Carnival to spark students’ love for science

MAD ABOUT SCIENCE—Sam Helmy, in foreground, a senior at CSU Channel Islands, is one of a team of science students who will help Professor Phil Hampton stage its inaugural Science Carnival tonight at University Charter Middle School in Camarillo. For details, call (805) 437-8869. A gummy bear that screams, a lantern made of ice and a geyser of Diet Coke might sound like a fraternity prank gone wrong, but for Phil Hampton, a science professor at California State University Channel Islands, the experiments are the perfect way to show Camarillo youngsters that learning the laws of chemistry can be fun.

Tonight, Oct. 23, Hampton will present an entertaining and educational evening of science that he hopes will become an annual event.

The professor, along with chemistry and biology students from the Camarillo university, will host the inaugural Science Carnival from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. tonight at University Charter Middle School in Camarillo. The free show is open to all Ventura County students from kindergarten through eighth grade and will include hands-on science activities and a science magic show.

Last Friday, Hampton and his students prepared for the event in his lab on the university campus. Each of the students will present a variety of science experiments using common household objects.

Brian Kasper, a chemistry major, hollowed out a hole in a small block of dry ice with a screwdriver. He placed magnesium metal shavings in the hole to create a dry-ice lantern. Hampton explained that a chemical reaction of sparks, smoke and brilliant light results when carbon dioxide, provided by the dry ice, reacts with the magnesium.

Sam Helmy, an organic chemistry major, heated potassium chlorate in a test tube. As the substance liquefied, another student dropped in a gummy bear. The molten bear jumped like a popcorn kernel as it screeched and turned bright colors.

Helmy and the students call the experiment The Screaming Gummy Bear. Hampton said that when sugar from the candy mixes with potassium chlorate, a powerful oxidant, the sugar is quickly oxidized, leading to colorful flames and smoke.

Mary Grabiak and Ashley Bonneau, molecular biology majors and heads of the campus science club, the Free Radicals, use two bottles of Diet Coke and some Mentos mints to create a geyser of soda. They’ll describe how the soda’s carbon dioxide and the candy’s sugarcoated shell react to create the fountain of soda.

The Science Carnival—part show, part lesson—is part of Hampton’s plan to interest students in the world of science.

“He’ll do whatever it takes to explain it,” Grabiak said.