As many children watched fire turn different colors in a series of chemical reactions, the chance to smash a racquetball on a floor frozen in liquid nitrogen was the highlight of one elementary school boy’s Sunday.

The Evansville Art Museum’s annual Chemistry Day captivated children who attended the exhibit Sunday, as students from USI and the University of Evansville gave demonstrations of different chemical reactions while explaining the science behind them.

After a few brief demonstrations, children in the audience were hooked.

One demonstration in particular, nicknamed “Elephant’s Toothpaste,” proved to be a crowd favorite.

The “toothpaste” is a rapidly growing foam that forms in an exothermic reaction. Using dry yeast as a catalyst, the foam begins to grow as the oxygen is removed from a solution of hydrogen peroxide.

The “Elephant’s Toothpaste” experiment served as an opportunity to teach children about proper lab attire.

As kids lined up to touch the harmless foam, they were given gloves and safety goggles to put on.

Then came the liquid nitrogen show.

None of the kids were able to resist watching one object after another be demolished after being frozen at sub-zero temperatures, including a banana that was subsequently smashed to bits by a mallet.

The UE chemistry student who gave the demonstration seemed just as excited as the children in the audience.

After the center stage demonstrations, the kids were able to explore the room and participate in a variety of experiments, which were supervised by the USI and UE students.

The purpose, said Jeffery Seyler, chemistry department chair at USI, was to cultivate an interest in the kids that could eventually last their entire lives through enrichment and encouraging advancements in scientific fields.

“If we don’t encourage our youth to get excited about it, to learn about it and potentially choose a career of it, twenty years down the road we’re going to be struggling to fill positions here we’ll have to then give to others overseas,” Seyler said.

Junior biology major Jonathan Fulkerson addressed the importance of helping kids with insights into how the sciences play a role in their daily lives.

“The earlier we can get kids involved in the sciences, the more likely they are to take interest and get involved in later years,” he said. “I feel like a lot of the problems we have in the modern world could be solved by a better education in the sciences for the coming generations.”

Freshman biochemistry major Mackenzie Moore said she enjoyed the event.

“You can definitely see it in the kids’ faces – their interest,” she said. “Especially with the more colorful and explosive demonstrations.”