Last month, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering hosted approximately 70 middle school students during the PEER/WISE 2018 STEM Day. ChBE Graduate and undergraduate students taught the middle school-aged kids how chemical engineers safely use and make thermal energy through chemical reactions. Students learned about redox reactions by electroplating a nickel plate with copper (where thermal energy is required for the reaction to occur) and a combustion reaction after generating hydrogen and oxygen gases to fuel a pipet rocket (where thermal energy is generated by the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen gases). Once again, the participating students and parents raved that the ChBE activity was a favorite of their day.
