Chemistry is fun for everybody
The Department of Chemistry was represented with a Chemistry show in Realfagsbygget and with a do-it-yourself-experiments stand in Teorifagbygget. On Friday, school children were invited to the campus, while everybody was invited on Saturday as part of Explore UiT (Utforsk UiT).
The Chemistry stand linked this year's topic "values" to the research at the Department of Chemistry. One example is carbon dioxide, which can be a valuable building block in chemical synthesis once activated in a suitable way. Dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) proved to be one of the public's favourites both at the stand and in the show.
"The school children on Friday were more interested in the show element. On Saturday there were also many adults who asked questions and who where interested in a good discussion", said Marc Boomgaren, who was at the Chemistry stand both Friday and Saturday.
For Miriam Grgic and Bjarte Aarmo Lund, the big explosions are a big part of the fun at the Chemistry show. The traces of one of them are still visible in the Auditorium, according to the two. Apart from loud noises and bright flashes, the spectators learned about the origin of colours and witnessed oscillating reactions in the colours of a traffic light.
The leader this year's Chemistry team, Yvonne Piotrowski, was satisfied with the activities. "The best thing is to see the WOW-effect of the children when they discover that Chemistry is a lot of fun."
This year's team for the Science Days consisted of Yngve Guttormsen, Seila Pandur, Ulli Rothweiler, Marc Boomgaren, Bjarte Aarmo Lund, Susann Skagseth, Kirsti Merete Johannesen, Man Kumari Gurung, Miriam Grgic and Yvonne Piotrowski.
