Princeton Section
 
National Chemistry Week 2009 Chemistry is Elemental
 

 

  

CELEBRATE

NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2009

 

Princeton ACS ACTIVITIES NIGHT

 

Frick Laboratory
 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Directions?:  Princeton University Map

 

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009

7:00 - 9:00 PM

National Chemistry Week 2009 Activities Night
Kitty Wagner, NCW Coordinator

Princeton’s Frick Lab was the scene of quite a party on Friday, October 23! Two hundred guests (children ages 5 and up with parents and friends) joined 68 volunteers (19 adults and 49 Princeton High School students) to celebrate Mole Day, Mendeleev, and National Chemistry Week with an evening of demonstrations and hands-on activities. To honor the 140th anniversary of Mendeleev’s periodic table, the theme was “Chemistry: It’s Elemental.”


Guests saw that different elements react in different ways, and that the periodic chart can help predict the ways elements will react. They watched as hydrogen and oxygen became water, sodium and chlorine became salt, sulfuric acid took water from sugar to leave carbon, and excited metal atoms emitted different colors of light. Then they went to the lab to explore properties of elements and the compounds they make. They played games to learn more about elements and how they affect our lives, and they had the opportunity to do 18 different activities. The activities included splitting

 

water into hydrogen and oxygen with a hand-cranked electrical generator, decomposing hydrogen peroxide to  produce oxygen, comparing the reactivity of metals, making a battery that ran a motor, using carbon polymers to make bouncy balls and shrinking art, testing for conductivity, comparing light from different light bulbs, learning about the effect the sizes of atoms can have on the properties of materials, and testing the effect of acid on elements and materials we use for building.

 

All of these activities were made possible by our wonderful volunteers. ACS volunteers included Allen Jones, inventor of “Find the Element,” builder of a magnificent spinning element wheel, and photographer; Louise Lawter, publicist, logistical assistant, and photographer; Thom Caggiano, cryogenics expert (photo 2); Klaus Wagner, polymer expert; Carol Lee, program contributor and teacher extraordinaire; and Indira Prasad, roving scientist. Princeton staff and students included Ginny Sari (lab preparator) and her assistants Alistair, Dan, and Paul, without whose permission and help we could not use the gen chem labs; grads Kate Moore and Julia Kalow, light bulb and L.E.D. experts; grad Chris Bergstrom, potato clock expert; undergrad Michael Perl, cryogenics; and undergrad Sofia Ismailov, polymers.

This year, Princeton High School chemistry teacher Joy Barnes-Johnson inspired a successful NCW collaboration with PHS chemistry teachers and students. Teachers Carol Lee and Janine Miculka joined, and the three trained 49 of their students to oversee stations at activities night. Other students made posters for the stations and built Greek arches out of calcium carbonate tablets for “Monumental Materials”. PHS students included Alice Galligner, Wendell Charles, Nick Wagner, Andy Le, Callie Jahn, David Ko, Chloe Shumaker, Shelby Von, Shirani Vikuntam, Susan Liao, Yael Davidov, Rachel Bergman, Margaret Mattes, Ed Pericarpio, Anna Kaplan, Emily Kalish, Aaron Tauman, John Yuan, Imran Oasir, Elizabeth Urberich, Rachel Wanat,Rachel Klebanov, Lucy Storr, Yana Oganesova, Nida Ahmed, Cythia Steinhardt, Katya Lee, Phil Davis, Jason L., Theron Gebert, Siya Bhatt, Clara Hartmansheim, Sabah Qasir, Aleks Ivanov, Jennifer Baroni, Morgan Caglianone, Sara Sauer, Sharon Lurize, John Barron, Johathan Taratula-Fuis, Allie Raghavan, Ada Chen, Katie Zheng, S. Aadaska, Suja, Clara, and Theresa. (Profuse apologies for the inevitable misspelled names and omissions.) Thanks to everyone for an outstanding job!