As a professor of chemistry at Brookdale Community College, I’d like to reach out to readers about one of our favorite community services — our upcoming annual Chemistry Carnival held on Sunday, Nov. 6, from 12-2 p.m. in the Navesink rooms of the Warner Student Life Center. The event is free although we ask attendees to bring a canned food item to be donated to a local food bank.
Held around National Chemistry Week, the Brookdale Chemistry Department, with the assistance and sponsorship of the Northern New Jersey section of the American Chemical Society, has run the Chemistry Carnival each of the last 12 years. The event is appropriate for children of all ages, although the experiments focus primarily on ages 5 through 13.
The real stars of the event are the chemistry students who give children and families a hands-on demonstration of major chemistry concepts. The children are encouraged to ask questions, and the students provide answers. Our hope is that through our event, children will be interested in science and realize that chemistry can be fun and exciting.
All of the experiments contain household materials to show children that chemistry is all around them and in everything that they do. Baking soda, vinegar, glue, lemon juice, red cabbage, ice, uncooked spaghetti, raisins, ammonia and bleach are just some of the staples used in the event each year. Typical experiments involve seeing colors change, seeing images appear from homemade invisible ink, seeing raisins “dance” in carbonated beverages, making a “rainbow in a glass,” creating a “superball,” making slime and many more.
The idea for the event first came when I was a chemistry student at Lafayette College where faculty brought students to a local mall and did science demonstrations in the mall center. At Brookdale, I want the community to see our facilities and experience the science that the college offers.
For more information regarding the Chemistry Carnival, please email me at egoll@brookdalecc.edu.
We look forward to seeing you on Nov. 6.
Eric Goll
Professor
Brookdale Community College
Lincroft
