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Kids get slimy for COSI visit
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All eyes are on Allison Ballantyne, of the Center of Science and Industry, as she takes the students of Lloyd Elementary in Austintown through an investigation — using heat and tubes — to find ingredients for making slime. COSI visited the school Wednesday to give students hands-on experience working with chemistry projects.
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Lloyd Elementary second-grader Mercedes Willis gets ready to spray a chemical agent to find another clue in the search for the missing slime ingredients during a “Simply Chemistry” assembly with COSI.
By Elise Franco
efranco@vindy.com
Austintown
Lloyd Elementary students made a slimy discovery with the help of the Center of Science and Industry.
Kids in kindergarten through third grade took turns participating all day Wednesday in hands-on experiments with help from COSI On Wheels Instructor Allison Ballantyne, as well as volunteers from Austintown Fitch High School and parents.
“This school’s program is a chemistry program,” Ballan- tyne said. “The kids get to make slime, test for pH and experiment with things like exothermic and endothermic reactions.”
She said one of the most popular activities is making slime, but before the kids could get their hands dirty, they had to use chemistry to solve a mystery.
During a 45-minute building-wide assembly, Ballantyne told the students the ingredients to make slime had been stolen and she needed their help to get them back.
“They have to follow the clues to find the ingredients,” she said. “Everyone has fun and learns.”
Students learned about the pH scale, how to identify an acid and a base substance and how to decode a hidden message.
Ballantyne said she’s continually impressed by the children’s abilities.
“It amazes me, the things they say and the things they know,” she said.
Lloyd Principal Tom Lenton said COSI On Wheels comes to the school each year. “It’s a tradition to have this hands-on science exhibit that spends the day with the boys and girls,” he said. The COSI visit is funded by the Lloyd Elementary Parent Teacher Association.
“It’s one of those events valued enough that we book it for the next year as soon as they leave,” Lenton said.
After the assembly, each grade went back down to the make-shift science lab to make slime and perform other supervised experiments, Lenton said.
“They all get to engage in all the stations,” he said. “What that does is help them retain more and learn more.”
Michelle Schwind, PTA parent, said this was her second year volunteering with the program. Schwind said she can tell the students love it.
“It seems like the older they get, the more they turn toward things like this,” she said.
Ashley Senvisky, 5, said she had fun making her slime, which she colored with red dye. She said she also liked the experiments during the assembly.
“I liked when the pipes went boom,” she said, describing when Ballantyne sprayed a flammable liquid that quickly evaporated into plastic pipes, then lit them to make a “boomlike” noise.
Though the miniexplosion and loud sound excited the children, Ballantyne emphasized the importance of safety.
“Repeat after me,” she said as she donned plastic safety goggles, “I will never, ever, ever, try this at home.”