Discovering chemistry

Students at Herring Cove Junior High — Kelly Anderson, May Vanderzwaag, Cassandra Henneberry and Kaylie VanBuskirk — participate in Discover Chemistry Days. (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

Maintaining the attention of young students in a classroom can be difficult, but lots of fire, lights, explosions and colour changing substances certainly helps.

From May 18 to 20, Dal is hosting the first annual Discover Chemistry Days, an event aimed to engage junior high school students in chemistry. Hundreds of junior high students filled the basement classrooms of the chemistry building over the three days.

The students rotated in groups through three different sessions organized by Dal chemistry professor Alan Doucette — Heat-Thermal Energy, CO2-Green Chemistry and a Magic Show.
At the beginning of a CO2-Green Chemistry session, there was a number of gasps and a chorus of “yays” when students were told that they would get to play with dry ice, or frozen carbon dioxide.

“What we showed the students is how (dry ice) changes between its different states,” said Felix Kannemann, a PhD student in chemistry. “It shows the same thing as water and ice, just in a more exciting way.”

Mr. Kannemann placed some dry ice in a device that applies pressure to it. The fascinated students watched as the carbon dioxide bubbled and liquefied when the pressure rose. Mr. Kannemann offered the instrument to a girl, asking if she’d like to release the pressure to see what would happen. She nervously shook her head no, but another student stepped forward to turn the knob. It hissed loudly and the carbon dioxide solidified again, causing the students to ooh and ah. One boy yelled from the back of the group, “That was sick!”

“It's a fun experiment for them to try out and it also teaches them about different states of matter,” explained Mr. Kannemann, 24.

Students arriving from Highland Park Junior High went to the Magic Show session first. Dal chemistry student, Lana Greene was helping to run this one. “The point of this magic show is to show that chemistry seems magical, but we're going to explain all the magic that we do here,” she said.

The Magic Show covered a wide range of chemistry “tricks,” from changing the colour (and molecular composition) of pennies, to burning elements that give off different coloured flames.
Cassandra Lundrigan, a student at Highland Park Junior High, said her favourite part was the light show at the end, when Ms. Greene and another Dal student brought out fluorescent lights and put different household products and chemicals under them. The result was vibrant glowing greens, blues and reds.

Ms. Lundrigan, 15, says she is thinking about being a veterinarian and so is planning to take science classes in the future. She likes science because, “It’s fun and you get to do experiments.”

Discover Chemistry Days was initiated this year after the success of Physics Fun & Discovery Days, which has taken place the past two years. The third annual Physics Fun & Discover Days will take place May 31 until June 4, with more than 500 students from Grades 6 to 12 attending.

This year has also expanded to include Math Fun Days, taking place on May 31 and June 3. It will target older students in Grades 10 to 12.

Theresa Myra, school outreach coordinator for the Faculty of Science, says she hopes to expand the event even more in the coming years to include biology and psychology faculties.

“We're doing it because we want to promote and excite that energy for science at that junior high level,” said Ms. Myra. “For students, I think the biggest highlight is coming to Dal and seeing that it's not that scary. That there's some cool stuff happening.”

“Some of these kids have never been to a university. Some of these kids coming in over the next three days have never been to the city because some of them are coming from outside the metro. So it's exciting to bring them in and let them have some fun and some hands-on learning that's outside the classroom.”