Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) encourages American Chemical Society (ACS) members and science enthusiasts to build awareness of chemistry at the local level. ACS local sections, schools, businesses, and individuals are invited to organize or participate in events in their communities with a common goal: communicate the positive role that chemistry plays in the world. CCEW occurs annually during the week of Earth Day, which is April 22.
The theme for CCEW 2019 is "Take Note: The Chemistry of Paper."
For more information about Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW), visit the official Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) website. Learn more about:
- how to get involved - look up your local ACS CCEW Coordinator
- discover articles, activities, presentations, and videos aligned to this year's theme
- encourage students to participate in the 2019 Illustrated Poem Contest by hosting a local contest for K-12 graders
- download current and past issues of the kid-friendly, hands-on activity publications for exploring important chemistry topics from the Celebrating Chemistry Archive
- publicity materials
NISE Network Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry kit activities connected to the CCEW theme
This year's theme is "Take Note: The Chemistry of Paper" and is a great opportunity for NISE Network partners to use the Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry kit and reconnect with ACS and chemistry collaborators for CCEW events at your own organizations or in your community. Some specific activities from the kit that connect to the theme are:
- Chemistry is Colorful - hands-on activity that encourages visitors to explore materials through paper chromatography
- Nature of Dye - hands-on activity that allows participants to create their own dyes and art while exploring how chemicals interact, and how these interactions can have real-world applications
- What's in the Water - hands-on activity that lets participants use tools to solve a mystery: what chemicals and compounds are in a sample of water (participants get to use pH strips to test water quality)
- "Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry" Ads, posters, and banners - printable posters poses chemistry questions to visitors such as "What challenges do you want to solve chemistry?"
Additional resources
-
Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry Professional Development and Training Materials; Framework and Strategies Guide - guide focuses on identifying evidence-based design strategies that increase participants’ interest, relevance, and self-efficacy towards learning about chemistry
-
Chem-Attitudes with Dr. Braxton Hazelby facilitation training video - This funny video will help you and your facilitators run activities in a way that encourages participation and positive attitudes towards learning about chemistry.
-
National Chemistry Week resources
http://nisenet.org/national-chemistry-week -
International Year of the Periodic Table resources
http://nisenet.org/events/other/IYPT2019
Other NISE Network related activities
- Exploring Earth: Paper Mountains - By making unique mountain models from crumpled paper, this hands-on activity lets participants explore the way the shape of the land and the pull of gravity influence how water moves over Earth (Explore Science: Earth & Space 2018 toolkit)
- Exploring Materials - Stained Glass Windows - hands-on activity in which visitors use contact paper and colored tissue paper to create a "stained-glass" window (Explore Science: Zoom into Nano 2016 kit)
Other chemistry activities
- The Chemistry of Currency - activity that shows that ferrofluid is used in the manufacturing of ink in US currency (for more about ferrofluid see Exploring Materials - Ferrofluid)
- Red cabbage pH test - activity where participants learn how to use red cabbage to find out if a liquid is an acid or base
- Money to burn - demonstration or experiment which can either be used for fun as part of a public event or in a class to stimulate discussion of the conditions required for combustion (note: demo uses open flame)
