In the tradition of community service and passion for science, 17 PRISMS students volunteered at the National Chemistry Week 2015 “Chemistry Colors Our World” Activities Night at Princeton University’s Frick Chemistry Laboratory on October 23. The American Chemical Society (ACS) sponsors National Chemistry Week every October in order to demonstrate the presence of chemistry in daily life.
PRISMS students facilitated the Paper Marbling activity to demonstrate how shaving cream and food dyes mix with each other and interact with cellulose to make patterns on paper. Students explained how the water-soluble dye doesn’t mix with the hydrophobic constituents of shaving cream, but is readily transferred to the hydrophilic cellulose in paper to create a marbled effect. Before participating, students were first trained in the safe practice of chemical demonstrations by Dr. Kathryn Wagner of Princeton University.
The following students participated: Frederic Peng, Mary Dai, Arman Moazampour, Lucia Lu, Paulina Kulyavtsev, Joshua Huang, Andy Beahan, Frank Huang, Christina Wang, Andy Zhao, Olina Liang, Holly Wang,Dahlia Qi, May Ou, Owen Ford, Rishi Rajendran, and Justin Saintil