Good chemistry: Camp offers chemical concoction of curiosity for kids
Campers experiment with household items and learn about science
Some kids in Charlottetown are being encouraged to get their hands dirty, or sticky, at a science camp.
The campers at the March Break Creative Chemistry Camp hosted by STEAM PEI and Bricks 4 Kids are learning about chemistry and having a lot of fun doing it.
The young scientists are learning about physical and chemical reactions through hands-on experiments, such as by combining glue, food colouring, laundry detergent and glitter, and seeing what happens.
"I like to learn how to make stuff like slime and a lot of other stuff and playing with it is really fun cause you can do a lot with slime," Laiden Gosson said.
As part of the day-long camp, the little chemists experiment with different materials to create chemical reactions. Along the way, they actually get to do science, they don't just watch it happen.
"We do talk about a little bit about molecules and we do talk a little bit about the different things that can happen when you mix liquids and solids and different chemicals, but the main thing they're learning is that there's always something fun to learn," said instructor Nellie Keating.
The idea behind the camp is to get kids excited about science.
"I like how it's all messy," Georgie Wotherspoon said. "If you learn, then you can do new things and if you have fun then you can teach everybody and your parents about it."
Keating said one of the things that makes campers so interested in science is that there's an endless curiosity, and always more questions to ask.
"Science opens the doors for asking questions all the time everyday about everything, and everything that happens in our world can be brought back to science," Keating said.
"Not only do we want them to learn about chemistry when they're here in the chemistry class, but also about how fun it is to work together and to ask questions and even that sometimes they have questions that the grownups don't understand either and we can learn together."
