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Chem Club helps Boy Scouts earn badges

By Matt Simko
IV Leader Staff

    Members of the Illinois Valley Community College Chemistry Club came together in the Physical Sciences laboratory for a Feb. 19 seminar to help area Boy Scout members earn merit badges in chemistry.
    The seminar, which consisted of about 15 Chemistry Club members and 25 Boy Scouts, lasted for three hours as the scouts rotated through sessions on different topics in chemistry, advisor Matt Johll said.
    During each session, the Chemistry club members provided demonstrations and explanations of the materials that the scouts had to read before attending the event.
    The sessions covered the majority of foundation chemical subjects, including everything from an introduction to chemistry to physical and analytical chemistry.
    A session on environmental chemistry allowed the scouts to burn sulfur and produce acid rain while a session in biochemistry provided demonstrations of photosynthesis and digestion.
    Scouts also were able to perform an experiment where the individual ink colors were separated from markers, which helped the participants understand how chromatography is a technique used in analytical chemistry.
    Another group of Chemistry Club members created hot air balloons as they explained density and the concepts of physical chemistry.
    At the conclusion of the day, the Boy Scouts were treated to a brief pHun Chem show. This show is a separate program ran by the Chemistry Club aimed at combining education and entertainment through chemical demonstrations in schools.
    The Chemistry Club has been conducting this event since the mid 1990s for scouts wishing to earn the Chemistry Merit Badge, which is one of over 120 merit badges available for scouts to pursue.
    The badges are designed to fulfill the Boy Scouts of America's goal to expand the educational opportunitiesavailable to youth. Topics of study include skill skill related areas such as basketry or archery, academic subjects such as chemistry, and a variety of vocational areas, such as dentistry and journalism. Of the over 1 million badges that have been awarded since the organization's founding in 1911, some 260,000 have been in chemistry. This year's seminar alone hosted junior high to high school-aged Boy Scouts from Princeton, Ottawa, LaSalle-Peru, Mendota and Champaign-Urbana.
    The Chemistry Club is a student-affiliated chapter of the American Chemical Society and has been on campus since 1963.
    Johll said that "The Boy Scout Merit Badge program is one way in which we can further our community outreach goals by encouraging kids to take an interest in chemistry and the sciences. It allows us to take a grassroots approach in developing a positive public image of chemistry.”