November 28th was the first annual OWL Chemistry Night; hosted and planned by Chemistry teacher, Doctor Praveen Vadapally. The OWL Chemistry Night is a science fair that shows Dr. Vadapally’s general and honors chemistry students their presentations and poster boards over a chemistry related subject of their choosing.  

“Owl chem night is an event that I came up with with the intention to give my OWL chemists a chance to get out of their comfort zone, think, communicate, and enjoy science,” said Dr. Vadapally. 

Dr. Vadapally said he was surprised and shocked to see how well his OWL chemists performed and grew. He set many goals for his students and was glad to see them met. 

 “I really wanted them to learn how to communicate the results that they conducted and the research they conducted,” said Dr. Vadapally. “I want them to scientifically communicate and correlate it to real-life situations.” 

He plans to take what they learned from this project and guide them to the next level; using independent thinking and the scientific approach to solve a problem. 

For students, the OWL Chemistry Night preparation had a few challenges ahead of them. This required balancing their chemistry curriculum while corresponding with preparing for their research. 

 “Planning a time schedule for it was the hardest part, we had to do the unit and the chapter while doing the project,” said Sophomore honors chemistry student Dominique Loveless. 

 Many of the students experienced the problems that came with procrastinating. All of them suggested that next year’s students use their time wisely and not wait until last minute.  

 “Get your stuff done on time. I waited until last minute, and it’s pretty bad,” said Sophomore honors chemistry student Aidan Gibson. 

Students had learned many things from their experiments. From proper time management, to how to do independent research, as well as interesting facts about their subject.  

“It was pretty fun. Getting to learn which antacids were the best was good for me because I use antacids every once in a while,” said Sophomore honors chemistry student Quinn Davidson.  

Others enjoyed the freedom of the project and being able to choose their own research. 

“This project was really independent, we did most of ours at home and we just kind of got to do whatever we wanted,” said Sophomore honors chemistry student Isabell Mayuga. 

Though the first OWL Chemistry Night consisted mostly of showing off the hard research that students conducted, Dr. Vadapally had other intentions for his students. 

“My goal was to bring my students from the third floor to the commons with a smile on their face,” said Dr. Vadapally. “I think I achieved that goal.”