If you live near Paul Kane High School and were wondering why you heard three loud noises on Wednesday afternoon, it was a fan-favourite moment from the school's chemistry teacher Michael Ng's annual science show.
Ng's show, the eighth he's organized for local elementary students since 2013, was jam-packed with colourful chemical reactions, melting styrofoam heads, exploding balloons, DIY mirrors made from a silver solution, and much more.
Some 600 elementary students from Leo Nickerson, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Lois E. Hole, Elmer S. Gish, and Joseph M. Demko piled into the large gym at Paul Kane a little after 1:00 p.m., not sure what they were about to witness.
Ng, his student assistants, and MacEwan University chemistry professor Dr. Lucio Gelmini had a tough act to follow as while the kids were waiting semi-patiently, Paul Kane's mascot, Bear, received a standing ovation and prolonged chants to "do it again," after doing The Griddy, a popular dance made famous by the video game Fortnite, and NFL players Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.
It wasn't long before the students forgot about the dancing mascot, and were amazed by the show's first chemical reaction: hydrogen peroxide mixed with manganese dioxide, which produces a billowing tower of vapour.
Students were scrambling for better sight lines for the rest of the show.
“We’re passing the torch," Ng said in an interview. “I think what we wanted to do with our education growth plan was to connect that inspiration, that engagement, for elementary kids to love science."
"One day, if they go to Paul Kane, they might remember this," he said, adding that a few of the high school students who assisted with the demonstrations were once attendees of the shows themselves, and asked Ng if they could volunteer this year.
"They were inspired when they were little kids, and now they’re here," Ng said.
Something the students may remember from the show is the mass of blue bubbles that came rushing out of the face of a carved pumpkin, which was the result of hydrogen peroxide mixed with a "healthy" amount of dish soap, as per Ng's instruction. Or perhaps what students may remember, or have a hard time forgetting, is the sight of melting styrofoam faces after acetone was poured on top.
Another jaw-dropping experiment was when Ng replicated how German chemist Justus Von Liebig would make mirrors in the 1800s. A combination of a sugar solution, a base, and a silver compound solution swirled around inside a glass bottle will eventually plate the inside with silver, and function as a mirror.
“What (Von Liebig) did was find a way to precipitate that silver into the inside of the glass," Ng clarified for The Gazette after the show. "What you actually saw was silver plating inside the glass, and then it looked reflective through the glass. It’s a permanent reaction, and it will stay that way until you dissolve the silver off.”
Gelmini, who is also a long-time mentor and friend of Ng, took the stage near the end of the show and raised the room's collective heart rate by exploding two balloons filled with both hydrogen and oxygen. When fire or heat is put near a mixture like that, it produces an incredibly loud bang.
Gelmini also did the same demonstration with an empty Pringles canister for good measure.
Besides his work with MacEwan University, Gelmini also works with the Alberta Science Network (ASN). The ASN is a charity dedicated to inspiring kids to take an interest in science.
“I go to schools and try to get more kids aware of science as a career," he said. "This year I’m probably looking at about 60 or 70 schools.”
“Getting kids excited about science and increasing science literacy (is the goal).”
For the show's grand finale, and final demonstration in Paul Kane's current gym before the new building opens next year, Ng and Gelmini mixed liquid nitrogen with warm water, causing a third of the gym to be enveloped in a mist-like vapour. The demonstration was aptly coined an "ice nuke."
“It’s such a wonderful way to do it one last time in this school," Ng said before he joined the clean-up crew.
"It turned out really good.”
