To most, Oct. 23 is just another day. But to chemistry students, it’s much more than that – it’s mole day.

A mole is a SI unit that measures the number of particles in a substance used in chemistry equations, and it’s measured by Avogadro’s number, 6.02 x 1023.  Therefore, on Oct. 23 – 10/23 – chemistry teachers like Kurt Hodge and Allie Long like to make a holiday out of the number, thus mole day is born.

Students make mole themed projects, usually some sort of pun, which they get to present on mole day. Sophomore Blake Helton decided to make a traffic mole, which was a mole taped to a traffic cone.

However, some decide to take a culinary route. For her project, junior Lily Murdock, a student in Long’s chemistry class, made mole-ten lava cupcakes, which were chocolate cupcakes decorated as moles with caramel inside.

“Mole day was a super fun, chill day…some [projects] were edible, like cupcakes and cookies, so we got to have a mini party,” Murdock said.

This tradition isn’t unique to South. Students across our area and nation celebrate this day. Some teachers even ask their students to be at school at 6:02 a.m. to celebrate even more precisely. No matter how it’s celebrated, it’s always a fun day for teachers and student alike.

“[Hodge] was very excited, very happy,” sophomore Brynn Rucker, a student in Hodge’s honors chemistry class, said. “It’s a very big deal to him.”