The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) has enhanced and expanded its “Exploration Clean” online experience to further help teach middle-school students the science and chemistry behind cleaning. New features include:
- A new, interactive surfactant game – "Get the Dirt"
- Updated Science of Soap ebook
- Ingredients reimagined as Characters of the Cleaning Court
This site relaunch is the next step in building educational modules for children describing the science and engineering that goes into cleaning products. The new game provides an interactive and fun way to teach students about the chemistry of the surfactants in detergents.
Surfactants – short for surface active agents – are the workhouse ingredients in detergents and cleaning products. In our new "Get the Dirt" game, a player must match the type of stain with the right surfactant for the job, capturing dirt, grease and soils and lifting them away. There are five levels of this educational game and they get increasingly faster and more difficult.
In addition, a new ebook is available that walks through the history and science behind cleaning as well as the benefits of cleaning products to health and quality of life. It introduces the Cleaning Court, types of cleaning ingredients reimagined as characters in the Kingdom of Clean. This makes it easier and more fun to remember what these ingredients do and why many of them are critical to the cleaning process.
"The basics of soap, detergent and cleaning product chemistry provides an excellent canvas for teaching an appreciation and love of science," said Melissa Grande, ACI Director, Sustainability. "By providing these resources, we hope to inspire the next generation of scientists who may design the innovative, sustainable cleaning products of the future."
ACI encourages parents, educators and kids of all ages to checkout our online STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) resources to better understand the science and chemistry behind everyday cleaning products.
The American Cleaning Institute® (ACI – www.cleaninginstitute.org) is the Home of the U.S. Cleaning Products Industry® and represents the $60 billion U.S. cleaning product supply chain. ACI members include the manufacturers and formulators of soaps, detergents, and general cleaning products used in household, commercial, industrial and institutional settings; companies that supply ingredients and finished packaging for these products; and chemical distributors. ACI serves the growth and innovation of the U.S. cleaning products industry by advancing the health and quality of life of people and protecting our planet. ACI achieves this through a continuous commitment to sound science and being a credible voice for the cleaning products industry.