10/23: National Mole Day for you chemists. And a tiny mole day faux pas by us!

So apparently today 10/23 is national "Mole Day" and all the chemist geeks of the world celebrate it. There are websites and competitions and gatherings where these mole lovers congregate.  Here is an explanation from the National Mole Day Foundation.

What Is Mole Day?

Celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.

For a given molecule, one mole is a mass (in grams) whose number is equal to the molar mass of the molecule. For example, the water molecule has an molar mass of 18, therefore one mole of water weighs 18 grams. Similarly, a mole of neon has a molar mass of 20 grams. In general, one mole of any substance contains Avogadro's Number of molecules or atoms of that substance. This relationship was first discovered by Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1858) and he received credit for this after his death.

That is all above my head that's for sure! Jack has a project due today where all the kids in his class had to sew a mole and bring it to class to present..... but first he had to come up with a catchy name for it.

He liked this one (Hulk):

And this one

And this one (Frankenstein)

You get the idea.

So I was thrilled when Jack came to me and asked me to help brainstorm ideas.....and teach him how to sew. His teacher had thankfully given him a pattern to use to cut the material; so we had that going for us. I REALLY liked the idea of "Guac-a-mole" because we had an old green t-shirt that he could have used and we could put him in a chips and dip platter and surrounded him with tortilla chips. Jack nixed the idea. He really wanted to sew the "Incredible Molk" but we had no purple fabric just lying around at 8 pm and he insisted that his mole had to have purple pants. So that idea got cut after using a purple marker on white fabric which didn't look so hot. I wasn't sure how he would be able to sew his mole into looking really buff either so it's better that we didn't have any purple fabric.

I am not a seamstress. I can sew on buttons and maybe hem. I have sadly never used my grandmothers sewing machine that I inherited. I never had home eck (I don't even know how to spell it and after a quick Google search realize it's "ec" for economics!). That being said, I have a tiny stash of old clothes under the sink that I use as rags.  Jack's good eyes could thread the needle and I could tie the knot and he was off. 

So these were the color choices Jack had to work with:

The pattern to use

The feet and the nose

The mole prior to inverting and stuffing

So he chose the blue fabric and Googled "Things that are blue" and considered a "Mole-phin" (Dolphin) and ultimately decided on our favorite blue character from Sesame Street "Cookie Monster".....The Cookie Mole-ster. 

It wasn't until Jack was texting his friend about his project, and spell check didn't alter it, that he started dying laughing! He called me downstairs and said "Mom, how do you spell Cookie Mole-ster?" and I did C.O.O.K.I.E   M.O.L.E.S.T.E.R

OMG!!!! 

But too late to change as he's already sewn and there was tons of other homework to be done!

I can't wait to hear how this goes over in class today when he presents it! :)