The South Central Missouri local section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will host an event at Missouri S&T this October to celebrate National Chemistry Week.

The event will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, in Schrenk Hall on the Missouri S&T campus, located at 400 W. 11th St. in Rolla. This year’s theme is “Chemistry is Out of this World,” and will feature several activities and experiments focusing on outer space and chemistry’s role in space exploration.

The activities, held from 1 to 3 p.m., include a research open house featuring lab tours by chemistry department faculty, participant-focused hands-on experiments led by Missouri S&T’s ACS student chapter and an exhibition of the Mars Rover Design Team’s recent rover. The event will culminate with a chemistry demonstration show, which will take place at 3 p.m. The events are free and open to the public. Experiments are geared towards fourth- through eighth-grade students.

“One of the society’s and S&T’s goals is to keep students at this age interested in science and other STEM fields,” says Dr. Garry Grubbs II, assistant professor of chemistry at Missouri S&T. “This family-oriented event and week is a good way to demonstrate science to them while also providing some fun for the community.”

For more information about the open house, contact Dr. Laura Grubbs, National Chemistry Week coordinator, at lgrubbs@brewerscience.com.