October 23 is recognized and celebrated by chemists worldwide as a day of celebration for the unit of measure specific to our field: the mole.  We voted to spend the day doing activities reinforcing the mole concept.  A link to the full list of activities from that day may be found here.

Each of the students were given a wrapped piece of bubblegum and asked to record its mass.  Next, they were asked to chew the gum until they felt all of the sugar had been removed from it.  They then had to find the final mass of the gum, and subtract to calculate the number of grams of sugar that were in the gum.  Finally, they were to convert this mass to moles using the molar mass of sugar and record their value on the whiteboard.  Values varied, and we discussed how chew time and personal preference of sugar removal impacted the number of moles of sugar found in our gum samples.  We discussed if the average value that we calculated, such as 0.00875 mol, was reasonable, based on the gum sample size and the molar mass of sugar.

We had previously assembled samples of elements and compounds and found the number of moles of each sample.  Students were given the name or formula of each compound and were asked to calculate the molar mass of each sample, and then match it to a given number of moles for all of the samples.  Students with correct answers were then entered in a drawing for grab bags of goodies including candy and toys and extra credit points.

We also generated periodic table bingo cards, but were on an abbreviated schedule that day, and ran out of time to play that game.

Students enjoyed a light day, and we felt that each of the above activities reinforced the mole concept.  InTASC standards 3-4-5-7-8 were once again covered in the planning and execution of this day.  It was the first day that I led 6 of the 7 periods of class and I was tired at the end of it.  Knowing the effort that I put into it, and the student outcomes at the end made it well worthwhile.  HLPs 2-3-13 were used to determine the quantity of moles in each activity, and their representations as well.