The American Chemical Society (ACS) held Game Night in Hayden Lounge on Tuesday, Nov. 14 from 7-9 p.m. There were many prizes, including a periodic table pillowcase, beaker mugs, test tube shot cups, and T-shirts. Pizza, baked goods, soft beverages, and water were served. The first game was Jeopardy! There were five categories: Elements of the Periodic Table, Redox Reactions, Organic Chemistry, Acids & Bases, and Miscellaneous. The questions ranged in difficulty from the element named after the Greek goddess of wisdom (palladium) to balancing complex chemical equations. Students were allowed to form teams of up to four or five people and were told to create team names. A total of six teams competed in the Jeopardy! round. There were no Daily Doubles or witty comments by the moderator in the role of Alex Trebek as there are on the actual show, but there was Final Jeopardy where each team put down its wager. Ultimately it was down to two teams: Permanganate with 2200 points and Scarface with 1800 points. At the end of Final Jeopardy, the team that took home first with the most points was Permanganate with 3700 points. The five members of the team were given their pick of prizes on the table. The second game was Word Scramble. The goal was to create as many words as possible from the elements in one minute. Amazingly, someone managed to create 24 words, a record for the night. The third game was Bingo. Instead of numbers, the squares were elements. Everyone was given one Bingo sheet and it continued until all of the prizes were gone. Overall, it was an entertaining and educational event that delighted everyone involved.
Last year, ACS’s former president and current treasurer, Joshua Ross, came up with the idea to have a Chemistry Game Night. The event was well received and it was a great deal of fun to host, so the ACS decided to host the event again this year. The organization of Game Night was a group effort of everyone on the e-board as well as two members: Elena Malova and Alex Smith. The Vice President of ACS, Charles Homoki, found an awesome set of questions online from Jeopardy Labs, though the Final Jeopardy question was his own. Malova and Smith made Chemistry Bingo possible. ACS President Jordyn Perdon commented: “ACS’s main mission is to make chemistry fun. We realize that there is a stigma surrounding anything related to chemistry and we want to show that chemistry isn’t just stoichiometry and draining exams — chemistry can be exciting and fascinating, which we try to demonstrate through the projects we have at our events.”
The ACS’s next event is Winter Event on Dec. 5 from 7-9 p.m. in EAS 329. ACS has meetings once a month, and the next meeting is Dec. 6 in EAS 329 at 1 p.m.
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