Spring Break
Chemistry open house this Saturday
By: Christina Francisco
Issue date: 10/16/09 Section: News
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Chemistry professor and First Year Chemistry Program Associate Director Wendy Keeney-Kennicut said she is happy about the opportunity to see science being celebrated.
"We're excited to share our love of chemistry with the community," Keeney-Kennicut said.
Senior chemistry lecturer and Chemistry Road Show coordinator Jim Pennington said Open House will be a chance for Aggies to to learn and have fun doing it.
The Road Show performances, which Pennington leads, feature wild and colorful demonstrations of chemistry and teach the importance of chemistry in everyday life.
"We hope that the kids who watch will go on in school and get excited about chemistry," he said. "Hopefully we can motivate them to do all the hard work it takes so they can relate it to the fun stuff."
The Road Show is also educational, asking participants to hypothesize what will happen in the experiment and make scientific observations. Pennington says it's "entertaining for the young and educational for the older kids."
Students are also getting involved this weekend. Senior chemistry major Hannah Werner will be helping out Saturday by giving tours of labs and the glass blowing shop, and also said she hopes that kids will get excited about science.
"I hope every year that I've been involved that it gets the younger generation excited about chemistry," Werner said. "Most professors I talk to have a distinct memory from when they were a kid of either a road show they saw, a teacher that showed them something or a tour they took where they saw something really cool and it got them thinking about becoming a scientist."
Senior radiological health engineering major Maria Catanach will help out by setting up a booth on nuclear energy and radiation.
"We bring out Geiger-Muller detectors, radioactive sources, applications of radiation in everyday life," Catanach said. "We use these props to help educate people on the peaceful uses of radiation such as food irradiation, nuclear energy production, and industrial sterilization. Most importantly, we talk to people about their fears concerning nuclear and clear up any myths regarding nuclear topics."
Aside from the education about nuclear things, Catanach is also excited to "give away lots of goodies".
Open House will take place in the Chemistry Building Complex from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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