Georgia College’s Science Education Center and Chemistry Club hosted its annual Family Fun Night on Oct. 27.
“The annual event unites the society’s local sections, businesses, schools and individuals in communicating the importance of chemistry to our quality of life,” said Dr. Catrena Lisse, director of GCSU’s Science Education Center. Family Fun Night celebrated its 20th anniversary and return since COVID-19. A total of 51 undergraduate students volunteered at the event to assist with stations.
Stations included: “Fabulous Fibers: The Chemistry of Fabrics” Photo Booth, Blacklight MAZE, Fabulous Fibers, Hands-On Fibers and Fabrics Lab, Make your own Tie-Dye T-shirt, Dr.
Lisse’s Chemistry Magic Show, Planetarium Show, Natural History Museum, Pyro-Party & Carving Pumpkins Chemistry Style and the Chemistry Finale which included an elephant toothpaste eruption and a ping pong ball explosion.
“This was my 20th celebration of National Chemistry Week by hosting Family Fun Nights and it was great seeing kids that started coming to my events when they were in preschool who are now in high school,” said Lisse.
Family Fun Night is part of National Chemistry Week, sponsored by the American Chemical Society.
This year’s theme was “Fabulous Fiber: The Chemistry of Fabrics!”
Among the stations, the night also hosted two special guests. One was 2019 GCSU alumna Alexis Crawford who works for FiberVisions as a quality assurance coordinator. She sponsored the theme room for Fabulous Fibers. The second special guest included the local fire department, which presented types of fabrics that are flame resistant and showed the audience how quickly certain fibers catch on fire.
“I am so thankful for both of our special guests who attended. As an educator, I enjoy seeing these types of events and the excitement from participants,” said Lisse.
A total of 253 kids and 168 adults attended the event. According to a previous press release around 200 families attend each year.
“This is one of our biggest events of the year and the GCSU students worked very hard to help make the evening a success,” said Lisse. “We were all exhausted after the night was over, but it was totally worth it.”
Family Fun Night will be returning next October. The event planners hope for an even greater turn out next year and look forward to hosting the night again.