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Chemapalooza
It was CHEMAPALOOZA on March 16, 2017, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Barbe High School ChemClub and AP Chemistry students visited their feeder school, S.J. Welsh, to perform multiple experiments and demonstrations with every eighth grade science class. Approximately 400 eighth grade students had the opportunity to observe demonstrations like the Blue Bottle, Dry Ice/Density of Gases, and relighting a candle using the trail it produces after you blow it out. Barbe High School students performed all demonstrations and explained the science concepts behind each one.
In addition to the demonstrations, Barbe students led the middle school students in three hands-on lab experiments. Students rotated in 15-minute intervals between three stations that were designated Maroon, Blue, and Grey, from the school colors. Each station had one hands-on lab investigation and one demonstration. In the hands-on investigations, students learned to pipet using a pipet pump during the Vitamin C Iodine Clock experiment (a green chemistry version) and measured the rate of reaction due to changes in concentration. They learned to take electronic temperature readings using a Vernier Lab Quest for the Thermodynamics lab investigation, in which they determined if the enthalpy of solvation was exothermic or endothermic. Lastly, they performed a chemical reaction to form a gas and a precipitate, to observe some typical signs of a chemical reaction, while also learning how to tare and weigh a reactant and how to read a graduated cylinder’s meniscus.
Each eighth grader was given a cardstock Lab Report to record their data and observations from each station. Participation by all students was phenomenal. CHEMAPALOOZA was a great success and Barbe Students have been invited back next year. We hope to make CHEMAPALOOZA an annual event going forward.
