PHOTO BY JENNA FRISBY / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
SCIENCE FUN … Imagination Station’s Rachel demonstrated multiple scientific reactions during her presentation at the WCPL West Unity Branch on Thursday afternoon. The presentation ‘Extreme Science’ generated a crowd of nearly 30 which joined in on learning more about the science around us.
By: Jenna Frisby
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jenna@thevillagereporter.com
Williams County Public Library West Unity Branch hosted the Imagination Station of Toledo on Thursday, June 13th at 2 p.m. The event was completely free and required no pre-registration. In total, the event had a turnout of approximately 30 in attendance.
The Imagination Station gave a presentation called ‘Extreme Science’. The presentation consisted of many fun science experiments where the kids got to learn what causes reactions.
For one demonstration, Rachel, the instructor from Imagination Station, put balloons in liquid nitrogen which caused the balloons to shrivel up, but they did not pop. When she took them back out of the liquid nitrogen after a few seconds the balloon started to re-inflate.
Rachel explained that this reaction occurred because of how cold the liquid nitrogen is, it literally caused the air inside the balloon, which is a gas, to turn into a liquid inside the balloon which in turn shriveled up the balloon.
However, after it came out of the liquid nitrogen and began to come back to room temperature the liquid inside turned back into a gas, re-inflating the balloon.
Another experiment that the kids really enjoyed involved Rachel taking a blow torch and heating up the end of a metal pipe while it was horizontal.
Then after one end was heated up, she would turn the pipe vertical and as the air escaped the tube, it would make sound which she referred to as music.
By far, the kids favorite experiment demonstrated was the one saved for last. Rachel explained that many scientists called this last reaction ‘Elephant’s Toothpaste’ which was visibly understood by the end of the experiment.
She started by having a beaker with H2O2 in it. To that beaker she added some red food coloring and some dish soap. Nothing happened visibly, but she explained that the molecules were trying to get rid of that extra oxygen that was in the H2O2, but at the rate it was doing it, it would take 6 months.
Since everyone did not have 6 months to sit there and wait to see the reaction, Rachel dumped in a catalyst, which is a substance that increases the rate at which a reaction will occur.
After she added the catalyst the reaction instantly occurred and foaming bubbles emerged from the beaker and nearly went off the table.
Altogether the presentation lasted an hour and was very educational for the room, full of kids and adults of all ages. After the presentation the WCPL West Unity Brach also did a free door prize drawing where they gave out nearly 20 prizes to kids.
The WCPL West Unity Branch will be hosting more free events through the rest of the summer. Those events will be every Tuesday and Thursday through August.
They are also hosting free movie days every Wednesday at 1 p.m. through August. Their biggest event that they are planning for is their Summer Reading Party and Back to School Bash which will be happening on August 8th.
That event will be one kids won’t want to miss as they will have prizes, games, and even a bounce house!
The WCPL West Unity Branch is located at 109 S High Street in West Unity. For more information about their upcoming programs and activities you can access their website mywcpl.org or call 833-633-7323.