SEHS Extracurricular Spotlight: Chemistry Club!

The start of a new school year at St. Edward means the creation and continuation of a variety of extracurricular activities. In this extracurricular spotlight, we will look at the newly formed Chemistry Club, which meets every community period (11:55 – 12:50) C. 

For most students, Chemistry is typically taken as a class at St. Edward in a student’s sophomore year, with the option for Honors Chemistry for particularly interested students. From there, students can continue their interest in their junior or senior year by taking IB HL Chemistry or AP Chemistry. Chemistry Club allows students to go even further in their interest in chemistry with additional experiments and learning opportunities with Chemistry teacher and Chemistry Club moderator Mrs. Lavelle. 

I met with one of Chemistry Club’s founders, Sam Richardson, to discuss what students could expect from Chemistry Club. 

Why form Chemistry Club? 

Sam Richardson: While Science Olympiad allows students interested in chemistry to partially fulfill their interests in chemistry, I felt as if it was not enough. Students should be able to experiment more freely, and enjoy chemistry within a chemistry-only context, and that was where Chemistry Club came from.

What are the plans for a Chemistry Club meeting? 

SR: Each meeting, we will either experiment or plan a future Chemistry Club event. For the first two meetings of the year, we planned and tested labs we hope to do at Open House this year. One experiment was an antacid rainbow, which we tested before its eventual use during the open houses. At future meetings, we hope to test experiments that can be used for educational as well as entertainment purposes, sometimes both. 

What are some goals for Chemistry Club? 

SR: The goal of Chemistry Club is to create interest in Chemistry among students at Saint Edward who want to see more experimental chemistry, rather than just the analytical chemistry seen in Chemistry class, which can be daunting for some students. Also, Chemistry Club aims to compete in the Chemistry Olympiad. Lastly, Chemistry Club will do demos around the area at many grade schools.

Come to meeting, every Community Period C!