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WILKES-BARRE —When King’s College brought all the excitement of exploding pumpkins, a handkerchief that stubbornly refuses to catch fire and other nifty experiments to the annual presentation of “Things That Go Boom in the Night” last year, Trent Snider dressed the part of a mad scientist.
Costumed in a lab coat and a shock of white hair, the associate professor of chemistry looked like the kind of character who would have a secret, menacing reason for luring a roomful of innocents into a laboratory.
But there’s no reason to cue the mwha-ha-ha laughter.
Snider does have a goal that might not be readily apparent, but it’s far from sinister.
He hopes young people in the audience — this year they’ll gather in King’s Burke Auditorium at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 — will recognize science as fun and fascinating, so much so that some of them will choose it someday as a college major.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I see it as a recruiting tool for the future, maybe six to 10 years down the road,” he said. “Some people have the idea that science is boring or dirty, but exactly the opposite of that is the way our faculty sees science. It’s a way to explore why things happen and the way the world works.”
Biology major Virginie Menard, 22, of Levittown, will be among the costumed students and faculty showing the fun of science. “I’ll mix two solutions and when they reach a beaker, they’ll start glowing,” she said. “Kids love it.”
Another experiment kids love is one the scientists call “elephant toothpaste” because it seems to create enough foam to clean an elephant’s enormous tusks.
“It’s a foaming pillar that comes out of a graduated cylinder and just keeps coming. It’s really messy,” said Julie Belanger, the assistant chemistry prof who organizes the event.
Of course, there’s a scientific explanation for everything that happens during “Things That Go Boom.”
Add a simple solution of rubbing alcohol and water to a handkerchief, for example, and you can set it on fire — but only the solution will burn. The handkerchief emerges unscathed and dry, Belanger said.
The grande finale of the event will be the thermite pumpkin, a pyrotechnic display that forms molten iron. “We do that one outside on a grassy area,” Belanger said.
The presentation is designed to appeal especially to audiences age 12 and younger. They are invited to attend with no more than two adults per child. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.
If you should miss “Things That Go Boom” at King’s College, don’t worry. Misericordia University in Dallas Township offers a similar event Oct. 28. That program features “an exploding ping pong ball — that’s where our ‘boom’ comes in,” chemistry professor Anna Fedor said. The color-changing experiments are “pretty cool,” she added.
“We use cabbage juice because it’s a natural indicator,” she said. “If you put acids or bases in it, it changes color pretty quickly.”
Finally, she said, watch for the explosive “Death of a Gummi Bear” experiment. “We use a secret ingredient.”
The Misericordia event begins at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Wells Fargo Amphitheater on campus, but activities begin at 6 with students from the Dead Alchemists Society helping children make “slime” and fake blood. Rain date at Misericordia is Oct. 30.
The events at both colleges are free to the public.
