Kids find fun mixed with magic in science

By MICHELLE JONES

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

WESLEY CHAPEL -- Having fun was the third and most important rule the Mad Scientist told the children they would have to abide by during her demonstration Thursday.

Emily Honsberger, 19, was the maker of the rules, and with her expertise she showed approximately 100 children at the New River Library just how much fun science can be.

Honsberger wore a white lab coat to demonstrate several experiments with everyday household articles, including a toilet plunger, toilet paper, a bucket, a stainless steel bowl, a butane lighter, a cooler, a hammer and an electric blower.

The visit was sponsored by the Florida Library Youth Program to encourage elementary-school age children to read throughout their summer vacation.

At the start of the presentation, Honsberger gave the three rules the children had to obey: "When I'm talking, you are listening," she said. "And, volunteers don't touch the equipment."

She had the audience guess the third rule.

"Have fun," the children shouted.

Honsberger called her first experiment a magic trick. She used three cups: one contained water; the other two were empty. After she moved around the cups, she had the children guess which cup held the water. Each time they guessed correctly, much to Honsberger's dismay.

Finally, she called three volunteers up to the front of the room and said she would pour the cup with the water over one of their heads. None of the cups contained water.

"Inside the cup with the water was this stuff that is inside diapers, and it absorbed all the water," she said. "See I did a science trick, not a magic trick."

Using an egg and a decanter, she showed how creating a vacuum helped suck the egg into the container that previously would not allow the egg to go through its narrow neck.

She warned the children to never play with fire, even though her experiment called for its use.

Cody Comstock, 10, learned how the Bernoullis principle worked, and another child, Leslie Rosado, 10, held a toilet plunger with a roll of toilet paper attached to it while Honsberger used an electric blower to unravel the paper in the air above the children's heads. The display used a little air to create a low pressure zone.

"High pressure washes in as well," she said, explaining the principle.

She showed the children what dry ice can do and explained to them why they should never touch it.

"You will get instant frostbite," she said.

Putting a few pieces of the ice into water she showed the children how it turns into gas.

"It is called sublimation," she said. "It sublimates into carbon dioxide."

Jaimie Therrien, 9, said it tasted like soda.

"You guys just ate a burp," Honsberger told five volunteers who tasted the gas.

Megan Glasgow, 7, participated in another experiment that she thought involved water.

However the "water" proceeded to melt Styrofoam, creating an ugly mass of white glop.

"What does this smell like?" asked Honsberger, as she held the "water" under the volunteer's noses.

The correct guess was nail polish remover, otherwise known as acetone.

It changed the Styrofoam into a polymer.

The session ended with a slime race that Daniel Roberts, 6, won over two other volunteers.

"Now if you read all the books you agreed to read, one of you will get to slime Steve (Bumgarner) at the end of next month," Honsberger said.

Bumgarner is the branch manager of the New River Library.

After the program, Marie Bevins, 6, said she enjoyed the show.

"I liked the toilet paper, and the egg in the bottle was cool," she said.

- Staff writer Michelle Jones covers central Pasco community news. She can be reached at (813) 226-3459. Her e-mail address is jones@sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.