New Zealand Science Teacher

Future scientists to hit the lab

21/11/2016

Auckland kids are will get their first taste of chemistry at the University of Auckland’s labs later this week, as part of the 10th annual BASF Kids Lab programme.

Nine local primary schools have signed up for the two-day programme, which will include lots of awe-inspiring experiments like:

Heat sensitive worms – Kids partake in an experiment introducing an alginate gel (the ‘worm’) to a thermochromic dye that changes colour in response to a change in temperature.

Wonder absorber – Kids will use super absorber polymers to see that some chemicals are able to hold several times their weight of water.

Red socks – Kids learn that the addition of polymers to detergents prevents colour particles from being transferred to light fabric.

BASF Australia and New Zealand chairman and managing director, David Hawkins, said the programme opens young minds to science in an exciting, but controlled and safe environment.

“There’s such an element of wonder to science and creating chemistry, we designed the program to get kids interested in science with a really basic understanding of how things work,” Mr Hawkins said.