An open letter from our founder

Dear teachers, school and camp directors, and parents,

On behalf of all our High Touch High Tech scientists across the nation, and around the world, I would like to thank you all for boldly pursuing our science experiences for your students and children.

This has been a very challenging year for us all. Our passionate scientists will continue to inspire our children to become the next generation of scientists that will develop the lifesaving vaccines and medications that have made the end of this pandemic tangible.

The pandemic certainly changed how we engage with your students, driven by our desire to stimulate imagination and curiosity, we took our unique and inspiring programs and pivoted to deliver them as science kits to the students. Our scientist would then lead the science experience adventure by Zoom. While our fun scientists enjoyed the Zoom delivery of our programs, we are all anxious to work with students in person, and watch their faces light up with discovery. While this pivot is working well, we are all looking forward to bringing our hands-on science experiences back into the classroom.

As I have long said, our High Touch High Tech programs can be delivered anywhere learners are and can engage in exciting ways to learn. Because of this we can stimulate young minds, activate new curiosity, and nurture budding imaginations. This has been our approach for the last 29 years. We all have seen that following the science is bringing us out of this pandemic, and sparking curiosity among your students and future scientists assures us the world will continue to become a better place.

Scientifically yours,

Daniel “Dinosaur Dan” Shaw

Founder, High Touch High Tech

The scientist is motivated primarily by curiosity and a desire for truth.

Feature Teacher of the Month

 Feature Teacher: An Interview with Teacher of the Month Chad Johnson

 

Q: Why did you become a teacher?

A: I became a teacher because I had a family member that knew I had experience with kids throughout the years. [This family member] she encouraged me, a long time ago, to pursue education. So, I went back to school and got my certification to be an elementary school teacher.

Q: Do you feel that students get enough science education?

A: Looking across the spectrum I would say probably not. I think [the amount of science education] is school specific. When I first started using High Touch High Tech, I was not in a position that I was teaching science every day.  And to have High Touch High Tech opened me up to the opportunity to get extra work and time with students in the area of science, and I knew that they were teaching the objectives for my state.

Q: Why is science education so important for your students?

A: Science education is important because it’s the way the world is trending. Everything is technology, everything is integrated. Everything that we teachers do, at some level, is technology integrated. Anytime we can get kids into anything science or math related that they can use technology as a part of their education is a win.

Q: When did you schedule your first program with High Touch High Tech?

A: I was doing some research on different field trips I could incorporate with my students with science, I came across High Touch High Tech in the spring of 2014. I made reservations for the fall of that year, and I have been scheduling High Touch High Tech ever since then.

Q: How do you feel your students benefit for High Touch High Tech coming to your class?

A: Everything that High Touch High Tech brings completely matches my objectives for our state, so it was a clear-cut option to bring you to my students.

Q: Why would you recommend High Touch High Tech to other schools?

A: The number one reason why I would recommend High Touch High Tech is because it gives my students a break from the norm. As a teacher in the classroom, they hear me giving them information that they need [on a regular basis]. Having someone new come in, with new materials and fun experiences to addition what we do in the class provides them with a unique opportunity.

 

ScienceMadeFunRDU.net

800.444.4968

A Word From the Principal of the Year- Lauren Evans

 

Lauren Evans from Asheville Primary School was named Principal of the Year. Read what she had to say about High Touch High Tech of WNC.

 

 

 

 

10/8/2019

 

To Whom It May Concern:

Asheville Primary School is a public Montessori that services students PreK-3rd grade. Our educational model promotes student centered practices and hands-on experiences. High Touch and High Tech (HTHT) is an excellent accompaniment to our curriculum. Montessori encourages students to research non-fiction topics that are of interest to them. HTHT supports student interests in science and aligns with NC standards. All of our classrooms have had at least 3 “going-outs” with HTHT. A “going-out” is the Montessori equivalent of a field trip. The scientists have been absolutely amazing. Teachers and students have given very positive feedback regarding their experiences with HTHT. The HTHT scientists demonstrate the ability to be flexible and to meet the needs of each classroom. We have chosen to partner with HTHT again as a result of the consistent positive experiences they have provided our children. HTHT encourages student exploration and problem solving. This is the heart of our program. We are grateful to have a community organization that supports the curiosity of children! I highly recommend HTHT to schools that seek to support rigorous and joyful student-centered experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Touch High Tech

ScienceMadeFunWNC.net

828.984.3192

Thank You!

 

 

We all know that teachers lead hectic lives. Grading papers at every opportunity, developing lesson plans, investing their hearts into their students’ success. Here at High Touch High Tech, we have the opportunity of coming into your classroom to teach your students about science and understand this is no small accomplishment.  We get to inspire, explore, and engage with your students while you get to sit back and watch. That is a small way that we can thank you for all that you do for our children, and next generation.

Every day you are patient, understanding, thoughtful and energetic, even on the toughest days. Thank you!

You buy school supplies with your own money, decorate classrooms with your own supplies and volunteer your time even when there’s no time to spare! Thank you!

You don’t always get to eat lunch. At times you have recess duty, or car rider duty when it’s unpleasant outside. All after a long day, when all you want to do is finally go home. Thank you!

You stay up late grading papers, preparing for tomorrows assignments when just want to go to sleep. Thank you!

Teaching is a commitment to help with the development of your students’ curiosity and interest in learning. High Touch High Tech is also committed in keeping student’s curiosity and interest in learning. Combining those two commitments together is success for a child!

“Without teacher appreciation there can’t be any student progress.” Quote by Theresa Grim.

Thank you for being that Teacher!

Difference Makers

 

Difference Makers

 

At this moment, somewhere around the world there is a High Touch High Tech instructor teaching a group of excited children! They are delivering “hands-on” science programs that encourage fun learning in an innovative way. Providing these types of services brings joy to students, instructors, and faculty. This joy and excitement are why High Tough High Tech so successful today. All educators play a very important role in a developing child’s social and academic life. They are providing knowledge, applicable skills, and guidance to their student’s day in and day out. There is a sense of fulfillment that is associated with making a difference for the better in your students’ lives. We at High Touch High Tech, and all educators, are difference makers.

From kindergarten to medical school, instructors hold a vital role in a student’s academic journey. A teacher is a person who aids in acquiring knowledge, competence, or virtue. They educate on basic academics in various topics and studies around the world, working with students individually or in larger groups. Teachers are often willing to “go the extra” mile to ensure a student’s success.

Teachers serve as important role models, teaching students to be social and productive members of society. They encourage positively and creativity, making it their goal to motivate and inspire students to be interested and invested in their education. Educators help develop valuable skills within a student and actively engage in their academic strengths and weaknesses.

High Touch High Tech is honored and privileged to be an education provider for the last 25 years! We have been able to share this practice and message all around the world. We have been able to assist many learning intuitions, families and students by providing them the opportunity to participate in what we value the most; making a difference in a student’s life by valuing, engaging, and nurturing their academic milestones. Our role in the lives of our students is our greatest contribution to the world.

 

High Touch High Tech

800.444.4968

info@ScienceMadeFun.net

 

 

 

Source: www.pearsonedu.com
Source: pixabay.com

An Interview with Our Founder and CEO: Dinosaur Dan Shaw

 

An Interview with Our Founder and CEO: Dinosaur Dan Shaw

 

We spoke with Dan Shaw to get the scoop on High Touch High Tech’s 25th anniversary.  Dan Shaw lead the industry in STEM education enrichment programming. Dan Shaw has been CEO at High Touch High Tech since the company’s foundation in 1992 and has now been developing franchise locations for 25 marvelous years.

Q: Describe what High Touch High Tech does.

A:  High Touch High Tech pulls the science out of books and puts it into the kids’ hands. High Touch High Tech also does exactly what our name implies; High Touch, grabbing the materials and putting it in their hands, and then High Tech preparing students for our high tech world. High Touch High Tech is also a science experience that comes to you, so teachers, parents, after-school directors, special events. They know that when they hear High Touch High Tech we’re coming to their location to provide a science experience for students.

Q: What lead you to create High Touch High Tech?

A: High Touch High Tech was created because my daughter came home from school one day and asked me if I had any good ideas for a schoolwide carnival that they were having, and what their classroom should do for that carnival. I suggested that we create a hands-on science booth! Where the kids could walk up and do a make and take experiment. Now this was in 1992, and it was pretty groundbreaking! We went there, the teachers absolutely loved it, [and] the kids adored the programs that we provided for them. They were able to understand it, they communicated with me well. I created a naming convention, I called myself Dinosaur Dan, figuring that would be a much more approachable term for them. We did some pretty interesting, sophisticated experiments at that booth. The teachers came up to me and told me that they need me to come back to that school, and they will figure out how to pay me, but what they saw me do they had not seen before. And that was [what I had done] pulling the science out of the textbook and putting it into the children’s hands. That was how HIGH TOUCH HIGH TECH  was born.

Q: Do you feel that High Touch High Tech’s slogan, “Science Experiences that Come to You,” well represents your company?

A: Absolutely. It really speaks to exactly what we do. We bring a hands-on, totally participatory science experience to wherever the location can be. Often times a teacher will ask us “we want to host your program, but our classroom is not big enough because another teacher wants to join us,” or “we need to do it in another room.” So, we tell them that any multipurpose room, a pavilion outside the school, the cafeteria because we truly believe that real learning can take place wherever learners gather and can engage in exciting ways to learn. And that is exactly what we do at High Touch High Tech. Because of how important that phrase is, not only in our marketing, but we trademarked it [the phrase “Science Experiences That Come to You”] so that it can officially represent our brand, at all of our locations all over the world.

Q: The masses know you as Dinosaur Dan, where did Dinosaur Dan come from?

A: Well Dinosaur Dan is a very approachable, rather than being “oh Mr. Shaw I’ve got a question,” it’s “hey, Dinosaur Dan I don’t understand this, help me out.” It reduces any barrier that a child may have to asking a question, so that it’s easy to approach Dinosaur Dan. We’ve adopted this naming protocol for all of our scientists all over the world. You take the first letter of your first name, and you match it to a science concept. We have a Chemistry Carol, we have an Alkaline Alyssa, we have a Terri-dactyl, we have a Tommy Tsunami. So, it’s very, very important that you have a name that it totally approachable for kids.

Q: Why is the work that High Touch High Tech doing so important?

A: The work that High Touch High Tech does is so important because it stimulates kids’ imaginations and curiosity in science. Even more than that, I feel it addresses an achievement gap that is so prevalent in our schools, and it puts the opportunity for every child to get the science into their hands and to explore and discover at their own pace and learn the science on an equal scale that every student does.

Q: High Touch High Tech is all about hands-on education. How do you learn yourself?

A: Totally the same way. I am a total visual learner. And so, in the early years of developing programming, our initial programs, they were tactile. Everything had to be in your hands, visual images were forefront. That how I learn, and that’s how we’ve prepared a generation of children to start learning.

Q: Why do you believe that STEM education is important?

A: Stem education is among the most important because it is, as we know [the abbreviation of STEM], Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. And those are the key fundamentals that kids really need to learn at a young age and continue to build [upon] a foundation in those subjects. STEM education itself builds self-esteem; it builds confidence. Once kids can understand that confidence and what they themselves are able to do, it puts them on a course for success.

Q: How has the market for STEM enrichment programming changed in the 25 years that High Touch High Tech has been in operation?

A: STEM is now a very, very popular term. But we like to say that High Touch High Tech was STEM before STEM was a thing. The market has changed as trends in education have changed from every 5 or 6 years or so. It’s important that we see change. From Science Across the Curriculum in the 90’s, to No Child Left Behind in the early 2000’s. It’s so important to stay on top of these trends, but with all these trends, and the terminology may change, the pure and applied, and fundamental science never changes. And that is how we’ve been able to stay current, stay flexible. Whatever the curriculum directions go we provide that reinforcing, fun science for students.

Q: What does 25 years of High Touch High Tech mean to you?

A: 25 year of High Touch High Tech is 25 years of excitement. 25 years of slime. 25 years of volcano eruptions. 25 years of joy on kids’ faces, of that eureka moment where they actually discover something, not only about their experiment but what they themselves are actually able to achieve. 25 years of panning for gems. 25 years of making earthquakes. 25 years of learning about space. 25 years of going to schools and introducing those new administrators to what High Touch High Tech does. 25 years of doing local fairs and festivals and engaging in the community. 25 years of fabulous.

Q: Why did you become an entrepreneur?

A: I’m sort of an unlikely entrepreneur. I was a scientist; I went to a carnival at my daughter’s school. That is where I first encountered working with children and showing them really cool, fun science experiences. I started talking to teachers there, that’s when that teacher came up to me and told me that “this was incredible, we need have you to come back to our school, we’ll figure out how to get you paid, but we need you to come back. You were able to pull the science out of out of the book and put it into the student’s hands.” That’s kind of the beginning.

Q: Has being the founder of High Touch High Tech developed you as an individual?

A: In so many ways. My level of confidence soared. My level of satisfaction [in life] soared as well. What we’re doing at High Touch High Tech is incredible. We’re really changing lives. There’s no complaint department at High Touch High Tech. Because teachers appreciate it, student love it, appreciate it, and can’t get enough of it. So, it’s very much a win-win relationship between teachers and High Touch High Tech, and between students and High Touch High Tech.

Q: Using one word, how would you describe yourself?

A: Passionate… about science.

Q: What was your background prior to founding High Touch High Tech?

A: I had a research position at the University of Miami. So, I was already doing science with a team. After I went to my daughter’s school carnival, I figured out that was an unlikely career path that was kind of chosen for me. If you go way back into a few chapters of my life, you’d find out that I was a huge science enthusiast. For my 4-year-old birthday party, my mother asked me what kind of cake I wanted. I told her a volcano cake! Science has been a huge part of my life! That meaningful day at that [school] carnival, working with those teachers, really opened my eyes to actual business opportunities beyond science with kids. So, after I did that and it was such a huge success, and [the teachers] they wanted me to return to the school, I want to a library and did my research. Of course, this was before the internet [year 1992], and you couldn’t do any of this research at home. The closest library I went to was actually a law library. I used one of those micro-phish that you could look a lot of stuff up on, while using that and gaining information about national science standards and curriculum’s. I looked up at the books on the shelf, and I saw books on franchise law. So, I took a little break from learning about the curriculum and I pulled out one of those books, and I realized that as I was developing the initial business, I was going to poise the business to become a franchisible.  If it [a business] can work in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, it could work anywhere else in the world.  After two years of proof of concept, we started franchising.

Q: Why did you choose to establish High Touch High Tech as a franchise?

A: The best way to make sure that every child everywhere could experience and benefit from our programming was going to be through individual owned and operated locations. So, franchising was the perfect model for that.

Q: What is the benefit of having franchise locations?

A: That’s the magic here. All the franchisees bring a completely different set of tools, and experiences, and talents to the table. And we discover those during our 5 days of training here at our national office, and we are able to build on that throughout that week of training. Franchisees find out themselves what their strengths are, and what their weaknesses are that they may not have even realized. And we push that all together into talent, and we share with the new franchisees how to take their very specific talents and incorporate it into our business model, which is so flexible. That’s why they become very, very successful themselves.

Q: You even have some international franchise locations, really allowing High Touch High Tech to impact students you wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Would you say you’re proud of that?

A: Oh absolutely, very proud of that. Here in the US, we are a melting pot of so many different cultures. Different cultures have different values, but even when you go and open locations in other countries those cultures there still value will value science, education, and educating their children. It makes for a very easy segway to take our programs overseas.

Q: What are a few of your key accomplishments over the course of High Touch High Tech’s 25 years?

A: My single biggest accomplishment was when we sold our very first franchise, and that was in New Jersey, in Wyckoff Bergen County New Jersey. It meant to me that somebody, that I didn’t know from many states away from where I was, was able to learn about our concept and draw so much interest in it that they contacted me and they were interested in doing it[opening a franchise]. Another big, big accomplishment for me was that faithful day when we brought our High Touch High Tech onto Royal Caribbean Cruise ships. It was in 1998 when I approached Royal Caribbean and they were seeking out, [had] a desire educational, fun experiences for children that were in the youth programming on the ship. Our science programming was perfect for that because it’s super fun for kids, and it’s valued by parents. So, if the parents are sunbathing on the deck, if they’re off on an island, if they’re in the casino, if they’re at a show, they know that their children are not only having fun, but they’re being educated as well.

Q: Describe your partnership and relationship with Royal Caribbean Cruises.

A: Our partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises is now in its 22nd year. It was one of the most significant achievements of my career. It was our opportunity to take our highly successfully programs that were deep in the classroom of elementary students nationwide and we were able to move forward with Royal Caribbean Cruises and introduce our brand of programming to the general consumer population. That has proven to be a very, very successful partnership with Royal Caribbean. Since our beginning with them in 1998 through today, the last 8 ships that they’ve come out with they have set up a science lab. Because on a cruise ship, every square inch is designed to be revenue generating. For a cruise line to dedicate space for our brand of hands on science, which is capturing the imagination and curiosity, fueling that imagination with children that are on vacation. And we developed family programs, so that families as a whole could participate in science programming has been extremely successful. I see our partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruises continuing to grow.

Q: Where do see High Touch High Tech in 5- or 10-years’ time?

A: I believe that we’re going to continue to grow. We’re on a beautiful growth trajectory, both domestically and internationally. I see our growth because I’m interested in [making sure] that every child, everywhere can experience our programming. Beyond the child [out] there are entrepreneurs that are looking to change their career or have a second shot at perhaps their dream of owning their own business. Our concept works perfectly for that individual, no matter what skill set they bring. We are able form and mold our franchise concept to meet their strengths and improve upon their weaknesses so that they can have the dream of owning their own business. [Even] Beyond that it’s not only owning your own business, but a business that is changing lives and that’s what we do at High Touch High Tech. So it see that as our definite growth trajectory as we always are very excited as new technologies emerge, and new trends in education emerge, we like to stay on the forefront of that so we can produce the materials to assist the teachers in those classrooms to make science meaningful and memorable to young students.

Q: Would you say you’re excited for the future of High Touch High Tech?

A: Oh absolutely, very excited.

Q: What does success look like to you?

A: Success to me is the satisfaction of seeing students inspired in science and striving to conquer new concepts. Building excitement in children. And also, success for me is seeing our franchisees develop their territories and grow their territories and have the satisfaction of making money from our business [model] and growing and being satisfied with that level of income and ambition. Some of our franchisees have raised their families through High Touch High Tech, [having] weddings for their children. So, it’s been a wonderful experience seeing our franchisees being successful, from a financial point of view, and of course being successful from our business model, which is putting the students’ experiments into their hands.

Q: What has been your secret to success?

A: The secret of my success has been drawing inspiration from our franchisees, because watching them in the field, doing what we taught them from our national office, and seeing their impact on the community, seeing their impact with students. Watching their territory base grow, reading all the testimonials from teachers from their location, is very deeply satisfying for me. And just shows the entire concept being the correct model so we can expand quickly and that our programming can touch the lives of just so many children everywhere. We’re able to be a cheerleader to our franchisees and supporting them, drawing inspiration from the great work that they do is a key success factor.

Q: Who is an influential person that you admire?

A: That person is Neil deGrasse Tyson for sure. He’s amazing, and he inspires everybody to reach for the stars, learn things you never knew you never knew. I just love the guy and think he’s amazing.

Q: What is the best advice you could give a new business owner?

A: Believe in yourself. Maintain high ethics, maintain high quality of whatever product or service that you’re providing. But believe in yourself, have confidence to deliver whatever it is or what you’re trying to do.

 

From the Field

“From the Field”

Summer Science

Hemlock Hayden, High Touch High Tech of WNC

As a new Scientist to High Touch High Tech, having the opportunity of engaging and inspiring young minds to think about and get excited about science has been a very new, yet extremely rewarding experience. Not just doing fun experiments themselves but seeing the faces of the students light up just when seeing us enter the building gets me excited to teach even more!

In one particular case this summer, I had the opportunity to go to Emmanuel Lutheran’s Summer Rocks! Camp every day for a full week. Starting off, the kids seemed disheartened that they were going to have to learn more outside of school and during a summer camp, but once we started off with explaining all the cool things scientists do and performing a WOW! experiment, they instantly became engaged and wanted to learn more. After that first visit, the students lit up with excitement, yelling “Yay! Science time!” when I would walk through the door.

 From doing actual chemical reactions to make chalk and slime in programs like “Mystery Science”, to physics and engineering programs dealing with robots and rocket flight in programs like “Flight Command”, each experiment engaged the students more and more and pushed them to think harder about how each experiment worked on a scientific level. After each day, a new student would walk up to me, explaining how the experiments of that day were so fun and interesting to them, and that it made them want to pursue that respective branch of science when they were older.

Moments like these are truly the moments that make me love working as a Scientist for High Touch High Tech. Inspiring the next generation to even be just A LITTLE more interested in general science than they would have been, to me, is extremely important in an ever-changing world. Science doesn’t have to be hard, or scary. As long as you have an interest in it, then science is FUN!

High Touch High Tech is…..Science Made FUN!

800.444.4968

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The History Of Sewing Machines

 

Sewing Machines

 

You can trace the origins of sewing all the way back to Central Asia to approximately the year 45,000 BCE. Before sewing, people used strips of furs or animal skins to tie their clothes together, but harsh weather in colder regions caused a search for a better way to keep clothing on. These desperate individuals started by using a sharp stone to pierce a hole in the animal hides, then used their fingers to push thin strips of animal hide through that hole. About 5,000 years after, someone had the idea to put a hole in the tip of this elementary awl so the string could be pulled through with the same motion! Later the first modern needle was invented, most likely carved from bone or ivory, then adapted to cast iron, and finally to sharpened steel needles!

Clothing continued to develop; people began wearing cloth made of yarn instead of animal skins. People began to hand spin yarn using plant, animal, and synthetic fibers into thread, then use this thread to make cloth! After many years of hand spinning yarn, the very first spinning wheel appeared in the 11th century! The spinning wheel was a much more efficient way to spin yarn and became widespread!

Even after the invention of the spinning wheel, making clothing was a lengthy process. It still took a long time to spin the thread, weave the cloth, dye it, and then sew the material into wearable clothing! Each piece of clothing was fitted for a specific person. The women of the family were left the task sewing and mending clothing for their families. When clothing became faded and worn, the cloth would then be re-purposed into quits or other household fabrics!

Making beautiful clothing and fabric became a form of art. Decorative needlework such as embroidery was a highly valued skill, and young women from wealthy families had time to practice and become adept at this delicate task! These women made beautiful tapestries, or a thick fabric decorated with intricate pictures or designs, and they were hung on walls as artwork. Tapestries also served the purpose of keeping the stone floors and walls warmer in the cold winter. Even small tapestries would take several months design and weave, and the larger tapestries could take longer than a year! At the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, there are many tapestries hanging on the walls and decorative sewn carpets on the floors. The home was built back in 1895, and these tapestries and carpets are still on display today!

In the year 1790, Thomas Saint invented the world’s first sewing machine. With the invention of the sewing machine aided by the Industrial Revolution production of textiles left the home and went into factory mills. Huge cotton plantations were located across the southern United States that produced the cotton necessary to make thread, so many of textile mills were established in this area. Cotton needs a long growing season, and the southern climate was prime! The plantations produced so much cotton that the plantation owners were exporting it all over the world! Europe developed their own mills and weaving factories, but cotton crops couldn’t grow successfully due to Europe’s wet climate. Most weaving in Europe was made of a stronger thread called wool, which is collected by shearing sheep! Wars and the Great Depression had an adverse impact on Europe’s ability to produce fabrics.

In 1863, Ebenezer Butterick, an American tailor, and his wife Ellen began to sell tissue paper dress pattern in graded, or sized, patterns. Ellen was frustrated with one sized patterns and wanted a better variety of style and size. They began selling men’s and boy’s clothing patterns, but they were such a huge success that they added women’s and girls clothing patterns in 1866. At the time these patterns cost anywhere from 0.25 to 0.75 cents apiece, which doesn’t seem like much today, but back in these days the average working person made $1 or $2 for a day’s work!

In the early 1900’s, ready to wear fashion became cheap and common. People no longer had to hand-make their clothes and could buy fashionable clothing from the store! Clothing brands, stores, and fashion designers emerged to create and sell this clothing. While many households still have a sewing machine today, it is no longer a necessity to make your families clothing and household materials. Sewing is still seen as art and a form of self-expression today!

Written By: Tammy Ducker
Pic Source: Pixabay.com

~Back to School SPECIALS~

 

2019-2020

 

It is that time of year again, the new school year is starting!

Have you booked your hands-on FUN science program with High Touch High Tech?

Have you checked out our AWESOME Specials?

If you have not, there is still time!

Holy Moley! 5 FUN Facts About Mole Day

Today, October 23 (or 10/23, as it’s written the American way), from 6:02 am to 6:02 pm, is Mole Day. No, it’s not a day for freckles, spies, Mexican sauce, or cute little burrowing mammals. Rather it’s the day to celebrate the chemical unit the “mole.”

What is a mole, you ask, having forgotten high school chemistry. A mole of something is 6.02 x 10^23 of it (kind of like a dozen of eggs is 12 eggs, a mole of eggs is 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 eggs*.)

*okay, technically, it’s 602,214,129,270,000,000,000,000 eggs (give or take a few quintillion – scientists can’t agree on the exact number).

So, with that out of the way, here are 5 fun facts about the mole and Mole Day:

1. The mole is attributed to 18th century Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro, whose full name is Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Queregna e di Cerreto. Man, that’s a long name, but it somehow fits the long number that now bears his name (6.02 x 10^23 is called Avogadro’s Constant). His parents called him Amedeo Carlo Avogadro.

We won’t get into the technical aspects, but in 1811 Avogadro proposed a law (now known as Avogadro’s Law) stating that equal volume of all gasses, at the same temperature and pressure, have the same number of molecules.

As with many scientific accomplishments of that age, Avogadro’s findings were promptly ignored. It took about a hundred years for the scientific community to get around to appreciating what he’s done. In 1909, French chemist and Nobel laureate Jean Baptiste Perrin proposed that quantity of molecules be called “Avogadro’s Constant.”

2. Mole Day was proposed in an article in The Science Teacher in early 1980s. Inspired by the article, Maurice Oehler, a chemistry teacher (now retired) in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, created the National Mole Day Foundation in 1991.

3. Did you know that the Mole Day has annual themes? Here they are:

1991 The Mole The Merrier
1992 Go For The Mole
1993 Mole Out The Barrel
1994 An Ace in The Mole
1995 Moledi Gras
1996 Molemorial Day
1997 We Dig Chemistry
1998 Ride the Molercoaster
1999 It’s A MOLE World
2000 Celebrate the Molennium
2001 Molar Odyssey
2002 Molar Reflections
2003 Rock ‘n Mole
2004 Pi a la MOLE
2005 Moles-Go-Round
2006 Mole Madness
2007 Secret Agent Double Mole Seven in Moles are Forever
2008 Remember the Alamole
2009 Molar Express
2010 Moles of the Round Table
2011 Molar Eclipse
2012 Animole Kingdom

4. To help you celebrate, here’s the Molemorial Day song by Michael Offutt (that’s the theme of the Mole Day in 1996, when Offutt recorded the song). Actually Offutt created a whole album, titled “Molennium,” filled with songs about the mole.

5. As you can probably guess, a mole (6.02 x 10^23) is a VERY large number. But, what does a mole of moles look like? What if we release a mole of moles onto our planet? xkcd explains:

An eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) weighs about 75 grams, which means a mole of moles weighs (6.022×10^23)×75g≈4.52×10^22kg.

That’s a little over half the mass of our moon.

Mammals are largely water. A kilogram of water takes up a liter of volume, so if the moles weigh 4.52×10^22 kilograms, they take up about 4.52×10^22 liters of volume. You might notice that we’re ignoring the pockets of space between the moles. In a moment, you’ll see why.

The cube root of 4.52×10^22 liters is 3,562 kilometers, which means we’re talking about a sphere with a radius of 2,210 kilometers, or a cube 2,213 miles on each edge. (That’s a neat coincidence I’ve never noticed before—a cubic mile happens to be almost exactly 4/3pi cubic kilometers, so a sphere with a radius of X kilometers has the same volume as a cube that’s X miles on each side.)

If these moles were released onto the Earth’s surface, they’d fill it up to 80 kilometers deep—just about to the (former) edge of space: