provided for new members. We have found it useful to appoint an Event Coordinator to the executive board of our chapter. This person coordinates St. Albert’s Day as well as some of the other large, annual events. About six weeks before St. Albert’s Day, the Event Coordinator sends invitations through the mail to the local Catholic elementary schools using a template developed over several years. The invitations are addressed to the principal of the school and request an RSVP with the number of students coming. St. Albert’s Day is an opportunity for our Chapter to cooperate with other science student organizations at Aquinas. The Event Coordinator invites these other clubs to participate by contacting the officers of each club and asking them to plan experiments or activities. In the past, we have had contributions from the biology, math, computer, and/or physics clubs; however, the majority of the activities tend to be based on chemistry. At least a month before the event, the Event Coordinator decides exactly which experiments will be presented, and what supplies are needed. Since only fourth grade classes are invited, no students attend the event more than once, so many of the same experiments can be performed from year to year. Out of concerns for safety and sustainability, experiments that use only household products are preferred whenever possible. Supplies (except for chemicals and large glassware) for most of the usual experiments are organized in clear plastic boxes in the chemistry department stock room. Instructions and a list of materials for each demonstration are included with these kits so the student volunteers know how to execute the experiment. There are also written tips on what to say and how to present the chemistry to fourth graders. A month before the event Aquinas students are asked to commit to volunteering. An electronic sign-up sheet is used that lists all the available demonstrations with brief descriptions. There is also a place for tour guides to sign up. Volunteers are required to attend a two-hour practice session, usually the Saturday or Sunday before the event, at which they make sure all the demos are working properly and that all necessary equipment and materials are present in good order. Practicing allows volunteers to feel more comfortable with their experiments and gives them time to plan their presentations. On the morning of the event, signs are posted around Albertus Hall. There are signs with arrows showing the way to various rooms. There are also labels for each station. All visitors are directed to meet in a central location (a large room just inside the front entrance) where they can leave their coats and be welcomed by the Event Coordinator before the event starts. The Event Coordinator distributes an instruction sheet to the tour guides that includes the list of experiments and their locations, as well as the Event Coordinator’s phone number in case of any 69 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


questions. Each tour guide starts their group at a different station, and then all groups progress through the stations in the same order so that there is no more than one group visiting each station at a time. One or two tour guides is assigned to watch for buses and to help visitors locate the welcome room. A subgroup of volunteers arrives early to clear the labs and set up the demonstrations before the event begins. After two exciting hours, the fourth graders leave campus full of excitement for science. Volunteers pack up the materials and reset the laboratories for classes. The final task is to write a summary of the event for our chapter report. Fourth grade classes often send thank-you notes after participating in St. Albert’s Day. The students draw pictures and write about what they remember. Representative written comments include “I really enjoyed the experiments that you did! My favorite was all of them because I can’t choose which one was best” and “When I get home I will tell my brother about how cool science is and then maybe we will become scientists some day!”

Typical Activities To provide the flavor of the types of activities typical at St. Albert’s Day, a few examples are described here. At the liquid nitrogen station, children observe the physical changes that occur to flowers, fruit, and other materials that have been submerged in liquid nitrogen. It is especially exciting to see what happens when the frozen item is hit with a mallet. Of course, for this station the children do not handle the materials themselves. At the “Amazing Marshmallows” station, children are enthralled when a marshmallow in an evacuated flask expands to more than twice its normal size, then collapses when atmospheric pressure is restored. Another favorite is “Rockets” made by dissolving effervescent tablets (Alka-Seltzer®) in warm water in an inverted, capped film canister. The carbon dioxide gas that is produced eventually bursts out of the canister, sending it into the air like a rocket. The Aquinas Math Club has presented a variety of math games and puzzles. One interesting activity by Tri-Beta, the Biological Honor Society, involved building bracelets with colored plastic beads representing different amino acids. The children strung the beads to match a protein sequence and then were able to take the bracelet home.

Successes ACS has been hosting this event every year for at least 30 years. The members look forward to it as one of the Chapter’s signature events. They enjoy sharing their excitement for science with the fourth graders and we tend to attract more volunteers for this event than any other. Although no one remembers the original reasons that fourth grade children are targeted for St. Albert’s Day, we believe it is beneficial to select one grade level so that the activities remain fresh. Younger elementary students may not be ready for the content of the event and might require greater supervision than we 70 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


can provide, while older students are sometimes not as enthusiastic about science demonstrations. We have support from the chemistry faculty. Professors have been very helpful by rearranging certain class schedules to allow ACS to use the laboratories for St. Albert’s Day. As another incentive to motivate volunteers to attend the practice day, the chemistry department buys lunch for everyone following the practice session. We have found that volunteers who attend the practice have a much smoother St. Albert’s Day experience and this is something the chemistry department wants to encourage.

Lessons Learned Having volunteers to help speeds up the process of getting all the children fitted with goggles before entering the chemistry labs. We have a set of goggles, reserved for St. Albert’s Day, for children to borrow and a few pairs for teachers and parents. The volunteers hand out the goggles at the door, help people put them on, and then collect them again when the visitors exit. Although the invitations to St. Albert’s Day are mailed to school principals, it is a good idea to follow-up by email and remind the schools to RSVP. Having an accurate head count in advance helps the Event Coordinator arrange for the correct amount of supplies and the necessary number of tour guides. Storage boxes need labels on the outside. The label should include the name of the activity, a list of the contents of the box, and a list of other necessary materials. This makes it easier to plan a shopping trip for replacement supplies and to gather materials that are stored elsewhere. The Event Coordinator usually plans more experiments than will actually be needed. This way there is some flexibility if no one is excited about presenting a particular activity one year. Sometimes it may be necessary to cut experiments if not enough people volunteer to demonstrate. Volunteers who are acting as tour guides should be prepared to start conversations with the children while transitioning from one station to the next. This fills time when waiting for a previous group to finish with a station. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or “Do you think science is cool?” work great here.

Conclusion In conclusion, St. Albert’s Day is a fantastic outreach activity for the Aquinas Chemistry Society. It is one of the Chapter’s most anticipated events of the year. Having this annual signature event promotes the success of the Chapter by providing continuity among students over time. This event allows us to practice the Dominican charisms of Study, Service, and Community which are so important on our campus. Preparing and presenting the activities provides 71 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


an opportunity for our chapter members to study science together in a fun way that is not directly connected to a specific course. This event allows Aquinas undergraduates to enrich the science education of local fourth-grade students. St. Albert’s Day also brings together several Aquinas student groups in shared enthusiasm for science.

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St. Albert's Day: Interacting With the Community through Science

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