Thousands of Volunteers Celebrate 10th Anniversary of National Chemistry Week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 1997

Contact:
Ellen Lathem, (202) 872-4443, [email protected]

THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS CELEBRATE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK NOVEMBER 2-8, 1997

Washington, DC -- Thousands of school children and American Chemical Society volunteers across the country will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of National Chemistry Week in their communities through exhibits in local museums, malls and parks, and in displays organized to demonstrate the wonders of chemistry and its impact on our lives.

"As part of National Chemistry Week, we want people to stop and think about 'What has chemistry done for you lately?'", said Michael Kenney, Ph.D. and program manager for National Chemistry Week. "We want people to know that chemistry is all around us and is part of our daily lives," he added.

As part of the anniversary celebration of National Chemistry Week volunteers will participate in a nationwide experiment call Planet Chemistry. Volunteers will collect local water samples from rivers, lakes and streams to determine water hardness -- the first such data compilation on the topic in 40 years. The data will be compiled on the World Wide Web to a create a national map of water hardness. The map is being provided by the GLOBE Program, an international network of students who take daily environmental measures at their schools and report data to scientists on the Internet. You may preview the results of this experiment at www.acs.org/ncw/map.html.

Other activities being coordinated by the thousands of volunteers across the country include:

Nationwide -- A radio public service announcement which will air across the U.S. features Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Chemistry of Basketball - NBA game between the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards is being sponsored by Phillips 66 and the Salt Lake Section of the American Chemical Society.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- The Philadelphia Phantoms, the minor league hockey team, participated in a "Fun With Ice: Really Cool Experiments" day at the Corestates Center.

Balboa Park, San Diego -- volunteers will host the 8th Annual Science Day In the Park.

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National Chemistry Week is a public outreach program of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society representing 152,000 chemists and chemical engineers. For more information about NCW activities in your community, you can visit our web site at www.chemcenter.org.

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