As a student affiliate chapter of the American Chemical Society (SAACS), our club participates in certain activities each year that ACS coordinates. These activities include: National Chemistry Week, "Chemvention" Contest, Earth Day, and ACS National Meetings and Conferences. Each year we submit an annual report to the American Chemical Society and receive awards based on our activities.

The American Chemical Society selects a theme for National Chemistry Week each year so that the many applications of chemistry can be celebrated. The chemistry club utilizes National Chemistry Week as an opportunity to reach out to the community and relay the importance of science in daily life. During national chemistry week, UCD SAACS conducts demonstartions at schools, libraries and the Boys and Girls Club of America which incorporate the ACS theme. An outreach event is held at the Auraria campus that consists of poster sessions, seminars, tables with demonstrations and information as well as educational games with prizes.

In 2005, UCD SAACS celebrated "The Joys of Toys" by doing demonstrations that emphasized the importance of chemistry in the development of toys. We made rockets, bouncing balls, slime, and experimented with a fuel cell car. A poster session on the progression of toys and the utilization of scientific concepts in toys was also presented. Pictures below show making slime and launching "Air Rockets".

In 2004, UCD SAACS held an event to acknowledge "Health and Wellness". A representitive from the health sciences center took blood pressure and provided resources on stress, healthy diet, the spread of diseases, exercise, and other health related issues. Healthy food, such as fresh fruit was provided, while a poster session was held discussing the types of chemicals that are essential to our health. Trivia games were played to test common knowledge of healthy lifestyles and speakers discussed the effects of pollution on health, the toxicity of heavy metals, and the effect of diet on memory. A photo below shows our group at one of the National chemistry week tables:

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Each year during National Chemistry Week, the American Chemical Society holds a number of contests for various age groups. At the undergraduate level, ACS holds a "Chemvention" contest. A theme is chosen each year for National Chemistry Week, and within that theme, a specific challenge is designated and undergraduate students compete to find a solution. The top five projects submitted to ACS are asked to attend the National Meeting and present to present their resolution to the original challenge. A winner is then awarded during the National Meeting Awards Ceremony.

In 2005, the National Chemistry Week theme was "The Joys of Toys". The "Chemvention" challenge for this theme was to design a toy. UCD SAACS strove to design a toy that was not only fun, but one that inspired the user to learn more about chemistry while emphasizing earth friendly practices. The toy that was developed to meet these criteria was the "Reaction Rocket". The rocket is powered by chemical reactions that evolve gas, such as the neutralization reaction between vinegar (or lemon juice) with baking soda. The gas causes pressure to build up within a reaction chamber that results in launching the rocket. The toy encourages the user to experiment with various household reactants to compare different types of reactions. The utilization of household items not only makes experimenting easy and safe, but is also earth friendly.

In 2004, the National Chemistry Week theme was "Health and Wellness". The "Chemvention" challenge was to design a protocol for determining the concentration of albumin, a protein, in egg whites. Our protocol involved reacting the protein with a coomassie stain that turns a deep blue color. The intensity of this color is proportional to the amount of protein present in the egg white. The intensity was determined by measuring the absorbance and transmittance of varying known concentrations of albumin using a Spec 20 spectrophotometer. A calibration curve was created plotting the known concentrations against the absorbance. This curve allows a sample of unknown albumin concentration to be measured so the absorbance can be compared in order to determine the unknown concentration. This project was within the top five finalists in the nation, and our group presented our submission at a poster session during the ACS National Meeting in San Diego (photos below).

UCD SAACS is an environmentally oriented organization that has always encouraged earth friendly practices. In April 2004, our club became a "Green Chemistry" Club, which advanced our advocacy of recycling, preserving resources, and utilizing renewable energy. On Earth Day, UCD SAACS holds a special community outreach event to raise awareness on the importance of earth friendly practices. This event consists of speakers, poster presentations, games, and informational packets on recycling, preserving resources, and using renewable energy.

Earth day 2004, was the intiation of our annual recycling campaign. Our members pass our our annual Earth Day Packet around Auraria Campus in Denver, which consists of three higher education schools (University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College, and Community College of Denver). Within this packet is the "Chem Club Challenge" in which we challenge the entire campus to recycle glass, aluminum, tin, plastic, and paper for exactly one month and then report back to our club how many bags they recycled. In 2004, 76 trash bags of recyclalbes resulted from this campaign.

Earth day 2005 encompassed the American Chemical Society theme of "Air - Here, There, Everywhere!" An outreach event was held on the Auraria campus consisting of informational packets, a poster session about Green Chemistry, speakers on the effects of air pollution on health, and trivia questions over our Earth Day packet won many people prizes! Another very popular game was: "Guess the Number of Butts in Beaker" in which we cleaned up 1118 cigarratte butts from outside the door of one campus building and placed the butts in a 4 liter beaker so that students could guess the number of butts in the beaker (see photo above). Those who guessed the number correct within five butts won a kite......as the American Chemical Society designated "Kite Flying" as the unifying earth day activity. We continued our campus-wide recycling campaign this year resulting in a total of 187 trash bags recycled - twice as many as the year before!!!

In March 2005, ten members of our chapter attended the ACS National Meeting in San Diego. This was the first national meeting attended by any of the ten members, and as one can imagine, it was incredible experience. Our group gained professional skills as we presented posters at the undergraduate poster session both for our club, and for individual research on sulfur based amino acids (see photos below). We also participated in the undergraduate "Demo Exchange" by presenting demonstrations that utilize household chemicals (photo below). This was also a very exciting time for our group because we had placed within the top finalists in the nation for the "Chemvention" contest and the winner was to be announced during the awards ceremony.

Our members attended an array of seminars and workshops during the conference. This was an excellent opportunity to gain an understanding of the many fields of research available in chemistry. Some of these field incorporated Geochemistry, Space chemistry, Organic chemistry, Chemistry Education, and Green Chemistry. The facet of Green Chemistry was new to our club at the time, and we were priveleged to attend a seminar given by the founders of the Green Chemistry Institute. This seminar immediately sparked an interest in all of our members and by the end of the conference, we were devoted to becoming a Green Chemistry Club.

In March 2006, our club will be attending the National Meeting in Atlanta to present posters on our club activities, particularly our new program, Resources for Interactive Science Education (RISE), which was started using grant money received from the American Chemical Society. We will also be accepting several awards including "Commendable Chapter" and "Green Chemistry Club".