NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK 2007
Santa Ana Zoo, Santa Ana, CA
October 14, 2007
Photographs by Robert Cohen

Once again, students and advisors from all over southern California converged on the Santa Ana Zoo on Sunday, October 14, for our National Chemistry Week Celebration. A total of ten colleges (more than 200 volunteers in all!) offered hands-on science activities for children. Our college students certainly illustrated the Many Faces of Chemistry.


Due to extended outreach to the neighboring community of Santa Ana, as well as to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, our total attendance this year was over 2000! All parking, including the overflow parking lot, was maxxed out by noon.


Bilingual flyers (English and Spanish) went home with all students in the seven Santa Ana schools from which we attracted attendees last year. These flyers also told Santa Ana residents that they could get free admission to the zoo for the NCW event. We had shuttle buses available from 3 of the schools, paid for by an ACS Local Section Innovation grant, but these were not heavily used. Flyers went out to Boy Scout Roundtable meetings for 2 months in advance of the event, and the Girl Scouts circulated electronic flyers.


All told, Science at the Zoo had 2038 visitors this year, compared to 1390 visitors last year, and 411 in 2005! 400 of these were families who requested free admission, so we knew that our flyers had a big effect. Children and college students alike had a great time doing experiments, and Rudy Gonzalez presented “Rudy’s Radical Science Show” as well. Everyone agreed at the end of the day that science is, indeed, fun!

Chemical Demonstrations The crowd watches “Rudy’s Radical Science Show” – a complete sellout
	Cabbage juice indicators Cal Poly Pomona student volunteers help youngsters with acid/base indicators.
Cartesian divers Students from Fullerton City College help demonstrate a Cartesian diver.
	Gas Pressure Experiments Two Girl Scouts wait anxiously for the “Alka Seltzer Rocket” to blast off.
Making Bouncy Balls Everyone gets into the act of making bouncy balls with the Santa Ana College student volunteers
	Redox Reactions Graduate students from the UC Irvine chapter of Iota Sigma Pi assist with “The Magic Blue Bottle” experiment
Gas Pressure Experiments Golden West College students demonstrate how air pressure affects whether water can escape from a bottle.
	Densities of Liquids A youngster is enthralled by the density experiment from Saddleback College
Silly Putty A girl inspects her “Chem Putty” made at the Cypress College booth
	Chemical Demonstrations Rudy Gonzales performs his science demonstration show colorfully!