High
School Chemistry Club Grant Applications
- Click here
National Chemistry Week 2007 will be at the Santa Ana Zoo
at Prentice Park
1801 East Chestnut Avenue, Santa Ana
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Zoo hours: 10 AM – 4 PM
Science exhibits: 11 AM – 3 PM
Rudy’s Radical Science Show: 12:30 PM
Admission to the zoo is $6 for adults and $3 for kids. It includes all of the regular zoo exhibits as well as the science activities.
This year’s theme: The Many Faces of Chemistry
Chemistry
students from 10 or more Orange County
colleges will set up demonstrations and
hands-on chemistry activities for the
hundreds of children who visit the Santa
Ana Zoo that day. Special invitations
are going to the Hispanic neighborhoods
through nearby schools, newspapers and
radio, as well as to Boy Scout and Girl
Scout troops. ACS members are encouraged
to come and bring their friends and elementary-aged
children to visit the zoo October 14
to see young chemists educating and entertaining
the children, and to see the many improvements
and new animals at the zoo too.
For information on NCW activities nationwide,click this button:
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Last year’s theme: Your Home – It’s All Built on Chemistry Once
again, students and advisors from all
over southern California converged
on the Santa Ana Zoo on Sunday, October
15, 2006 for our National Chemistry Week
Celebration. A
total of ten schools (179 volunteers
in all!) offered hands-on science activities
for children. Even though the skies
were overcast, the attendance was outstanding,
due to extended outreach to the neighboring
community of Santa Ana this year. Bilingual
flyers (English and Spanish) went home
with all 3rd and 5th grade students in
the Santa Ana School District (about
5000 flyers), and the City of Santa Ana
printed 1500 more for distribution at
libraries and city recreation centers. These
flyers also told Santa Ana residents
that they could get free admission to
the zoo for the NCW event. Both
English and Spanish language newspapers
in Orange County were contacted in advance
of the event.
All told, Science
at the Zoo had 1290 visitors last year,
compared to 411 visitors in 2005. Almost
400 of these were families who requested
free admission, so we knew that our
flyers had a big effect! Children
and college students alike had a great
time doing experiments, and Rudy Gonzalez
presented “Rudy’s
Radical Science Show” as well. Everyone
agreed at the end of the day that science
is, indeed, fun!
For information on NCW activities nationwide, click this button:
International
Chemistry Olympiad
The
International Chemistry Olympiad is an
annual event where countries from throughout
the world send their four best high school
chemistry students to compete against
each other.
Last year, there were sixty-six participating
countries that competed in Gyeongsan, Korea.
This year, the competition will be held
in Moscow, Russia.
The selection process begins at the local
level. This year twenty-five schools from
all over Orange County sent as many as
four students each to compete in the local
section exam.
The top eleven scorers on this exam were
eligible to advance to the national round
of the competition where each student took
a five-hour exam that included extensive
laboratory work. Approximately 900 students
across the U.S. advanced to this round.
Those that score among the top twenty nationally
on this test are invited to attend the
Olympiad Study Camp at the Air Force Academy
in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The top
four at the camp will then go on to represent
the U.S. at the international competition.
Over the past twenty years, four county
schools (Irvine, Troy, Sunny Hills and
Valencia) have had students qualify to
attend the study camp at the Air Force
Academy.
Patricia Widener of Valencia High School
attended the camp as the sole representative
from the county last year and this year
she has qualified once again. She now prepares
to attend the study camp in early June
and to possibly represent the U.S. at the
international competition in Moscow in
July.
ACS High
School Exam
The First-Year
American Chemical Society Exam is an
annual event run by the Orange County
Section of the ACS. It is open to any
first-year chemistry student enrolled
in college-prep and honors.
Eight students from each High School
may take the exam. This year 285 students
from 41 Orange County high schools
participated. The top-scorer from each
school gets his/her name engraved on
a plaque that is showcased at the participating
school.
Results of the 2007
exam:
County Average:
64.3%
Highest Score
in OC: 97.5%
