Chemistry Day

Join us for the 33rd Chemistry Day at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for “Marvelous Metals!” Local chemists from colleges, universities, and companies come together to explore with our visitors how chemistry is part of our everyday lives. Museum visitors of all ages will enjoy learning about chemistry in a fun and exciting way.

Chemists from KVCC, WMU, K-College, Kalexsyn, Perrigo, Kalsec, and Pfizer will be conducting hands-on experiments in mixing slime, learning how to clean pennies, turning pennies from copper to gold, exploring the properties of magic sand, making instant snow, playing with density bottles, making a chemical traffic light, discovering how things glow in the dark, and watching liquid nitrogen and dry ice demonstrations. Exciting demonstrations related to metals include finding iron in cereal, learning how oil spills are being cleaned up using magnets, figuring out how metal detectors work, and learning more about the colors of fireworks and metals.

Co-sponsored by the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and the Kalamazoo Section of the American Chemical Society, Chemistry Day is part of National Chemistry Week. This year’s national theme, “Marvelous Metals!,” is in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Chemical Elements in 1869. Explore the metals found in the periodic table and learn about chemicals you use everyday. Experiments are open to all ages and skills. Teachers, be sure to come and get educational materials and lessons you can share with your students!