Photo courtesy of Auristela Chen

Junior Ethan Zheng presents a check of one mollion dollars to chemistry teacher Garrett Lim.

On Mole Day, chemistry teacher Garrett Lim’s AP class engaged in an extra credit assignment to showcase their creativity.

Moles are a basic measuring unit equal to 6.02 x 10²³. Celebrated annually on October 23, Mole Day commemorates one of the most important aspects of chemistry. The 2023 theme is Sherlock Molmes, and students were allowed to be as creative as they wanted to. 

“The assignment is primarily so that students can have fun with chemistry. It’s like a good day off for my class where the kids can get extra credit, and it’s like a lighter side of things,” Lim said. “It’s fun to see how the students get creative and incorporate chemistry within their projects.”

Mole day is also a way to foster interest in chemistry. It is celebrated around schools throughout the country and provides students the opportunity to compose an inventive project.

“It’s really open ended as they can do whatever they want that is chemistry related. Especially since I do this in my AP class, it’s pretty stressful there so they can work in teams if they wanted to. They really create special things because I’ve enjoyed so many projects over the years of what people have done. People sometimes do creative foods, videos or like dramatic performances,” Lim said.

Particularly in a rigorous class, the project was a way for students to bring up their grades and have a break from learning chemistry. Sophomore Alex Lin composed a melody of various songs and changed each lyric to an array of inside chemistry jokes that related to moles. 

“It was really fun and was a nice change from the hard work that we get everyday in AP Chemistry. I was able to express myself and really let my creative mind drive me to do what I wanted to do,” Lin said. “I felt really proud of the final product. When I presented it in class and it played on the TV, the class and teacher were laughing, so it went well.”

Sophomore Elaine Zhu followed the Sherlock Molmes theme and created a skit that was similar to a murder mystery play. It was filled with chemistry puns that related to moles and played on science related topics.

“It was really fun because we were able to collaborate as a group. We incorporated Mr. Lim’s birthday into the skit and we created characters, cookies and prepared a lot the day before,” Zhu said. “We felt really good after making it because it was really good. It was very relieving to pull through and end up finishing the skit.”