Bay Area Science Festival
2014
On Nov 1, the Santa Clara Valley
Section of the ACS and the Stanford Chemistry Club
participated in the final event of the 2014 Bay Area Science
Festival-Science Day at ATT Park. The festival provides a wide
range of science & technology activities including
lectures, debates, exhibitions, concerts, plays, and
workshops, at a variety of locations throughout the Bay Area.
Young people will understand that science is fun, exciting and
important, encouraging them to pursue careers in science;
parents will feel more confident about supporting their kids’
interests in science; teachers will have new resources to get
students thinking about science outside of the classroom; and,
policy-makers and corporate leaders will understand that the
public demand for science-related resources is real…and
requires investment and support. Based on similar festivals
throughout the world, the 50+ festival events are expected to
attract over 50,000 active participants, many of whom
traditionally do not have access to quality scientific
resources.
The final event is a huge science demo day
held at the baseball park in San Francisco, ATT park. The
event started at 9AM and ended at 4PM. It is estimated that
more than 10,000 people attended by the organizers.
Santa Clara Valley volunteers (2) and the
Stanford Chemistry club (3 graduate students: Carolyn,
Elizabeth, Rain) hosted a table with two different hands on
experiments. The first involved determining the chemical
properties of sodium polyacrylate (the polymer found in most
diapers). When ionic compounds are added to wetted SAP (on wax
paper), this increases water mobility and causes SAP to
puddle. Covalent compounds have no effect. We asked the
participants to predict what would make SAP puddle after we
showed them it the effect. Chemicals to be tested included
Epsom salts, table salt, sugar, and sand.
The second experiment asked the
participants to predict whether a gummy candy will be sweet or
sour. Many gummy candies are coated with either sugar or
citric acid (to make them sour tasting). It can be hard to
differentiate by visual observation. But adding a small piece
of the candy into a sodium bicarbonate solution provides a
quick and dramatic differentiation.
We also had a wheel of fortune for the
students to spin. They were asked to chart the outcome
and the older students were encouraged to review the chart and
figure out what reward they might expect to receive from the
graph of the previous results.
This was a very successful event.
The two experiments; candy on the right
The Wheel of Fortune
--Natalie McClure
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