Celebrating CCEW 2025 with AACT Teaching Resources

To promote the positive role that chemistry plays in the world, ACS established the Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) public awareness campaign. During CCEW, ACS members and chemistry enthusiasts celebrate by coordinating events and communicating the importance of chemistry.

The 2025 CCEW theme is "Glaciers: Hot Topic, Cool Chemistry!" During the week of April 20-26, celebrate this theme with your students using teaching resources from AACT! In the list below, you'll find two new glacier-themed resources developed by AACT, as well as a number of other resources and articles from the resource library that relate to the theme.

New Resources:

• What Can We Learn From Glaciers?: This resource explores what types of information about Earth's climate history can be revealed by ice cores recovered from glaciers. It highlights the use of radioisotopes (specifically Kr-81) in determining the ages of ice samples.
• Molecular Structure in Glacier Formation: Students use magnetic water molecule models in this activity to examine how snow compresses into glacial ice over time. Students will make connections between density, distance between molecules, and the life of the glacier.

High School Resources:

• Demonstration: Saturated Solutions: An Engagement Activity
• Project: Thermochemistry Infographic

Elementary and Middle School Resources:

• Demonstration: Introduction to Solutions
• Lesson Plan: Investigating Water’s States of Matter

ChemMatters Articles:

• Global Climate Change: A Reality Check
• Kilimanjaro: Peering Through Disappearing Ice
• Project Yukon: Thawing Out the Facts

More Earth Day Content:

• Visit the Educational Resources section of the CCEW website to find many more engaging glacier-related activities for K-12 students!
• And for more resources to help discover the many types of chemistry taking place on our wonderful planet (not just its glaciers), check out this news post for additional AACT resources to celebrate Earth Day!