The Party Elements amp up chemistry

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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter

On the top floor of the Sherborn Community Center, Children’s Librarian Cheryl Ouellette stood beside a huge tarp, surrounded by children who were eagerly awaiting the start of The Party Elements’ science experiments.

Promising elephant toothpaste, soda explosions, and balloon skewers to the aspiring young scientists, the hosts, Mindy Levine and Dana DiScenza, quickly got the party started with an impressive trick.

Reminding the children that they should never play with fire, Mindy, a chemistry research professor, lit a cotton ball on fire and quickly popped it in her mouth as if it were a piece of candy. Naturally, the youngsters voiced their amazement asking just how Mindy did it as she took the cotton ball out of her mouth – the flame extinguished.

After revealing to the kids that she simply deprived the fire of oxygen, she and Dana showed them how acetone dissolves Styrofoam. Giving each child a Styrofoam cup, Dana carefully poured acetone over the cups and into them as the bewildered children watched.

While Dana kept the children busy as they tried to stack cups together to keep the acetone from dissolving each one, Mindy, in her striped dress and striped knee high socks, began blowing up balloons for their next activity.

Using an ordinary wooden skewer dipped in oil, Mindy showed the young scientists how to poke the skewer through the balloon without popping it. Although some children ended up with a popped balloon, others successfully skewered theirs and gave it to Mindy for her to create a balloon caterpillar by making a chain of skewered balloons.

Soon, the tarp would come in handy for The Party Elements. Mindy asked the children a crazy question: “How do elephants brush their teeth?”

While one silly child guessed that it would be impossible for an elephant to because “each tooth is over 200 feet long,” Mindy continued the gag and told the children they would be making toothpaste to send a zoo.

With dish soap and a mixture of bleach and yeast, the children made a foaming explosion over a large bin on the tarp.

Continuing with the messy – but amusing – experiments, Mindy and Dana showed the kids how to make candy volcanoes by pouring small candies like Nerds and Mentos into bottles of soda. The candies sizzled and fizzled in the carbonated soft drinks before the soda erupted out of the bottle.

While some children decided to keep their candy and soda to enjoy as a treat instead of an experiment, The Party Elements duo convinced the aspiring scientists to venture into the brisk outdoors to watch Mindy launch soda bottle rockets for their final experiment.

With a variety of experiments and activities revolving around chemistry, Sherborn’s children learned that chemistry can be exciting, enjoyable, and simple.