It’s unusual to get end-of-semester evaluations done in crayon, but for Physics and Chemistry, it’s par for the course. That’s because those departments have a longstanding tradition of welcoming groups from local schools to campus for science demonstration shows. This May, over 200 students from kindergarten through high school came through the STEM complex for demonstrations.
Travis Verret is always happy to get students excited about chemistry, usually by setting something or someone on fire. As the Chemistry Stockroom Manager and the department safety officer, he knows how to do so safely and under controlled conditions. “Students always love seeing me light their teacher’s hand on fire,” says Travis. And the teachers always want to come back and bring another batch of students. Having done his chemistry shows for years, Travis knows of several students who came through in middle school and then matriculated at UVM as chemistry majors. His mentorship extends not just to young students but also to his peers with less experience. He works with Jacqueline Chant, a chemistry staff member, to make sure that other folks can run the demos and spark the joy, although Travis says he has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
Most school groups pair a visit to the Chemistry department with one to the Physics department. There, Professor Luke Donforth steps them through a variety of activities; he says, “we try to be exciting and also accessible. We’ll do cloud formation for kindergarteners, then go deeper with the same demo for 6th graders, focusing on force and pressure. We’ll bring out a Van de Graaff generator for second graders, and revisit it as part of electricity and magnetism for 8th graders.”
Donforth works with lab support technicians Patrick Charron and Sam Beauchemin to constantly tweak and improve the shows. “We’ve got a great team here, and sometimes a little tweak like making it a balloon animal we put in the liquid nitrogen instead of just a balloon makes it more memorable for the students. Patrick has gotten great at making cute dogs, and they always come through fine”. While the balloon puppies survive, the same can’t be said for various soda cans that are destroyed in the name of science. Even the most jaded of high schoolers will sit up and take notice when a cannon sends a ping pong ball through a can at 500 miles per hour, or when they’re asked to swing a hammer as hard as they can at someone’s hand.
The equation F = m*a may seem dry, but by showing the application in a variety of situations, the hope is that science comes alive for these students. And we hope they are inspired to return to UVM in the future.
