Inspiring Young Minds: Lucidity Visits Local Elementary School

Career days at elementary schools are often filled with excitement as young minds get the opportunity to explore various professions. Recently, I had the privilege of participating in one such event.  As I walked the halls into the classroom where I was to give my presentation, I couldn’t help but to remember when I was young learning about different careers and I was delighted to share in my excitement for chemistry with the eager students.

To get the presentation started I asked the students, “How do you measure the invisible atoms and molecules all around us?”  I then talked about how chemistry shows us a world that you would never know was there at all unless you knew how to look for it.  I showed the students different chromatograms and explained that the peaks were showing us different molecules and using that information we could measure the amount of these molecules in different things.

As the presentation drew to a close, I emphasized the importance of curiosity, perseverance, and creativity in the field of chemistry. I shared stories of how I made the journey through chemistry and how I came to be in the position I am today.  I emphasized that even today I am curious about the world and still eager to learn new things that I can still apply to my lab and life.

During the question and answer portion I had students ask questions like, “Can you make things explode?”  I let them know that studying chemistry will give them the knowledge to do fun things like make compounds that are stable when wet, but highly reactive when dry. They could also make dyes and compounds that are very colorful if they wished.  In the end I told the students that I became a chemist for the simple fact that chemistry is like magic but real.