On Thursday 19 August, the UQ Science Ambassadors namely: Mason White; Scott Roy; Tim Sidey; Abigail McKinley; Liezle Avila and Olivia Page organised a number of experiments to demonstrate to the Primary school students. The Science Ambassadors were also assisted by Noah Moss; Eveliina Kaukereit and Nick Balogh.

Liezle performed a number of chemical reactions that changed colour from colourless to yellow and colourless to red using indicators. Eveliina demonstrated the ‘chilling effect’ of dry ice as it changed the colour of indicator containing water from yellow to red. She also demonstrated the erupting soapy bubbling effect of washing-up liquid in warm water containing dry ice.

Tim and Abigail demonstrated the chemical reaction to produce ‘Elephants toothpaste’. The Primary students were surprised at the amount of the colourful product that erupted from the measuring cylinder.

Scott and Noah demonstrated a chemical reaction to produce hydrogen gas. After collecting the hydrogen in a balloon he attached the balloon to a metre ruler and exploded it using a candle. The explosion really made the Primary students excited and slightly deaf.

Olivia and Nick demonstrated the hair-raising effects of the Van der Graaf generator. A number of brave victims (I mean volunteers) willfully risked being zapped by this static producing device. It definitely ended up a hair-raising experience for these volunteers.

Many thanks must go to our stand-in Lab Assistant Paige Thompson who helped measure out the various quantities of chemicals required for the seven, twenty minutes shows.

Fenton Doolan, HOD Science

GCC families can see all the photos on Pixevety here.