ACS Kids Zone
ACS Kids Zones are free public events featuring themed facilitator-supported activities, for children and their families. ACS members, including local chemists, college chemistry students, in addition to volunteer chemists of the ACS Committee on Community Activities (CCA), support interactive investigations, so children can experiment with actual chemists.
ACS Spring 2024 Kids Zone
On Saturday, March 16th, ACS President Mary K. Carroll will sponsor a free public event at Xavier University’s Convocation Center. Participants will enjoy hands-on science activities, the opportunity to meet real chemists, and educational giveaways!
Here are the planned activities:
- Build-A-Battery Workshop- Make a voltaic pile powerful enough to light a small LED bulb.
- Explore Electrolytes- Experiment and learn which beverage makes the best battery.
- Pencil Electrolysis- Use a battery to start a couple of colorful chemical reactions, to find out which bubbles are made of hydrogen, and which are made of oxygen.
- Make-and-Take Paper Battery- Made of only paper, foil, and saltwater, this small battery really works!
- Soccer Ball Chemistry- Experiment with a deconstructed soccer ball to get the inside story on how it’s made.
- Hand it to Chemistry! - Let your hands reveal whether you and a special someone have chemistry.
Past Event
ACS Fall 2023 Kids Zone
On Saturday, August 12th, ACS President Judith C. Giordan sponsored the free public event at San Francisco’s Children’s Creativity Museum. Participants enjoyed hands-on science activities, the opportunity to meet real chemists, and educational giveaways!
Download the activities:
- Cloudy with a Chance of Clear Color (PDF)
Add an acid-base indicator to milk of magnesia. Then add citric acid for dramatic color changes that cycle through a few times until the cloudiness disappears! - Make-and-Take Lotion (PDF)
It’s a mixture; it’s a suspension, it’s an emulsion; it’s lotion! Science has the solution to DIY lotion. - Connect with Slime (PDF)
Your body makes a viscous liquid like slime to get the germs out of your nose. Make a model of slime to take home! - Fruit Juice Sleuth (PDF)
Add drops of juice to a solution of starch and iodine to find out which beverage contains more vitamin C. - Secret Science of Self-Inflating Balloon (PDF)
Self-inflating balloons contain the same ingredients that make fizzy medicines fizz. Feel and hear this cool chemical reaction!