Family Science Night
Cal ACS at Bancroft Middle School Family Science Night – 26 February 2025
Bancroft Middle School in San Leandro is one of our favorite Family Science Night venues, so it’s hard to believe it’s been six years since our last visit! Clinton Huey, former Science Department Chair, has retired, and it’s the new Chair, Evan Burgess, who invited us back on Wednesday, February 26th.
Mariana Alves and Michael Cheng set up the Chemistry Show in the cafeteria, while visitors gathered to enjoy dinner from the Mexican-style food vendors, and the Lawrence Hall of Science set up their physics activities. Mariana astonished the audience with “Disappearing Water” and then showed them how sodium polyacrylate (“baby diaper polymer”) had transformed liquid water into sticky “snow.”
Next up was the ever-popular Elephant’s Toothpaste:
The Big Flame in a Bottle wasn’t quite as big as some hoped, but the acrylic-oxygen rocket never disappoints:
California Section Chair Alex Madonik then had the great pleasure of presenting Mariana with her official ACS award recognizing as the Local Section Outreach Volunteer of the Year for 2025:
It was time for some hands-on chemistry. The Chevron Slime team in science classroom S-2 was ready help kids formulate their favorite color of cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol. Next door in S-1, copies of Celebrating Chemistry and other National Chemistry Week souvenirs were waiting, along with a chance to discover cyanotype printing (using Starlight® paper and UV light), or to explore the statistics of Candy Sampling:
Alex was there along with Cal ACS volunteers Chimara Stancill and Alice Rico; we made sure kids donned safety goggles before adding acid or base to the Chemistry Rainbow demonstration:
Alice and Chimara supervised small-scale versions of Elephant’s Toothpaste, and helped visitors explore the iodine clock reaction:
Before we knew it, it was time to pack up while enjoy the liquid nitrogen ice cream that Mariana and Michael prepared in the cafeteria (thank you, Air Gas – San Leandro, for liquid nitrogen!) Principle Jeff Sloane was there with his children, and he assured us that they will advertise the next event more widely so that the pre-pandemic crowds return.