Got to participate in breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest group of people doing a science experiment at the same time. Over 700 people learned about polymers while experimenting with instant snow. Even though I've played with instant snow before, I learned something new about it today...when you add water to it, the polymer releases heat....this is probably best described as the heat of hydration. It's not a true textbook chemical reaction because the water is just trapped in the polymer structure. If you let the instant snow sit out for a while, the water will slowly evaporate. The evaporation causes the instant snow to become cool. If you let it sit out long enough, the instant snow will dry out and become a fine powder like it was before you added the water. So, the hydration process is reversible.
The message for the night was Science Rocks!, but I think the true message was "Anyone can be a scientist!" (the anthem that we sang at the end). They had an excellent panel of speakers, although it might have been better to have them as a separate event. I would have loved to learn more about the accomplished panel. After all, it's not every day that you have two astronauts, a mathematician, a race car driver, and a biochemist on the same stage, along with an excellent science entertainer and a highly regarded science journalist. Here's a link to a list of the speakers.
http://www.nsta.org/conferences/2012ind/sciencerocks.aspx
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