Fun Life Sciences Workshop for Elementary Students
The Association of Chemical Engineering Students (ACES) under the Chemical Engineering study program of Swiss German University (SGU) organized a community service activity on June 10, 2017 at SDN Situgadung IV, Pagedangan, South Tangerang. The team consisting of SGU lecturers and students came to SDN Situgadung IV to share their knowledge in life sciences to the students in the form of presentations, experiments, and games in the field of sciences. The objective of this program is to increase skills and knowledge for elementary school students about applicable analysis techniques related to Chemical Engineering principles.
The workshop was attended by 46 students from SDN Situgadung IV grades 5 and 6, the ACES team which was led by Hery Sutanto, M.Si as their advisor, and teacher representatives from SDN Situgadung IV. This fun activity was opened by the speech from the elementary school’s representative and ACES’s leader. Then, the event was continued with a demo by ACES team. They introduced exothermic and endothermic chemical reaction to the students by showing Elephant Toothpaste and Blue Bottle experiments. The purpose of the Elephant Toothpaste experiment was to show that there were some of chemical reactions which produced thermal energy. On the other hand, the purpose of Blue Bottle experiment was to introduce the redox reaction and catalyst function.
By organizing a fun science workshop for children, the students of SDN Situgadung IV gained more skills and knowledge in the field of life sciences and science experiments. There were 3 experiments conducted by both SGU students and the elementary students. The first experiment was Refreeze which showed that salt (NaCl) could reduce freezing point and could refreeze water again, indicated by attaching wool to the ice that caused the ice to be lifted up by wool without being tied to it first.
The second experiment was Balloon Inflator which introduced that there was a chemical reaction producing the gas. The last experiment was called Ooblek. It showed that there was another chemical phase in addition to solids, liquid, and gas. That chemical phase was Oobleck, the phase between solids and liquid.
At the closing session of the community service activity, the Head of Chemical Engineering Department, Hery Sutanto, M.Si presented a memento to SDN Situgadung IV. By conducting this fun activity, SGU hopes that students from grade 5 and 6 could obtain more skills and knowledge in the field of science and be more interested in life sciences especially in chemical engineering.
