Students celebrate National Chemistry Week

Many area high school juniors and seniors (and their teachers) will learn how the elements are an important part of everyday life. They will be conducting hands-on experiments during two Chemistry Nights at Saint Mary’s. Area classes are invited onto campus from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, Oct. 22 and 29.

Chemistry Night, sponsored by the SMU Department of Chemistry and the La Crosse-Winona section of the American Chemical Society, is an annual event designed to help students explore the discipline of chemistry and appreciate the positive role that chemistry plays in our everyday world.

Each year students solve a challenging but fun chemical problem, based on the National Chemistry Week (Oct. 18-24) theme. This year’s theme is “Chemistry — It’s Elemental!”

Students will work in small teams, using wet chemistry and working with chemical instrumentation in the SMU Department of Chemistry, under the guidance of SMU chemistry majors.

Prizes will be awarded to the teams that have the greatest success in solving the chemical problems. Prizes will include SMU scholarships of $2,000 and $1,000.

The event is free, and there are still openings. Students who are interested should have their high school science teachers contact Dr. Roger Kugel at Ext. 1556.