Demo-liscious

Today we found a new way to get our message out to grade schools about our outreach program: just show up uninvited!

Here's the story:

I finally got a response back from the Chemistry teacher at Sherrard High School, so Jake, Alaina, and I went out there and did some liquid nitrogen demos. These were high school kids, on their last day of class, just waiting to be excused for the summer. They weren't gonna get excited just 'cause somebody walked in with a dewar. When Alaina and Jake started talking, all the students were quiet and aloof. As they showed more demos, though, you could see them start to lean forward a bit in their chairs, and by the time marshmallows were frozen, well that was pretty cool! Little did they know the best was yet to come. We went outside for the soapsuds explosion, and these aloof teenagers turned into excited kindergartners! It was awesome.

I thought the teacher might have another chemistry class for us to do demos for, but she didn't. What were we going to do with the rest of the liquid nitrogen? You can't let that stuff go to waste. We froze a puddle in a pothole in the parking lot. That was cool - the nitrogen was trying to boil out from under a lid of ice - but it didn't use up much of our leftovers.

So here's what we did. We drove over to the Sherrard Grade School, and just walked in and introduced ourselves. We explained that we'd been over to the high school and had LN left, and asked if anyone there would be interested in a demo. The principal took us out on the playground and let us do an explosion for the 3rd graders who were at recess. They were thrilled by it, too. Heck, I'm still thrilled by it, and I've seen it a dozen times!

Anyway, showing up out of the blue may not be the way to get schools to let us do outreach. After we were all done, the principal said, "It crossed my mind that you might be terrorists, but you didn't really look like it." Oh, my. Then again, she took my e-mail and said she'd like to have us back in the fall.

I will update with photos soon!

(By the way, Jake, I did mow my lawn today, with my new toy: a 48" John Deere walk-behind with skid steer. The guy at the Deere dealership in Geneseo doubted I'd be able to handle it. Little did he know how strong, smart, and tenacious (ornery?) I am!)

Update 6/20/07: Finally updated with photos. More photos.