The International Year of Chemistry’s Global Experiment
In his State of the Union address a few days ago, President Barack Obama stated that “We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.” Yet it can be challenging to get students motivated about studying science. Enter the International Year of Chemsitry (IYC), a yearlong, international celebration of chemistry organized by some of the leading international chemistry establishments in the world. As Andrew Liveris (president of the International Council of Chemical Associations, one main sponsor of the event) notes, “95 percent of the things that touch our lives — such as food, water, shelter, transportation, and medicine — are made possible through chemistry,” and the purpose of the IYC is to help show people just how fundamental chemistry is in daily life.
To get students involved in the celebration, the IYC designed a Global Experiment called “Water: A Chemical Solution,” which has the potential to be the biggest chemistry experiment ever. Students from across the globe will participate in the water themed experiments by testing how chemistry can be used to purify water so it can be consumed. More specifically there are four activities that students will complete while taking part in the experiment: 1) acidity 2) salinity 3) filtration 4) solar still. Here is a more complete look into what students will be studying in each required activity.
Acidity- In the first activity students will use pH strips and learn about the pH scale in order to measure the pH of their local body of water. They finish by learning methods for testing the reliability of their results.
Salinity- The Salinity activity provides students the experience of making their own water meter and testing the conductivity and salt presence in their particular water sample.
Filtration- Students must work with household or classroom found materials to construct a functioning water filtration system. In addition, they must test out and rank the filtration abilities of different materials. Then they will end this activity by carrying out an actual water treatment and filtration and record their findings on the Global Experiment website.
Solar Still- The Solar Still activity provides students practice in alternative methods of purifying water, with specific attention to the distillation process.
The Global Experiment assumes that teachers will direct students when they are carrying out each experiment, but the experiment urges guidance and supervision from any adults willing to get involved. It does not matter if a parent or teacher has a background in chemistry; the experiment comes with detailed directions with regard to the methods and tools necessary for the successful completion of the modules. According to the IYC, the experiments will cost very little, if anything at all, to get as many people participating as possible. Finally, they created the experiments based on the level of education for those involved. Elementary school students can follow simpler experiments while those in middle or high school have more challenging and complex tasks.
The International Year of Chemistry kicks off February 6th, and the Global Experiment runs all year, so if you think that your child or your class would enjoy participating in the experiment visit the website! It is a simple yet terrific method to get students engaged with science, and it also gets students involved in assisting to solve the issue many countries have retrieving clean drinking water. When Liveris was in grade school he says he became “hooked on the knowledge that chemistry would open the door to innovations that would make the world a better place.” Hopefully, by getting involved with the Global Experiment, more and more students will start to feel this way!
Alan Parker is a blogger based out of New York, NY who writes about alternative energy, green business, sustainability, and climate change.
Follow on Twitter @AGreenParker