The Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry is hosting its 5th Annual Chem-O-Ween celebration in Williams Hall and the Integrated Sciences Building from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24.
The event will commemorate the end of National Chemistry Week. In addition to being a Halloween celebration, it will also celebrate Mole Day, an unofficial holiday honoring Avogadro’s number, a fundamental unit used in chemistry.
“We’re going a lot larger from everything [we’ve done] in the past,” said Zach Boggs, senior academic laboratory manager in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “We’ve also introduced hands-on demos for the first time, so the students that attend won’t just be watching demos. They have the opportunity to participate in some.”
Boggs describes the concept of “demos” as “a theater [meets] science.” Essentially, demos are large-scale public displays involving explosions, fire or the freezing of an object. The objective is to entertain and intrigue people in a similar vein to how a play entertains their audience. They are essentially a medium of the performing arts conducted through scientific means. Demos, or demonstrations, typically have a high level of risk and require experience from the person conducting the experiment.
In years past, attendees would not be able to participate in demos themselves. But Friday, Oct. 24 attendees will have the opportunity to participate in demonstrations with the assistance of a student worker.
Chem-O-Ween organizers start planning the celebration in early summer, where they vaguely shape the concept of the event. It will begin with a few scripted activities designed for the audience to watch before jumping into All Hallows’ Eve Trivia and a costume contest. At 6:20 p.m., attendees will get the chance to participate in demos, which will run throughout the course of the evening.
These demos include making slime, elephant toothpaste and learning how to light one’s hand on fire, which will be supervised by student workers at the event. The event will close at 8:00 p.m. with a brand-new finale worthy of Chem-O-Ween’s 5th anniversary.
“It takes just about the whole summer and really up until like a few weeks before to get everything concrete, rehearsed, everything like that,” said Grace Dorfi, a junior biology student who is an organizer for this year’s event.
Student organizers for Chem-O-Ween spend the entire week leading up to the event rehearsing and practicing through the event to ensure that everything runs smoothly. According to Boggs, it is actually the theater portion of the event that takes the most time to perfect rather than the teased large-scale demonstrations promised for Oct. 24.
“It’s more like a theater production, or like a show kind of, introducing not all the nitty-gritty science stuff about it, but making the transition between that and the fun side of it. This is, you know, everything to look forward to,” Dorfi said.
Boggs also characterized the show as a gateway for people to learn and appreciate science more through an opening event filled with jokes that will leave the audience wanting more. Attendees who are not in a chemistry or biochemistry field will also have the chance to join in on the fun and explore the wonders of science.
“If you name a major, we probably have someone attending [from it] at this point. We have record interest, and probably we are going to top over a hundred, which is larger than it’s ever been,” Boggs said.
Additionally, Boggs hopes that attendees will take away the fact that science is more than just complicated calculations and experiments, but can also be a genuinely good time. Chem-O-Ween will also offer the chance for attendees to receive prizes and candy for their participation in the event and to take home a mole in honor of Mole Day.
“I know that all of us as a team, the stockroom, we have grown a lot closer with spending a lot of time with each other working in rehearsals, finding out where everybody’s part is in everything,” Dorfi said. “I’ve never planned an event like this before. I’ve never been on that side of things. It definitely allows me to have a different perspective on the department and all of the moving pieces it takes to make an event to get people involved.”
Chem-O-Ween is open to all students, and attendees must register to get in. The registration form includes further details about this year’s event.
“It’s mainly trying to get people interested in science. That’s the main thing that events that I work on are for. I’ve been doing Chem-O-Ween for a while. We do a freshman orientation where we do break-out demos as well, … so, it’s kind of playing into that, but with a Halloween theme to it. And who can do Halloween better than the chemistry department,” Boggs said.
Ava Dunn is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
