Kyle DeBord’s AP Chemistry and Organic Biochemistry classes traveled to the University of Southern Indiana for the university’s annual Mole Day on October 22.
Every year on Mole Day, USI has a science competition between two to three schools. Each team consisted of three teammates and they competed in three different subjects, with 20 questions in each. Everyone in the audience gets a clicker to play along and answer the questions as well.
“Jeffery Seyler was a big part of the chemistry department and Mole Day,” DeBord said. “He has always had great attendance. After COVID, he passed away from a heart attack and this year was the first year they did Mole Day again. They named it after him.”
USI started the competition, and the audience played along and answered all of the same questions that the competitors did. The audience had clickers, lettered A-I, to pick and choose the answer they thought it was.
“My favorite part was being able to see my classmates participate in a very hard-fought competition about science and other chemistry questions,” junior Amelia Wolsiefer said. “It felt good to get some of the answers right knowing they are college-level questions.”
DeBord took the top three AP Chemistry kids in the class by grade and told them they were the team of the competition. For one of the team members, it was a hard competition.
“It was a bit stressful because a lot of pressure was put on me, but I don’t think I did too bad,” said junior Mark Stunkel, a competitor in the Mole Day competition.
There were a lot of experiments during Mole Day. Two trash cans exploded, a rubber ball and a couple of flowers were frozen and broken.
“I learned a lot during Mole Day,” Wolsiefer said. “We even blew up a trash can, and it went 20 feet high in the sky and hit the ceiling.”
Mole Day offered a lot of experiences to students who visited USI. They only have Mole Day for chemistry classes, but some students want it for more subjects than just that.
“I think it is a good learning experience for certain subjects,” Stunkel said. “Mole Days for other subjects would be good too because it helps to explore options in college and what is offered.”
Gibson Southern High School students have attended Mole Day for more than a decade now and hope to go again next year and in the years to come.
“We have gone to Mole Day for at least ten years,” DeBord said. “Having one-mole day a year makes it special and way more memorable.”
