Chemistry Day huge success for students of all ages

For the sixth consecutive year, Associate Professor Christy Haynes and Department of Chemistry students organized and conducted Chemistry Day at the West 7th Community Center in Saint Paul. Assistant Professor Aaron Massari also helped with this year's event.

This outreach included an afternoon of activities for young people entering kindergarten through 9th grade participating in the community center's summer day camp. It was an afternoon filled with a variety of chemistry demonstrations and hands-on experiments, ranging from the creation of polymers and art work to the impacts of dry ice on different materials.

New this year, older youth had to use chemistry experiments to solve a CSI-like mystery concerning pollution in the Mississippi River. University students created videos to explain the pollution and how to conduct the experiments.

The afternoon culminated with the popular liquid nitrogen ice cream treat.

The West 7th Community Center serves Saint Paul's diverse West 7th neighborhood, providing educational and recreational opportunities to residents.

Chemistry Day is one of the Department of Chemistry's outreach activities aimed at showing young people, particularly those from diverse or underprivileged populations, that chemistry is fun and something that they, too, can do.

View the photos on the Department of Chemistry Facebook page.