Busy Little Chemists

What a great day we had! Our co-op had a scheduled field trip today to The Works museum in Newark and we had a blast! My friend, Jenny talked me into going early to explore the museum since my gang had never been there and I'm so glad she did! I'd been in a funk all week and this was a great way to snap out of it :) There are so many hands-on stations in there we just hopped from one thing to another.

We got there at 10:30 just in time to see a glass-blowing demonstration. Wow! That was great! I, unfortunately, didn't get an pics of that, but I did of everything else! Actually, I took a MASSIVE amount of pictures and decided to put quite a few up here (grandmas will be really happy!). Here's our day:

Kristen and Jon seeing how much work it takes to power certain electrical appliances.
Nicholas and the heat-sensing unit:
What the screen looked like when he had something cold in his hand:
Megan had so much fun trying to balance this ball in the air:
She had even MORE fun when she realized it would blow her hair!
Designing a marble track:
Racing a car...
Learning about centrifugal force:
Building with K'Nex:
That was all just playtime ;)

Now the class begins.

First we learned what a polymer is. Basically it's a string of molecules. If you want a better definition, look it up ;) Here are some examples of a polymer:
Then we got to see him make polystyrene (styrofoam):
This was a liquid that took up about an inch or so in the bottom of a plastic cup. He stirred another chemical into it and as he stirred, the foam started growing right out of the cup!

Our kids were fantastic little field-trippers! They had lots of questions (and answers), were kind to each other, respectful to the adults, and really had a great experience there!
And they got to make their own slime ;)

They were to do an experiment on their slime that could be done relatively quick and they did, but then one person stood on a chair to see how far hers would stretch without breaking and she started a trend! Everyone started climbing up on chairs! The "teacher" was so sweet about this and was running around trying to get measurements so we could compare (very scientific!).

Nicholas and Emma seeing how far theirs will stretch without breaking:
Rhyse and Brandon:
After the experiments, the teacher had 5 stations set up with different polymers for the kids to check out, again very hands-on. Here's a couple:
We will definitely be back to The Works sometime! We had such a nice day! Thank you so much, Angi, for another wonderful field trip! You, Greer and Creux were missed today! I hope the pics of your boys help you see how much fun they had.