Campers started the week off with a short intro to chemistry. Once they understood what an atom was, they got to make their own! Later, Campers made a bubbling density concoction. They saw how vinegar was less dense than corn syrup and thus did not interact with the baking soda at the bottom. However, when vinegar was pipetted to the bottom, it made bubbles that rose to the top!
They also expanded marshmallows and other objects by using an air-tight vacuum!
On Tuesday, campers learned about acids and bases. They started the day watching a show in the planetarium exploring atoms and molecules. Then they experimented with cabbage juice to test house hold solutions to see if they were acidic or basic.
Using crushed up bugs, campers made different colored book marks by adding different solutions to the bugs.
On Wednesday, camper learned all about polymers. They used a thermoplastic polymer, a plastic that changes its properties when heated and cooled. Plus, they can be heated over and over again and will still change shape!
They also made slime! Slime is a non-Newtonian liquid which means sometimes it acts like a liquid and sometimes it acts like a solid. It’s a polymer just like the plastic they played with before which means it’s made of long chains of molecules that are composed of repeating units.
On Thursday, campers learned the difference between chemical and physical reactions. Using dry ice and bubbles, campers were able to hold bubbles filled with a cloudy gas!
They also raced vinegar and baking soda powered boats!
On our last day of chemistry camp, campers explored food chemistry! By heating up milk and adding vinegar, campers were able to create a rubbery blob that could be molded into any shape! When milk and an acid are mixed together, the milk separates into a liquid and a solid.
We also explored viscosity with pop-rocks and looked at all the colors in a black jelly bean!
They also added Mentos to coke and watched it explode! Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface (called nucleation sites). When dropped into the soda, bubbles form al over the surface of the candy. When all the gas is released, it pushes all the liquid up and out of the bottle.
