Zach McAllister led this year's Andersen Team! We performed an experiment every month this academic year. Experiments included collapsing soda cans with atmospheric pressure, paper chromatography, CO2 capture in water, Iodine Clock Reaction, and much more! In one such example, the Iodine Clock Reaction, we used common household items like liquid starch, Vitamin C tablets, and Iodine to talk about competing reactions and see some cool chemistry as the liquids rapidly changed. The students then had fun applying Le Chatelier's principle to try and shift the reaction one way or another. In another experiment, CO2 capture in water, our team used fish tank aerators and balloons to see if the water's pH would change with just air (balloon filled with normal air) or CO2 (balloon filled with our breath). A pH indicator in the liquid told the students that the solution had changed. We discussed how this can be used to remove CO2 from the air and talked about other topics such as ocean acidification with global warming.
In addition to our experiments, our team was serendipitously equipped to help several of the English as a Second Language (ESL) students who spoke Spanish as we had several Spanish speaking volunteers in our group. This meant that our volunteers did the extra work and translated each experiment and pre/post lab evaluation into Spanish. One of our Spanish speaking volunteers would also work with them to make sure they understood the principles behind the experiment and we saw wonderful engagement from the ESL students.