Chemistry teacher Robin Taylor was recently named a NIH K-12 LAB Challenge Award Winner for her saponification lab. Saponification is the process of making soap, and NIH described it as a great activity.

Taylor does the lab every year with her CHUM (teamed chemistry and humanities) students, and it allows them to observe what happens in the production of a common household product.

The NIH K-12 LAB Challenge asked science educators to submit their best experiments to become part of an official lab collection that NIH will distribute to teachers across the country for free. Out of 110 submissions, Taylor’s lab was the only one involving soap.

Upon being informed of her award, Taylor was surprised and pleased.

“Well, it was kind of cool when I got the e-mail, since I’d almost forgotten about the challenge.” Taylor said. “Saponification is a really fun and educational lab, and I’m glad that other teachers will be able to do it with their students now.”