A festive atmosphere was found inside Ramola Langham’s science classroom at Greenville Middle School on Thursday, complete with colorful balloons, pizza and soft drinks and a pretty amazing cupcake creation for dessert.

The occasion? A party for Mole Day, naturally – but not the furry kind that dig in the ground.

“The ‘mole’ is one of the seven base units in the modern form of the metric system, and Mole Day is a holiday chemists celebrate each October 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m,” Langham explained.

“It’s all part of our celebration of National Chemistry Week, with this year’s theme revolving around chemistry in sports.”

The GMS science students learned about everything from shoe anatomy and synthetics in athletics, to the “buzz” on electrolytes and what actually puts the bounce in a ball.

The students enjoying Thursday’s pizza party had earned the privilege, their teacher said.

“These kids have all worked hard and this is their reward,” Langham said.

“They did the research on the science of sports, followed the directions and completed their poster project. That poster was the end product and required them to apply the scientific method (Purpose, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Analysis and Conclusion).

Four students’ efforts earned them honors in the school’s poster contest.

Dakota Hallback received fourth place and an honorable mention; Brandon Duke took third place, Caitlin Brown earned second place and Kierra Frost was the first place winner.

“These four students’ posters are now in competition for state honors in Tuskegee,” Langham said. All students completing the project received a special certificate.

Students got to indulge their sweet tooth with a special cupcake “cake” created by the Wal-Mart Bakery, featuring the colorful cartoon cover of their “Celebrating Chemistry” magazine.

“It’s a fabulous cake and it’s been a fabulous week,” Langham said.