ASU Field Trip Reflection

On this field trip, we took a trip to the chemistry department of Arizona State University. It was a fun field trip to go on, but I would not like to go and do that in my free time. My favorite part of the entire field trip was when we were shocked by the 50,000 volts. And in our first demonstration, Gary showed us many test were he used the six chemical reactions. But my favorite part of the demonstrations was when he cranked up the voltage and the current increased in the glass tube so that the electrons were shown being shot back and forth, because he turned off the lights and there was a purple light in the tube!

The next thing that we were shown was the science was fun department where we were able to see a hover craft. And my two favorite test that we saw is when the rubber ball was dropped and broke into pieces. This happened, because the rubber ball was froze to a certain temperature, so when it was dropped it cracked. It was frozen all the way through so the physical state was changed. She alos handed the pieces to Mrs. Binder and when we got back to Sunrise it was room temperature and it was rubber again. The next test that was done was when we turned on a fan that had different colors on each blade, so we turned the lights off and used a strobe light and got the blades in a "stopped" position. So it looked like the fan wasn't on. She taught us that the light sometimes plays tricks with our eyes and doesn't really show the real side of things.

Once we were done with the science is fun, we went into downstairs lab to see vacuums and electricity. Where when we all stood in a chain together and held hands while Devon Gomez sent an electrical charge through our arms when he touched his elbow with Ben Walker's. This happened because the 50,000 volts went through our bodies and the reason why we weren't electrocuted is because it was not a current that surged through our bodies. And the next part was that we went to the vacuum department where we were shown how a vacuum works. My favorite part about this demonstration is when he blew the balloon when it wasn't tied on the top and it was still full of air. This happened, because the inside air pressure is greater that inside of the beaker, so it sucks the balloon against the sides of the beaker.

  The last part of our field trip and probably the coolest part is when we were able to watch the glass blowing. She took a tube of glass and formed it into a swan. It seems like a very fun hobby and I hope I could be able to do this someday, because it seems like a ton of fun to do. Overall I thought it was a very fun field trip and I wish to do it again in 2nd half of the year.