UCSB Chemistry Outreach Program Encourages Fifth-Graders
Discovering the joy of chemistry plants a seed in young inquiring minds, inspiring them to attend university and study science
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Ann Marie Galbraith’s class could barely contain themselves as they got off the bus. Their destination: UC Santa Barbara and the lab used for the chemistry department’s Fifth-Grade Outreach Program. The students, from Santa Barbara’s Monroe Elementary School, were primed by their own school’s science fair, which took place a week before their visit to UCSB.
Ecstatic was the word Galbraith used to describe the students’ enthusiasm. “The type of hands-on experience they get in a UCSB lab is just priceless. It cannot be recreated in a classroom or in a science lab at an elementary school,” she said.
The lab hosting the students contains five stations, each focusing on a different aspect of chemistry: dry ice, combustion, liquid nitrogen, alloys and polar versus nonpolar interactions. For combustion, the activities included lighting methane bubbles and trying to burn a dollar bill dipped in alcohol and water.
To view the complete story, open the attached news release, or go to http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014043/chemistry-outreach-program-encourages-fifth-graders
