Streaming Chemistry

Local sections are invited to participate in the 2008 Chemists Celebrate Earth Day with the water-based theme, “Streaming Chemistry”.

Since 1970, the United States has celebrated Earth Day on April 22. ACS joined this movement in 2004, and every year since then has developed a theme based on one of the primary “elements” of earth, water, and air, plus recycling for a modern twist.

In 2008, it is time to emphasize water with the theme “Streaming Chemistry.” The importance of this amazing liquid should make it easy to create interest in the 2008 Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED) program. It will be a wonderful opportunity to focus on local waterways and to highlight their importance and the ways the community can keep them flowing. Community members can be encouraged to consider steps that can be done locally and nationally to conserve and clean water.

For the 2008 celebration, each local section is encouraged to participate in the “Adopt-A-Stream” community event, where you might sponsor a portion of a stream or aquifer by cleaning the area or monitoring various physical and chemical properties of the water. These efforts can be registered and coordinated with the appropriate environmental office of your particular state. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a national database with many local resources at www.epa.gov/adopt. CCED coordinators will be asked to submit photographs to ACS to document their activities.

K–12 students will again be challenged to prepare an illustrated haiku, which is the three-line poem often employed to express ideas about nature. These works of poetry and art will be judged in local sections, with winners submitted for national awards.

Undergraduate students are invited to carry out a community service outreach event as part of an “Adopt-A-Stream” (or other local waterway) program. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top two groups. This activity can be part of the community event organized by the local section, which will make it an opportunity for collaboration between chemists and future chemists.

The Journal of Chemical Education will continue its outstanding support, including dedicating its February edition to CCED. That issue contains numerous resources and ideas about how to celebrate the event.

Visit www.acs.org/earthday for water-related activities, library and online reference lists, college contest entry forms, free PR materials, coordinator templates, and products for purchase. We hope that these ideas will stimulate your creativity and help you plan your local celebrations of CCED 2008: “Streaming Chemistry”!

Because Earth Day is a major national celebration with participants in many organizations and venues, local sections are encouraged to partner with other groups in order to make it truly a community event. This is a good occasion to strengthen local connections among organizations with similar missions and goals and to highlight the support of ACS for our environment.

Andy Jorgensen
Program Chair, Chemists Celebrate Earth Day
ACS Committee on Community Activities

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