National Chemistry Week (and more) celebrated

Report from Reni Joseph
Kids and Chemistry co-ordinator

ACS kids division celebrated National Chemistry Week at the Science Center on Thursday, October 27. We participated in the science SPOOKTACULAR event hosted by the Saint Louis Science Center. The hands-on activity was entitled “Making a clear liquid change color, is it magic or science?” Most liquid household goods are colorless. Despite being colorless they have individual properties. By using cabbage juice as an indicator we showed how various household products though colorless have acidic and basic properties. By adding cabbage juice it underwent a color reaction as demonstrated in the various pictures below. The hands-on activity drew a large crowd of kids and parents. About 150 children had an opportunity to perform the experiment while learning about acids and bases in the process. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers, Trang Truong, Michael Barnes-Flaspoler, and Susan Nguyen who volunteered their time from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

ACS kids division also participated in the Fright Fest event at Beaumont Scout Reservation on October 8. Thanks to Lisa Balbes for organizing this event. There were close to 1,000 kids who performed the hands-on slime activity. Thanks to the volunteers, Trang Truong, Kathyrn Holland, Michael Barnes-Flaspoler, Susan Nguyen and Eva Cepele for their hard work in making the Fright Fest event a success.