The IYC in Sweden

The planning of the celebration of the Swedish ICY was initiated by a three membered group, representing the Swedish Chemical society, Swedish Plastics & Chemicals Federation, a Swedish branch organisation for the chemical industry and Kemilärarnas Resurscentrum (KRC), a National Resource Center for Swedish chemistry teachers.

However, the formal responsibility for celebrating the Swedish IYC is held by the National Committee of Chemistry, an educational board linked to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Twelve themes, one for each month during the year 2011, were chosen to show the interaction of chemistry with our culture and everyday life. The themes are shown below.

Brainstorming meetings were set up in four cities across Sweden, Stockholm, Lund, Umeå and Gothenburg.
Interested participants from all parts of society attended these meetings in order to find out the best activity ideas. Naturally the ideas varied somewhat between the four meetings, so most probably there will be quite a few regionally organized and adapted activities throughout the year.

The top ten ideas from these meetings were identified, as well as the most frequently outspoken goals that the participants wanted to emphasis during the IYC.
This way of planning has resulted in a Swedish network, where several regional groups, not least the university connected ones, are planning their own activities.

In order to keep track of what is happening in the country we have created a national IYC website with regional contacts and activities. There is also a Facebook site to be involved in.
Activities concerning the Swedish chemistry teachers and schools in Sweden, will also be reported in detail, by KRC’s website.

The 12 chosen themes are
January, Arts and culture (Spring opening of galleries)
February, Fashion (Fashion week)
March, Climate and energy
April, Chemical Industry (Financial reports are launched)
May, The chemistry of Love (It´s a bit later in the Nordic countries)
June, Water and air (Vacation time for schools starts)
July Sustainable development (Main vacation time in Sweden)
August The chemistry of Sports (WC of Athletics in South Corea)
September Communication (Computers, mobiles etc.)
October Health (Allergies, medicines)
November, Food (Natural vs.unnatural)
December, Alfred Nobel and the Nobel prizes

The most important goals to achieve as suggested at the brainstorming meetings were
Create a positive image of chemistry
Inform the general public (incl.politicians and the media) of how society benefits from chemistry
Inform about the diversity of chemistry: environmental chemistry, nano- and biotechnology are all
     about chemistry
Make chemistry excitingly visible - chemistry goes on stage, somehow
Make chemistry fun - for small children, through Friday night amusement, Who wants to be a
     (Chemistry) millionaire?, Marie Curie Day - conference for selected children
Emphasize the contacts between university-secondary-primary school
Involve the media! i.e. TV-short Chemistry News, children´s programs
Give something for everyone- i.e. short popularizing lectures

The top ten ideas
1.   Use existing activities and make chemistry more visible. Coordinate activities regionally
2.   Different calendars, monthly themes,”living experiments”
3.   Competitions - for small children, schools, young people (arts, project works, best film on You tube
      etc.)
4.   Produce videos on the societal and everyday benefits of Chemistry
5.   Politicians as target group. Present a chemist of the day, arrange discussions with them
6.   Popularizing science cafés. City walks-the history if chemistry
7.   More contacts universities-secondary schools-primary schools
8.   Chemistry shows for schools/young people
9.   Children’s programs on TV FB, YT, Twitter
10. Specific items like T-shirts, pins, stickers (i.e. Chemist and proud, Contains chemicals), candies
       with flavors of different isomers

We look forward to celebrating the IYC and hope to enhance the appreciation of chemistry for the general public and to make young people aware of the lifelong excitement and joy that chemistry can bring us.