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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Each week, a group of fourth and fifth graders meet at the Wellesley Free Library to explore a different field of science. On October 5, the class became chemists as they experimented with Skittles and viscosity.
Wellesley High School junior, Susanna Mirick, organized “Sensational Scientists,” a six-week science class as a part of her journey to earning the Gold Award – a prestigious award and the highest achievement of the Girl Scouts. Joining her in facilitating the class was Wellesley High School sophomore, Jo Steensma.
As the kids sauntered into the classroom, they sat with friends and colored on their folders, chatting away. However, their ears perked up once Susanna and Jo began the class with the mention of Skittles. More interested in eating the Skittles than experimenting with them, the students promised Susanna that they would refrain from eating any.
Each student got one Skittle of each color and arranged them on a paper plate. The class instructors poured water over the candies and asked the students to draw the changes they were seeing on a worksheet that tracked the progress of the experiment.
‘Sensational Scientists,’ a six-week program organized by Susanna Mirick for her Girl Scouts Gold Award, experiments with chemistry as the students mix liquids of different viscosities.
The children excitedly watched the colors slip off the candies and soak into the water. Some mixed the colorful water up, creating a reddish-brown mess on the paper plate, while others watched the colors blend uninterruptedly, creating rainbows of color in the water.
As the students’ patience dwindled, some popped the Skittles into their mouths, noting that the flavor was still there even when the color on the outside had dissolved. Some of the students even dared each other to drink the Skittle water as they cleaned up and prepared for the next experiment.
Susanna and Jo gave each student a plastic cup with a little bit of liquid in it. Each student in the groups of three had either a cup of water mixed with food coloring, a cup of corn syrup, or a cup of vegetable oil. Introducing the topics of viscosity and density, Susanna challenged the students to pour the different liquids into the same cup and speculate on why they did not mix together.
Next, Susanna and Jo gave the students different objects, like beads, crayons, and pencils, to stick in the cups and test their buoyancy.
After cleaning up, Susanna asked the children to work on two questions about the experiment and read a brief handout about chemistry.
In the last few minutes of the class, the group ate Skittles and played “Museum,” which sent all of the kids into giggles as they spent the last part of class enjoying the company of newfound friends.
