The Francis Marion University Chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will be hosting events in honor of the 2011 National Chemistry Week, Oct. 16-22.

The 2011 national theme is “Chemistry—Our  Health, Our Future!” In honor of this, a health instructor from McLeod Hospital will lead a Zumba class on Monday, Oct. 17 and Tuesday, Oct. 18 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For those who participate, there will be door prizes, including ACS water bottles and three gift cards to the McLeod Spa and Massage.

The club will also organize health screenings on Thursday, Oct. 20.

They will be working with Dr. Paul DeMarco calculating student’s body mass index, blood glucose level, cholesterol level and blood pressure.

They will then explain to the students the difference between HDL, LDL, triglycerides and how the lipid/glucose colorimetric notifies students of their health condition.

The FMU chapter of the ACS has received national recognition for outstanding performance for 2010-2011 and will be receiving a plaque in March during the National American Chemical Society Conference.

Recently, this chapter has hosted a hotdog social and a kayaking trip with a cook out follow up.

Later this month, the FMU ACS will be taking 20 students to the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society Conference in Richmond, Va. This will be the largest number of students to attend the conference in the history of the chemistry club.