National Chemistry Day 2014!

A few weeks back I had the pleasure to attend a free event at the Fernbank Science Center  for National Chemistry Week. It was an awesome event. The theme was straight out of a Ronald Dahl book. It was Candy Chemistry. Every booth had a delicious treat involved. I really loved the opportunity to network with the various vendors and event sponsors. It was a great opportunity to find out about other community S.T.E.M events. My oldest was really excited when she saw her #1 college pick Spelman College there. They had some awesome ladies from the chemistry department helping out at the booth. So of course we took that as an opportunity to chat them up about there experiences on campus and the type of work they are involved with as a Spelman students. It was a good thing to because Mecca the Great was intending to major in biology and transferring to a school for nursing so she can become a nurse midwife. At the time we look into it Spelman they didn't offer nursing. But the ladies at the event informed us that Spelman has now partnered with Emory University and are now offering nursing as a major. She also told us about the scholarship funds available to students who dual major in a technological field. The ladies also gave her tips on how to stand out as an applicant when its time for her apply. They gave us great advice and insight and it was just more affirmation that Spelman should remain at the top of her list. 

One of the booths had a guessing game where you had to guess the mass of the amount of M&M's in a jar. They gave us a mathematical equation that they showed us how to work to come to an answer. It was fun and of course they got a fun size bag of M&M's to walk away with as a reward. There was an experiment on density where they got to make a rainbow in a test tube using sugar water with food coloring. Of course they had some experiments that involved Pop Rocks and Soda. Now that was a trip down memory lane for me and it was a totally new experience for the kids because they had never even heard of Pop Rocks. Talk about feeling old. They also got to build a molecule with tooth picks and spice drops. I laughed when I saw it cause we did that experiment last year during a chemistry unit study. I like when I go out and see some of the stuff that we do at home is on track with what others in the education community find appropriate for that age. I have actually gotten a lot of great ideas for lesson plans from attending my local community S.T.E.M events. There are usually some great take home pamphlets and worksheets at the booths. I left this particular event with a  candy chemistry activity booklet that we used for extension exercises later in the week. Now the highlight of the day for all the kids was of course the cotton candy machine. Talk about a sticky blue mess. There is nothing more scientifically exciting than spun sugar.