an afternoon with chemistry: game on!

Subtitle: SERMACS 2019, day 1, NCW event active

What a wonderful afternoon we had!
Did we have busloads of children show up?
Fortunately, we did not.
For the most part, we had a steady number of families, some of whom had seen our ad, some who heard about it on River Street.
That made for a very nice mixture of ages, keeping the day interesting for the volunteers, as they could change their patter to fit each audience at their table.

My thanks to Raven Dean, Chelsea Miller, and Shabrina Jarrell for welcoming one and all at Table 1.
They made sure all participants were given goody bags
to fill, starting with pencils, stickers, and pocket-sized Periodic Tables full of metals, nonmetals, and metalloids!
Plus, they made sure to loan every participant the goggles needed to keep their eyes safe.
(smile)

Once folks had their goody bags started, they were guided to Table 2 to collect their first metal object.
After all, this is in celebration of Marvelous Metals!
At this station, participants received a sealed, aluminum-coated, plastic balloons, which they had to find a way to inflate.
And they did, too, using sodium bicarbonate and citric acid!
That's ordinary baking soda and the tart part of lemon juice!

My thanks to Melina Raymundo, someone else, and Yu Cao for their enthusiasm and joy!
One of them would help smaller participants with breaking the citric acid pouch by taking them to the adjacent walkway, to step on the balloon.
They also demonstrated the reaction which could be heard within the balloon.
What "cool chemistry" that was!
(Get it? Because it was endothermic? LOL!)

Table 3 was sometimes the next station, sometimes the first station folks hit.
There, electrochemistry was the happening thing!
Bright copper was exposed to a cotton swab saturated with sodium chloride, with the aid of a 9-volt battery to allow etching of a design of the participant's choice.
Everyone walked away with a metallic sticker to remember the afternoon of chemistry!

My thanks to Khristal Monroe, Maria Blahove, and Jim Lobue for cheerful encouragement to the participants!
Thanks, also, for perfecting the procedure by using a saturated saltwater that worked most reliably.
That allowed the participants to actually use the cotton swab to easily write and draw on the copper strips.
It helped that they had plenty of samples to show, too!
(smile)

Where to go next?
Well, it varied, dependent upon the group having the hands-on experiences!
I regarded this as the "wet stuff" table... so, naturally, this is where folks picked up the "Saving Savannah's Water" activity books supplied by Laura Walker's office.
That made every station a give-away site to allow chemistry to be shared later, at home, with others.
More spreading the good word of chemistry!

Thank you, Kenayana Thomas and Briana Kinnel, for rocking out at Table 4!
Y'all helped the participants understand density and solubility by using three liquids colored yellow and blue - the colors of the American Chemical Society!
The experimenters even had the chance to identify a mystery liquid based on its behavior.
Very nice!

That brings me to Table 5, the last of the hands-on stations, but with a very nice give-away item: the UV-detecting wristbands!
To make the activity even more fun, the ultraviolet-activated color-changing beads were in a dark bag in a shady location.
That meant the participants could reach in and grab a still-white bead without knowing which of the six colors it would become when exposed on their wristband!

My thanks to Dan Graham and Sabornie Satterjee for keeping this activity light and breezy!
Having these two men staffing the table also made it cool for any fellows who might have been concerned about making 'bracelets' with the bright yellow beads and dark blue stars (again, ACS colors).
"Wristbands" or "armbands", y'all, to encourage everyone to wear sunscreen when the white beads turn purple, green, pale yellow, orange, blue, or pink!

So far, every table has been shown with participants gathered around it.
Why not this one?
Well, Table 6 was the site for the return of the goggles and receipt of the National Chemistry Week issue of "Celebrating Chemistry".
(You can download a copy at this website. You can explore activities for all grades at this site.)
Participants in our event could also receive a sweet treat - a bag of candy - for filling out a short survey.
This close to Halloween, everyone wanted that!

My thanks to this industrious trio!
They are someone, Chan Jenkins, and Robin Tanaka Blitch.
Without them, the goggles would not have been sanitized for the next group of participants.
Without them, the ChemCatchers would not have been folded for easy play, both by those at the event as well as those at SERMACS later today.
Well done, y'all!

All in all, a most successful event!
Most of the folks in this photo were active volunteers, with a few others there to keep up morale.
Four people who should have been included are missing from this photograph snapped by David, though.
Randall Schmidt, who had been helping at Table 5, had to leave early, as did Shabrina Jarrell who worked Table 1.
I missed out on the photo because I was waiting for Jim Lobue, of Table 3, to be able to come over.
All in all, fifteen people kept six tables working like a charm for two hours -
my thanks to them!
My thanks to the folks who came out for an afternoon with chemistry, too!
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to sit for awhile and smile!
Smitty has just brought me and the tote bags home and it's time to relax!
(smile)