Demand high for BYU’s first Chem Camp for kids
Kambry McGuire and Sierra Sun mix up a magnetized solution during the BYU Chem Camp, Wednesday, June 29, 2016. The event was launched after one Brigham Young University professor couldn't find a science camp targeted at young girls. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald
Olive Esplin checks out an experiment during the BYU Chem Camp, Wednesday, June 29, 2016. The event was launched after one Brigham Young University professor couldn't find a science camp targeted at young girls. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald
Ella King, Robin Anderson and Elisabeth Pugh work together on an experiment during the BYU Chem Camp, Wednesday, June 29, 2016. The event was launched after one Brigham Young University professor couldn't find a science camp targeted at young girls. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald
Liquid in a beaker turned from one color to another and then changed again, but it wasn’t any sort of a trick. It was science.
“A lot of times, chemistry is magic if you don’t know what is going on,” said Kara Stowers, a chemistry professor at Brigham Young University, to a crowd of students and onlookers at a chemistry magic show Thursday afternoon.
The chemistry magic show was one of the final events for the inaugural BYU Chem Camp, a three-day event for kids ages 9 to 12 held at the university.
The camp started after chemistry professor Daniel Ess wanted to find a science camp his 10-year-old daughter could attend. After being unable to find one targeted at young girls, he, along other professors Stowers, Jennifer Nielson and Rebecca Sansom created the camp.
Most of the students were local, but some attendees were from Alaska and Tennessee and were visiting family in the area.
About 50 students were chosen to attend, but there were about 250 who applied. Half of the openings were for girls. Organizers especially welcomed applications from girls and underrepresented minorities, according to the camp website.
During the camp’s second session, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, students were able to make foam fountains, Alka-Seltzer rockets and were able to extract DNA from strawberries, among other hands-on activities.
“It’s not just fun,” Sansom said. “We have talked about some major themes in chemistry.”
The camp offers the opportunity for kids to learn more about chemistry years before they would typically tackle it in a classroom. Getting the students interested in science now, Stowers said, is key.
“You’re not at an age yet where they have this disgust of chemistry,” Stowers said.
In many pictures that cycled through in a slideshow prior to the magic show, students, dressed in tie-dyed lab coats, are hunched over experiments, faces full of concentration.
There’s already talk about next year’s camp, but organizers are unsure if it will expand to accept more students.
