In an effort to get students excited about science, Pickering Associates hosted Chemical Engineering Day at Hamilton Middle School on Thursday with the entire sixth grade. Patrick Flora, a Process and Chemical Engineer with Pickering Associates, spoke with students and showed them how chemical engineering plays a role in everyday life.
“Chemical Engineers take a raw product and turn it into something useful to society – they are responsible for the things we see, interact with, and touch every day,” Flora explained to the students. “I hope students see that hard work and studying will pay off. What they are learning now are really the building blocks for their futures.”
Students watched demonstrations, like piercing a balloon with a skewer and creating foam using yeast and hydrogen peroxide, while Flora explained polymers, chemical decomposition, and the pH scale. A crowd favorite is an experiment that Flora calls “The Whoosh Bottle,” where he shows how a change in pressure can create a strong vacuum by lighting a flame inside of a 5-gallon water bottle. At the end, students learned about ratios and mixed ingredients to make their own “silly putty” using glue, borax, and water.
Ultimately, Flora hopes to instill the students with the idea that a career in Chemical Engineering can be very rewarding. “In addition to the Partner in Education demonstrations, every day is something different, a new problem that needs solved. I enjoy breaking those complex problems into simple steps so that we will be able to give our clients the best solutions to their problems.”
“Being a ‘Partner in Education’ with Hamilton allows us the opportunity to inspire students and hopefully expose them to career paths they may not have considered,” says Sarah Arnold, Director of Marketing and Sales at Pickering Associates. The next scheduled activity will include the entire middle school and focus on Sustainability and Renewable Energy.