Grade School News

One dewy morning, out of the fog, twelve ghostly figures huddled around a metal cauldron and slowly conjured a flame, to which all sorts of materials were added and thus the seventh grade chemistry block began. As the veil was pulled from one of nature’s mysteries, another mystery would present itself ~ How can water be transformed into two gases? What do bones, seashells, teeth, marble and chalk all have in common? What will happen to an egg that has sat in vinegar for two days?

In seventh grade, when the body’s inner chemistry is starting to brew, the transformation of matter becomes particularly relevant. The subjects of combustion, the limestone cycle and acids and bases reveal processes, which we can find in the body.

The block was full of polarities such as when we suffered the acrid stench of burning sulfur yet delighted in its neon blue flame or when we saw a powerful base dissolve leather and the damage an acid did to an egg, yet when the two were mixed we were able put our finger in the mixture and even one brave teacher was able to taste it!

Watch out for seventh graders who can change cabbage juice into a rainbow of colors, who can split water into oxygen and hydrogen and can tell you a hundred and one things about the chemistry of a candle!