Ms. Jamieson Wins Mole Day Contest

November 18, 2021

Science teacher Sarah Jamieson recently won a national competition sponsored by Flinn Scientific. Teachers submitted videos showing how they explain what a mole is. A mole is a unit of measurement, defined as containing exactly 6.02214076 x 1023 elementary entities. 

"The mole is a difficult concept for students because of its abstract nature," Jamieson said. "Being that atoms are so small, we need an incredibly large amount of them in order to do anything meaningful. This large amount is dubbed "the mole" and is equal to 6.022 x 10^23. With the nature of large numbers being inherently hard to comprehend, connecting this value to the atom only adds to the abstractness of the concept."

Jamieson started placing the value on a number line, to connect it to concepts students are already familiar with. She's found the shift in strategy successful in helping students wrap their minds around this abstract concept.

Her explanatory video received the most votes of all those submitted. As the winner of the competition, Jamieson will receive $500 from Flinn Scientific. She's looking forward to using the prize to purchase new lab kits to be used in her classroom.