Illinois Sections Cooperative State Fair Project Annual Report for 2006
The Illinois ACS Sections’ tent at the Illinois State Fair was even more
successful in 2006 than in 2005! In 2006, our
cooperative
project promoting the positive aspects of chemistry drew more than 13,000
visitors to our tent in Conservation World at the Illinois State Fair August
11-20. Our visitor’s attendance was up 15% from last year and has increased
significantly each year since we started this project in 2004! We used a larger
tent (20’ by 30’) in 2006 to accommodate the number of visitors and to spread
out the activity stations.
Ten Illinois ACS Sections (Chicago,
Decatur-Springfield, East Central Illinois, Heartland, Illinois-Iowa, Joliet,
Mark Twain, Rock River, Southern Illinois, and St. Louis) involving 44
enthusiastic volunteers participated in the activities. Appendix A lists the members of the organizational planning
committee and the number of tent volunteers from each Illinois section. Appendix B gives information on how we
obtained volunteers from our various Illinois local sections and the types of
volunteer activities performed within the tent.
We conducted
the following activities within the tent:
·
the
"jelly bean test" at the entrance of the tent
(this
activity shows the relationship of taste and
smell and was a good way to draw people to
and into
the tent)
·
the
new SuperBubbler activity at the entrance of the tent (making huge soap bubbles
that the kids found fascinating and could run a “catch”; this was another good
way to draw people to the into the tent);
·
fourteen
continuous demonstrations (four new ones this year) and five hands-on
activities (Appendix C)
·
an
interactive chemistry quiz (winners received prizes); this year, we added more
questions and expanded the questions to two levels (standard and expert) (Appendix
D);
·
display tables with literature for children and adults to take home on
fun chemistry-related activities and on commonly-used products; including
"What's That Stuff?" articles from C&EN, ChemMatters, NCW's Celebrating
Chemistry, JCE journals, Project SEED brochures, safety brochures, periodic
tables
·
display
boards with a variety of posters on topics such as chemical safety in the home,
food science, inventions, a variety of periodic charts, and biographies of
women and minority chemists
·
ACS
"Hooray for Chemistry" bags, engraved pencils with our project’s
website, JCE’s pencils, and UV-sensitive cards we handed out
·
for
teachers, specially-prepared bags containing a variety of resource materials (a
CD containing 150 experiments suitable for young students, CPDUs sign-up
sheets, pencils, rain gauge, literature) that were handed out to the 375
teachers that visited the tent and signed-in. Information on the CD is in Appendix E.
·
a
daily raffle of an ACS mole (to the first teacher that visited)
·
a new
activity, water
bottles engraved with “Got Slime?” and the project’s website, were given
out to visitors
·
another
new activity was the offering of a NCW activity patch for youth groups that
visited the tent and signed up. Information
on this patch is in Appendix F.
The
activities within the tent impacted a large number of visitors ranging from
young children to adults representing a wide range of education and
occupations. This project allowed Illinois chemists the opportunity to interact
with the public to improve its perception of chemistry and chemists by
communicating the value and fun of chemistry.
Visitors
again had the opportunity to complete a survey sheet to give us their opinion
of the tent. The majority of visitors gave high marks for the tent activities
and indicated they would like for us to return in 2007.
The website
initially established for the 2004 cooperative ACS Illinois Sections State Fair
project was updated and maintained for the 2006 activity. The website is http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/index.html
(Appendix G). The website includes information
regarding planning committee meetings, a listing of all of the Illinois ACS
Sections with links to each section's home page, online sign-up for volunteers
to work the tent, the chemistry quiz, the link to the full listing of
educational resources on the CD, descriptions of the experiments done in the
tent, an list of our sponsors, and photos.
Keys to the
success of this project were: the collaborative work of our Illinois sections;
financial support from local businesses, sections, and individuals; ACS and
other organizations that donated display materials, give-aways, lab supplies,
rain gauges, and/or services; volunteers’ time and talents (Appendix H); and the positive and
enthusiastic attitude we brought to this project that was reflected in the type
of activities and literature that we made available, and our personal
interactions with the public at the Fair. This year, the Chicago section also
did a fund-raiser selling Carson’s Community Day coupon books
The Illinois
State Fair’s Conservation World program guide is Appendix I and lists our tent at site 17.
Photos are in
Appendix J.
ACS
Strategic thrusts supported: #3, 4,
& 10
Appendix A
Chicago Section
Milt
Levenberg
Avrom Litin
Woonkie Paik
Marsha
Phillips
Decatur-Springfield
Harsh
Bapat
Illinois-Iowa Section
Heartland Section
Steve
Hughes
Craig
McLauchlan
East Central Illinois
Section
Mark Twain Section
Jackie
Stewart
Rock River Section
Tent Volunteers
Chicago Section: 21
Decatur-Springfield
Section: 2
East
Central Section: 1
Heartland
Section: 2
Joliet Section: 2
Mark
Twain Section: 2
Rock
River Section: 2
Southern
Illinois Section: 9
St.
Louis Section: 1
Appendix B
Volunteers
were the life-blood of this project. The members of the planning committee had
six conference call meetings prior to the opening of the State Fair. The
volunteer staff set up tent operations the day prior to the opening of the
Fair, manned the tent throughout the 10 days of the Fair, and closed down tent
operations on the last day of the Fair.
The
volunteers were solicited from each Illinois ACS local section via email, local
section newsletter ads and word-of-mouth.
The e-mail
addresses of volunteers were collected and passed along to the volunteer
coordinator of the planning committee, who e-mailed the people directly to ask
them to use the online volunteer sign-up form to schedule their hours for the
tent. This online sign-up form is on the group web page http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/index.html. Each online entry was sent to the webmaster
and the volunteer coordinator. The coordinator then sent an e-mail to the
person confirming their signing up and confirming the dates and times.
On arrival at the tent, volunteers were given on-the-spot training and provided with an "Illinois Local Sections of the American Chemical Society" T-shirt and nametag to wear while volunteering.
Volunteers worked one of three 4-hour shifts in the tent. The shifts were arranged to have at least one half hour of overlap between shifts to allow sufficient time to watch the previous person in action and learn the spiel. The shift overlaps also prevented a late arrival from forcing a finishing worker from leaving. The overlaps worked out well. In an ideal case, we had more than six people per shift, which allowed breaks and rotation around the different duties. In some shifts, we had few volunteers and breaks were not possible.
In the tent,
volunteers were given one of 6 jobs. One person was responsible for greeting
people as they came into the tent and directing them to the hands-on
experiments, demonstrations, the chemistry quiz, posters, and literature. This
person also kept a tally of the number of visitors using a tally counter
device. A second person did continuous chemistry demonstrations for their shift
and periodically handed out the water bottles. Another person was responsible
for helping kids do the hands-on experiments. The list of demonstrations
performed and hands-on activities are given in Appendix C. A fourth person pointed out to the people various
literature available on the tables. This person also offered visitors the
opportunity to fill out an opinion survey and also handed out water bottles. A
fifth person helped out in a variety of ways.
This person often was in front of the tent conducting a "jelly bean
test" and acting as a midway carnival showperson and having people
"step right in" and witness the wonders and fun of chemistry. A sixth
shift member assisted the greeter in having teachers sign in and receive their
teacher’s bag. This shift member was also available to allow breaks and rotation
for the entire shift team.
Appendix C
The 2006
Illinois Sections’ ACS tent at the Illinois State Fair had many demonstrations
and hands-on activities for fair goers again this year. The majority of the
demonstrations were set up and performed by Frank Salter and Jackie Stewart,
Mark Twain Section.
New
demonstrations this year included super bubbles, magic pitcher, traffic light,
and where did the water go?
The
“hands-on” computerized chemistry quiz, set up and maintained by Milt
Levenberg, Chicago Section, with input by the planning committee, was expanded
to include two levels of questions: standard/simple and expert/harder. Again,
the quiz was quite a success.
The
demonstrations and hands-on activities ran continuously throughout the day. A
list of the demonstrations is given here; their detailed descriptions is given
on the website http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/CD-2006/experiments/experiments.html.
Tent
Demonstrations
Fluorescent
Slime
Super bubbles
Where
did the Water Go?
Stop!! -- Go!!
(The traffic light demonstration)
The Magic Pitcher
Liquid Density Demonstration
The Wicked Witch
Cartesian Divers
Magic Skin Writing
Filter Paper Chromatography
White Vinegar, Ammonia and
Indicator
Air Pressure in Inverted Flask
Magic Writing
Floating Bubbles
Tent Hands-On Activities
-- Chemistry quiz (is found at http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/CD-2006/Quiz/index.html)
--
Invisible message
--
Marker Butterflies
--
Hook the loop (a Cartesian Diver activity)
--
Balance the bottle
Appendix D
We again had as one of our tent exhibits an
interactive science quiz. In 2006, we used a 19” flat-screen monitor with the
PC. As in 2005, the design criteria were:
The
obvious solution to creating an easily transportable system was to write it in
HTML, which could be read on any computer with a web browser. JavaScript code
was included in the web pages to incorporate an element of interactivity.
Cookies were written to the local computer to track the progress of the visitor
through the quiz. A running total of correct and incorrect answers was
maintained until the quiz was completed and/or the visitor started over, at which
point the tally was reset to zero.
Sounds were added with code to play a random selection of sounds
appropriate to the success or failure of the visitor’s answer to the
question.
Each
question has its own web page, and there are unique pages for the start of the
quiz, the finish of the quiz, for a right answer and for a wrong answer. A
template was written for quiz questions, and with cookies keeping track of the
progress of the visitor through the quiz, new questions can be easily created
and added to the sequence. For 2006,
questions were created for two quiz levels, “standard” and “expert”. The
presentation of question pages were randomized so that each visitor experienced
ten questions in random order out of a larger pool of questions.
It was observed that this activity was relatively
popular, and there was often one or more people sitting at the computer monitor
working their way through the quiz.
The quiz can be found at: http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/CD-2006/Quiz/index.html
Appendix E
We updated
the CD and handed it out to teachers that visited the tent. This CD contains
materials of interest to science and elementary school teachers. A series of
articles for young children to help increase their science literacy serves as a
splendid nucleus for the CD. The author of these 150 articles, Dr. Kathleen
Carrado, gave us permission to reproduce this series on a CD for distribution
to educators at the State Fair. The articles describe simple experiments,
usually performed with household ingredients, illustrating some point of
chemistry or general science for generally grade school aged children.
The
experiments performed in the ACS tent, and some similar experiments, are also
described on the CD with sufficient information to allow the reader to perform
them at home.
We also
included on the CD a list of Illinois local sections of the ACS with contact
information so that the teachers can contact the closest section to them for
further interaction. A list of our sponsors is on the CD and on the CD label.
We included a list of links of other resources available to educators in the
sciences and to the State Fair web page itself.
The CD
materials were compiled, designed, and burned by Milt Levenberg and Avrom Litin
from the master files.
Appendix F
Introduction:
The purpose
of National Chemistry Week Activity Patch program is to encourage the
participation of youth groups such as the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
4-H Clubs, Campfire USA, YMCA and others in ACS National Chemistry Week (NCW)
activities.
To qualify
for a patch, youth group members should complete any four of the six activities
described below. You must be a registered scout or registered in other youth
groups prior to completing the activities. After completing activities, contact
Fran Kravitz at the Illinois Sections of the American Chemical Society to
receive the patch. All activities are free to complete including the badge.
There are three types of badges shown below that can be requested. A youth may
enter every year, but only one patch will be sent out after all of the
requirements are met. Please mail youth’s name, contact information on where
the youth’s parents can be contacted, completed activities, the name and
scouting unit with its location and the type of patch requested to: Fran
Kravitz, Chicago Section American Chemical Society, 7173 N. Austin Avenue,
Niles, IL 60714 or by e-mail: chicagoacs@ameritech.net
ALL
ACTIVITIES MUST BE COMPLETED BY NOVEMBER 1, 2006.
Activities:
1. Attend the Illinois Sections of the American Chemical Society Tent at the Illinois State Fair between August 11 – 20, 2006. Make sure to sign up on the list at the front of the tent.
2. Explore
the ACS/NCW website http://chemistry.org/ncw and write a short essay about a
topic you find interesting.
3. Learn
about a career in chemistry and write an essay or draw a poster that tells
about, or depicts a famous chemist.
4. Conduct
hands-on activities for younger children.
5. Clean up a
local stream or roadway.
6. Conduct a
food drive for a local food bank or charity.
Appendix G
The separate
web site originally set up in 2004 (the first year of the project) was again
utilized in 2006. The website is set up in a subdirectory of the Chicago
Section website, which is supported by the ACS National membership server. It is located at:
http://membership.acs.org/C/Chicago/statefair/index.html.
Among the
many things posted, the website lists contact information and assignments for
each planning committee member, the date, time, and location of the committee
meetings along with a map to the meeting, and the meetings’ minutes. In 2006,
all of the meetings of the planning committee were held by conference calls.
A second
section was created on the website listing all of the ACS Local Sections in
Illinois, along with contact information for representatives of those sections
serving on the planning committee. Links were provided to each section’s home
page.
As sponsors
signed up to help with the State Fair project, their names were added to a
Sponsors Page. As the Fair approached, an “I would like to help” page is
utilized to help communicate to our volunteers the nature of the help that is
needed, from soliciting potential sponsors to manning the booth during the
Fair.
An “Information for Volunteers” page guides volunteers through an on-line sign up process, whereby they can submit their contact information, tell us the booth activities they can cover, and volunteer to cover one or more timeslots at the Fair. They can also log back in at a later date to change the data in their submission. Behind the scenes, some PHP scripts were written to manage these submissions and to enter each volunteer’s data in a MySQL database for retrieval and processing by our committee.
Once the Fair
got under way, daily updates of attendance and topics of interest were added to
the website. Some photos taken at our booth were posted mid-week, and more
after the Fair was over.
A copy of the
information on the resource CD handed out to teachers was placed on the website
as well as links to other resource sites for access by any interested parties.
Appendix H
The Abbott
Fund
American
Chemistry Council
American
Chemical Society
BP
BP Volunteers
(Naperville IL Chapter)
Carus
Corporation
Chemical
Heritage Foundation
Chicago
Section
Continental
Cement
Dan Edelman
and Fran Kravitz
East Central
Illinois Section
Flinn
Scientific
Heartland
Section
Illinois
Dept. of Natural Resources
Ingredient
Source Corporation
NorthStar
Credit Union
Northup
RTS
Richard
Cornell
Robert
Banzuly
Rock River
Section
Unilever Home
& Personal Care
Wizardcraft
*in cash,
goods, or services
Appendix I
The Illinois State Fair’s Conservation World program guide with our tent listed (#17).
Appendix J