Halloween House

Since 2007, the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society at the University of Northern Iowa has organized a community outreach program called Halloween House. What started out as a one-room chemistry demonstration show 11 years ago, has now evolved into a huge event in collaboration with other STEM clubs on campus. The event brought in between 800-1000 community members, mainly elementary aged-students, last fall. The collaboration amongst different STEM clubs in physics, biology, earth science, and chemistry allows students to have an interdisciplinary experience, exploring all of the sciences and seeing how they all connect. The Halloween House activities engage students with hands on activities and demonstration shows with captivating storylines that connect all of the demonstrations. Every room in the Halloween House event has a theme, for example, demonstrations involving fire are performed in the ‘Devil’s Den’ room. Approximately 35 college students partake in performing the chemistry demonstrations. Performing shows like these requires safety awareness and good communication skills on the part of the demonstrators. This is good practice for both future chemists and educators. For the audience, the demonstrations serve as an educational lesson in topics such as acid/base chemistry (rainbow connection), combustion and other exothermic reactions (lycopodium flame thrower), and intrinsic properties of different elements (flame test). After watching a demonstration, kids are asked to think critically about what they observed. After a couple of volunteers, the correct scientific explanation is given, completing the educational experience.