It was a beautiful Indian summer day on the quad in front of Carver Hall when the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Chemists and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation students met (masks on and six feet apart) to see which team could formulate the best “elephant toothpaste.”
Dr. Deborah Sauder, a chemistry professor in UMES’ Department of Natural Sciences and an LSAMP advisor, organized the October 22 event to celebrate National Chemistry Week promoted by the American Chemical Society. This year’s theme was “Sticking with Chemistry.”
A cart equipped with chemicals, gloves, safety goggles and graduated cylinders stood on the brick sidewalk a short distance away from where bright blue plastic kiddie pools sat on the campus lawn. One team at a time, a representative filled a cylinder with industrial strength peroxide, added a couple squirts of dish detergent, ran some streaks of food coloring down the sides and went to the pools where they slowly added a reagent (not mentioned here, because as we all know, you shouldn’t try this at home!) to cause a chemical reaction. Onlookers squealed with surprise when the mixture skyrocketed and came down forming a giant glob of “toothpaste” big enough for an elephant.
“I expected the reaction to just bubble over in the beaker and get really fat. What surprised me is when it shot into the air not even seconds from me pouring the peroxide. It was crazy. I had no choice but to run,” said Hawk track and field member Destiny Parker who is also a Richard A. Henson honors sophomore studying biology pre-med and a LSAMP member.
Team Destiny and Eugene (Ward) won the coveted National Chemistry Week expert award earning them a coupon for a free pizza.
“The purpose of the event was to demonstrate a fun and surprising chemical reaction,” Sauder said. “Many of our students understand the importance of chemistry in everyday life and intend to pursue STEM careers, but they often see chemistry as a challenge, not as fun. It should be both!”
The LSAMP program at UMES provides participating STEM majors with “access to mentoring, professional development workshops, community outreach activities and research opportunities under the guidance of a faculty mentor.” To be eligible, students must be a U.S. citizen for permanent resident, be a full-time student majoring in a STEM discipline, have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and have completed at least two semesters of college.
“Ultimately, the goal of LSAMP is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who graduate with a STEM degree and pursue graduate degrees in a STEM field,” Sauder said.
Call 410-651-6051 or visit www.umes.edu/LSAMP for more information.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, School of Agricultural & Natural Sciences, 410-621-3850, gcstephens@umes.edu.
Photos below by Jim Glovier.
