The Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Northwestern University are co-hosting a fun kids-oriented chemistry community event on Saturday, October 19th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the TECH Building at Northwestern’s Evanston Campus in Evanston. More information can be found at chicagoacs.org. Admission to the event is free and it is open to all ages and fans of chemistry.

All activities are for children from K - 12. This outreach event is part of the celebration for National Chemistry Week (NCW), occurring from October 20th – October 26th. Everyone is invited to learn about this year’s NCW theme: “Marvelous Metals,” celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table, partake in giveaways, make-n-takes, and many opportunities to do hands on activities surrounding this theme. At 1:30 pm our featured speaker, famous science demonstrator Lee Marek, will give a presentation filled with live demonstrations and video clips of beloved chemistry concepts.There will be over 20 different hands-on activities with some of the activities being make-n-takes to bring home for doing even more science. Explore the wonders of chemistry with easy, hands-on activities including:

· Breaking Steel – exploring how the physical properties of steel are changed by heat treating techniques.

· Crying Tin – exploring the acoustic sound of bending tin.

· Getting the Iron out – seeing how much iron can be found in a variety of cereals.

· Olympic metals – create a gold and silver pennies with concepts of chemistry

· Fruit batteries – create electricity by using simple items found in a home.

· Wonders of metals – explore the uses and how the superelastic shape-memory metal “NiTinol” works.

· Creating light – using simple everyday items, create a handheld flashlight.

· Writing with electricity – create pictures on paper using chemistry and electricity.

The Chicago section is the local section of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The ACS is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.