The chemistry teachers at De Soto High School recently celebrated Mole Day, a day dedicated to the commemoration of Avogadro’s number, a basic unit of measurement used in chemistry, on Oct. 23.

Chemistry teacher Katherine Welzenbach looks forward to the Mole Day celebration every year. Welzenbach feels that Mole Day gives her a chance to truly be herself which, according to her, is “a complete nerd.”

Welzenbach and fellow chemistry teacher Laura Sixta planned a few festive activities for their students to participate in throughout the whole Mole Day week.

“We wanted to have a punny mole powerpoint, and we also did a build-your-own punny mole activity,” Welzenbach said. “We wanted to dress up like moles. Ideally it would have been fun to have had everyone do a costume contest, but we just couldn’t get enough people involved yet. We’ll get there.”

Although the idea of a costume competition fell through for the teachers, Welzenbach and Sixta still showed their Mole Day spirit by wearing their mole costumes during the entirety of Mole Day.  

The Mole Day activities that Welzenbach and Sixta had planned were mainly meant for enjoyment, but the festivities also served a purpose in the classroom.

“We want to generate interest in chemistry,” Welzenbach said. “We want people to be excited about chemistry, and this is one way that we can advertise to other students, like freshmen, to come take it next year.”

Many students who are currently taking a chemistry class also felt that they gained something from the various mole related activities.

“I thought that the activities that Mrs. Welzenbach did for Mole Day allowed students to learn a more difficult concept in a fun and creative way,” said sophomore chemistry student Bailey Laplante. “I also thought that the fact that she was so involved in the concept of celebrating moles with her costume and her awful, yet somehow funny, mole puns made the concept of learning more fun.”

Welzenbach and Sixta are excited about future Mole Day activities, and plan to continue to celebrate the holiday in future years.

“Next year we want to get more people to get excited about dressing up like a mole, and whatever the theme is for chemistry week, we are going to try to incorporate it,” Welzenbach said. “Baby steps. We’ll get there.”