Molie Antoinette takes the cake

When chemistry teacher Kathy Nakamatsu’s students returned to school after February break, her classroom slowly began to fill with a wide variety of moles, each one uniquely themed. These moles were stuffed animals that students sewn and stuffed, to be submitted for competition.

A mole is a unit of measurement for amounts of a chemical substance and, of course, are also small mammals that live in the ground. This competition allowed students to get creative and gain five extra credit lab points.

Two weeks later, on March 13, Nakamatsu announced the best mole from each of her five periods, nominated by the science teachers. Students then narrowed the five moles to one grand winner.

The grand winner, sophomore Casey Takahashi, won a $25 gift card that can be used at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime or Athleta for her mole, “Molie Antoinette.” The four other winners received $10 iTunes gift cards.

When Takahashi was thinking of ways to dress a mole in an extravagant gown, Marie Antoinette, the famous Queen of France during the French Revolution, was the first thing that came to her mind. According to Takahashi, the mole took quite a bit of work in terms of planning.

“I finished the entire thing in four days, but sewing the mole did not take that long,” Takahashi said. “It was the design of the dress and the cake that took a while because I had to figure out how to sew a dress and also how to make it ‘poof’ outward, which I later solved by using a wire hanger.”

Takahashi did not expect to win when she turned in her mole but said it was “a nice surprise.”

“It feels amazing to have won because it's really hard to come up with creative ideas,” Takahashi said. “When Mrs. Nakamatsu was writing the winners [top six nominees] on the board, I was pretty nervous because I had come so close to winning, so I was really relieved that I won.”

From first period, junior Todd Nguyen won with his “Party Animole.” His inspiration came from his friend, junior Eugene Che, who always tells “horrible puns.” According to Nguyen, he had help sewing since he was “incompetent with a thread and needle.”

In second period, junior Evelyn Lee won with her “Ronald McDonmole,” a parody of McDonald’s mascot Ronald Mcdonald. Lee found her inspiration from looking up the letter M online. The most difficult part of this project was the sewing.

“It was definitely one of my greatest achievements in [my] life,” Lee said. “Last year when I was in Chemistry Honors, I saw so many super cool moles that the AP Chemistry students made and I thought to myself, ‘I want to be just like them!’”

Sophomore Ojus Rao won fourth period with her “Moleopoly” idea. According to Rao, her inspiration came while she was playing Monopoly on her iPod touch.

The unique quality of her mole was the fact that it was more than just something to look at. The game was playable and had all the elements of the original Monopoly.

Nakamatsu was ecstatic to see all the new mole ideas. Although some had been done in previous years, the artistic side of her students was brought out through this competition.

“It’s hard to compare with the other years,” said Nakamatsu. “They’re always great! It was neat to see some new ones like Armoledillo and Molechelle Kwan.”