Chemistry Fun Day at the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga gives UTC students in the Chemistry Club a chance to show young children the fun side of learning chemistry. The children enjoyed several activities, including the The Color Candy Wheel, created by placing five to seven pieces of candy in a white bowl of water.
“In time, the dye and sugar of the candy spread through water forming several sections of unmixed colors, which eventually blend in. This was a perfect opportunity to teach kids chemistry concepts such as solute (dye, sugar), solvent (water), density, concentration, and equilibrium,” explained Dr. Jisook Kim, associate professor of Chemistry.
Shrinking balloons with liquid nitrogen was another crowd pleaser. UTC participants placed many blown balloons into the liquid nitrogen, as cold as -321 degrees Fahrenheit (or colder than the North Pole UTC student, Katherine Adorati explained). As the balloons were shrunk in a dewar container, a vessel which holds liquefied gases, the children were challenged to count the number of balloons the chemists could shrink. As 30 balloons were shrunk into the dewar container, the children learned about gas laws. Despite variations in chemical properties, gases generally respond similarly to pressure, temperature, and the way they fill a space.
Stress balls were created from a liquid starch, and a slime project was also a big hit.
“I overheard nothing but applause and admiration for your group. The experiments you chose were awesome and well received by our guests; thank you for conveying the ‘candy’ theme,” Mr. Lucien Scott, science programming educator for the museum, wrote to Dr. Kim. “If we did not have support from your organization and your students, Chemistry Fun Day would not be possible.”
Participating UTC students included Katherine Adorati, Rebekah Cecil, Kathy Taylor, Derek Anderson, Dylan Bryant, Patrick Carey, Hendrik Greve, David Kotval, EJ Miller, Patrick Zdunek. Dr. Jisook Kim, Dr. Titus Albu, assistant professor of Chemistry, Dr. Han Park, assistant professor of Chemistry, Jim Narramore, faculty associate in the Department of Chemistry, and Sharon Hardy, laboratory apecialist also participated.