- Is chemistry gumdrops and toothpick models? Yes!
- Is chemistry mysterious bubbling flasks? Yes!
- Is chemistry
explosions? Yes!
Chemistry is all of the above and lots more. In fact, chemistry is part of everything that is fun–from making silly putty to a fancy birthday cake. So it is a great topic for kids of all ages. But like cooking, there are dangers that can be avoided with adult supervision.
As a chemistry teacher, one of the first questions students ask is –“Will we blow up stuff?” My yes response starts the year off with a BANG!
Of course, my student’s idea of and explosion is far from the ones that I have planned for them. But they begin the year “fired-up” and I make every effort to fuel this flame with fun, safe chemistry experiments. Since food is the fuel for our bodies, I created many “food” experiments, such as pop corn, which is a mini-explosion due to the expanding water vapor inside each kernel of corn. Munching on popcorn made the task of learning all the physical and chemical changes involved in heating popcorn kernels.
For information about why some popcorn pops better than others, see POPCORN.
More Later,
Janice