Weekend Plans Part 3
In case you missed last weekend’s National Chemistry celebration at the Museum of Science, do not despair! The week ends with a similarly exciting celebration at the Boston Children’s Museum on Saturday (http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/calendar/national-chemistry-week-celebration-chemistry-out-world), with a show and hands-on activities that are geared to slightly younger audiences. On Sunday, in case you need even more science from this fantastic museum, they are doing color chromatography experiments, where you can use liquids and a special kind of chromatography paper to separate out different colors from markers. This also works with lipstick, FYI, and with colors that you can extract off of jelly beans or from Skittles candy coatings.
How does it work? The different pigments that make up the color that you see have slightly different chemical properties, and so when you ask them to move up a paper, they will move at different speeds. This allows each pigment to end up at a different place on the paper, resulting in separation of pigments and the ability to identify what pigments are present in any one visible color.
Check out these links to learn more about color chromatography:
What else is on the schedule for this weekend? Well, still lots and lots of Halloween activities, to be sure, and also still pumpkin picking and corn mazes. But if you are looking for something new, think about checking out the Honey Pot Orchard x Anime Festival. Looks like it is the perfect combination of activities for a family where some people prefer the outdoors and others prefer anime-type things. Despite being married to a computer engineer for almost 12 years, I still have no idea what anime is, nor can I figure out the various kinds of activities being offered at this event. So check out the link for yourselves: https://www.facebook.com/events/176706202929625/?active_tab=discussion.
Enjoy, readers! Happy weekending!
