In order to advertise the concept of moles, an important unit of measurement for large amounts of small things such as atoms, chemistry teacher Michael Clear encouraged students to turn in a drawing involving a pun on “mole.” He hung them up across the room, for all his students to see. “It’s good to have student work hung up, you can see yours and everyone else’s illustrations,” Clear said. “It’s a fun little thing to do, the best ones are hung in the front, and other really, really good ones like potential candidates for the best, are hung in the back.” 

The odd feature he adds to the classroom raises questions every year from new students. “Everyone always asks me: ‘What is [your] obsession with moles?’ because that’s the first thing people see in [the classroom,]” Clear said. “I don’t have an obsession with moles.” To Clear, it’s simply a way of learning and getting knowledge into students’ heads.

“I believe [the collection] started in 2017,” Clear said. He doesn’t clean them out year by year either. Clear estimates five to eight drawings up to be from that first year, including his own. “I’m not going to say which one’s mine, but mine’s up here.”

Students can turn one in whenever they’d like; however, it’s recommended they hand them in around Mole Day, celebrated 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. on Oct. 23, in recognition of the unit of Avogadro’s number: 6.02214076 x 10^23, during National Chemistry Week. National Chemistry Week coincides with Mole Day every year, and  the American Chemical Society provides themes for the week. National Chemistry Week was first celebrated in 1987, by George Pimentel, a former chemistry professor at Berkeley and president of the American Chemical Society.

This strange activity has inspired one student in particular, sophomore Myra Singh, to begin handing one in every class to Clear. “I said that I would start giving moles to Mr. Clear every day after I had to go into that class to make up a test, and I drew a mole on the back of the pass,” Singh said. “[Clear] said ‘Wow, this is impressive,’ and then I said ‘Yeah, I’m going to start giving one every day.’” 

Clear continues to be entertained by Singh’s creativity and originality. “[Singh] has committed, so far, to one [mole] a day, all different in quality, all different in art style,” Clear said. “All very unique, none of them are the same, I still have them all.”

More than one student is humoring the beloved theme, though; mole drawings can be found sprinkling the open whiteboards, along with students’ notes, and in daily speech in the classroom. This fun concept of mole decorations that started as an educational project has tumbled down the pipes of time to form a culture that will live on forever in the hearts of the students.