Last Friday was the first ACS Club meeting we held for this school year. As previously mentioned from the club booth post, I had been excited by the number of people that had displayed some interest in joining our club. Our previous club members also expressed that they were very excited for the newly affiliated members. We decided to hold an introductory meeting for our first meeting and conduct a simple experiment about paper chromatography.

Because multiple clubs were being run simultaneously, there was a limit to the number of people available for our club. However, it was extremely exhilarating to see numerous people show up at the Chemistry Lab on Friday. We had TEN people!! TEN!

I did hear a few of the previous club members clap their hands of excitement. We all introduced ourselves to the club members, and it was nice to see how engaging everyone was. After introduction, we immediately conducted the paper chromatography experiment.

Paper Chromatography Experiment

Purpose: This experiment enables one to observe the different ingredients and densities of each ingredient based on how much a certain color travels up a piece of paper based on following water’s capillary action.

Materials:

• Narrow strips of paper towels or filter paper
• Felt tip markers (best if have variety of colors)
• Beaker
• Water
• Chopsticks/pencils
• tape

Procedure:

1. Skim with your eyes to see how far up you would like to hang your tissue paper above your water. The end of the paper must be in direct contact with the surface of the water in the beaker later on.
2. Once you have a general idea of the ideal height you would like to place the paper, stick the other end of the paper (the side not facing the water) to a horizontally-laid chopstick or pencil.
3. Then, prepare a beaker and pour water until it meets the level you would like to hang your paper.
4. Then, draw a horizontal line on your paper about 1cm above the end of the paper in contact with the water.
5. Draw a few dots with various colored markers on the line you drew.
6. Then, place the pencil or chopstick with the paper stuck on it on the rim of the beaker.
7. Watch how the colors travel up!

This was a relatively simple experiment, but we could hear gasps of surprise echo in the lab, which made me feel quite proud for coming up with the experiment idea with the executives.

We also established an APIS ACS instagram page – @apisacschem on instagram!

We also elected our directors for this year:

• Director of Publicity
  • Yeonsue – uploading & caption writing
  • Yunha – picture design
• Director of Video production
  • have not decided yet
• Director of Design
  • Wanru – will be designing advertisement posters and thumbnails for our Youtube videos.

+ We also have a new secretary – Ansley! I was so thankful that she immediately knew what to do last Friday (how she automatically filled out attendance – thank you so much!!)

These are some of the pictures from last Friday!

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I was so proud of Won again. Not only was I amazed at his preparation for last meeting (he had prepared his slides without much reminder), but I was also amazed at the change in his attitude. He went from a passive and usually, very forgetful member to an extremely responsible member. He had asked me to tell him whenever we had a new experiment coming up so he could prepare the materials for it.

Also, I’m not sure whether I mentioned this previously, but I was so proud when during class discussions about dream occupations and vocations, Won had stated that he wanted to become a Chemistry teacher.

I know it’s obvious that club executives and members should be responsible and enthusiastic about their club, but seeing this big of a change occurring in a member who initially wasn’t as passionate and responsible as he is now evokes a lot of emotion in me. I’m proud of him 😀

– Joanna Kim, September 15th, 2021, 9:15PM KST –