Chemistry Resources for Gifted Kids
National Chemistry Week is October 19–25. There are some great resources available for students during this week of celebration or anytime during the year. The mission of National Chemistry Week is to reach the public, particularly elementary school children, with positive messages about chemistry. The theme of this year’s National Chemistry Week is Having a Ball with Chemistry. The focus is to show how chemistry plays a big part in all kinds of sports and games.
The education section of the
American Chemical Society Web site has numerous resources for students in kindergarten through graduate school. There also are programs available for educators and scientists. If you look at the bottom of the page, you will see that the site is available in numerous languages. Poke around on the Web site and you will find
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online publications;
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activities, puzzles, and games;
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interviews with chemists from a kid’s point of view (great for learning about potential careers);
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podcasts; and
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information on Project SEED, which is a summer research program for economically disadvantaged students to experience what it’s like to be a chemist.
Rohm and Haas (a company that develops innovative technologies and solutions for the specialty materials industry) and The Franklin Institute (a leader in the field of science and technology learning) have teamed to produce
a set of seven online videos that address the theme of this year’s National Chemistry Week. The videos explain how science has impacted a variety of kids’ favorite sports, like bicycling, snowboarding, hockey, and basketball. The videos show how a combination of physics, chemistry, and materials enable participants’ abilities to improve and also increase safety. This is a great way to see how science is applied to the sports industry. The videos will be available online beginning October 19.
Terrific Science: Empowering Teachers Through Innovation provides a large selection of fun activities to support this year’s National Chemistry Week’s theme of Having a Ball with Chemistry. These include activities about topics such as the Speedo LZR Racer® swimsuit that was the hit of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, impact and puncture testing of sports helmets, the importance of iron in our bodies, the chemistry of heat packs applied to sports injuries, and the effectiveness of sunscreen products.