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Hearthstone Town & Country – July 17, 2003
Area Youngsters Experiment With
Science in the Summer Program
By Paul Hornberger
Making raisins dance was just one of the many ways kids learned about chemistry at the Upper Perk Library last week. Students added baking soda to vinegar and water, added a few raisins, and watched the raisins dance as part of the Science in the Summer program.
Obviously, it wasn’t your typical library class. Beakers, graduated cylinders, vegetable oil and baking soda were everywhere. Excitement and expectancy was in the air with about 15 kids learning chemistry with their own two hands.
“A lot of times the kids don’t get to have the hands on that we can offer them,” said instructor Judy Johnston. The goal with the GlaxoSmithKline-sponsored program is to introduce children to science and for them to see it in every day settings, such as the kitchen.
An experiment involving water, vegetable oil and liquid dish soap helped the students learn about emulsion.
All the shaking, stirring and mixing of the ingredients really appealed to the budding scientists.
“I like this class better than last class because you get to mix stuff,” said
9-year-old Zach Diehl. The second year participant is one of more than 60,000 elementary school children statewide who have participated in the program.
“I like the balloon thing and the dancing raisins,” said Shannon McKee, 7, of Perkiomenville. Liter soda bottles, vinegar, baking soda and balloons were used to demonstrate expansion of gases.
Parents and grandparents loved for their kids to have fun and learn at the same time.
“I’m granny camp for the summer,” said Grace Shoemaker, grandmother of student Jake Greger of Sumneytown. “He’s at that age that he needs something to look forward to. He loved it.”
“I thought it would be something educational they can do rather than sitting home watching TV,” said mom Diana McKee. Shannon and 10-year-old brother Jacob both participated in the program.
Local high school students assisted in the four-day class.
Amanda Detwiler, an Upper Perk senior, said she hopes to help the kids form an interest in chemistry early in their lives.
“I’m really interested in chemistry,” said Detwiler. “I like little kids, too, and I like to help the younger kids to try and get interested in it cause it’s a really interesting science to get into. They can really find out with these simple experiments how fun it is.
Reprinted with permission from Hearthstone Town and Country.
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