5th & 6th graders were offered a special optional class this semester called Scientific Inquiry. The Ph.D. students from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, designed a laboratory course for the students. The topic was chemistry in our daily lives. Students learned the characteristics of food and common chemicals in their daily lives through invigorating chemistry experiments. These included the classic coke & mentos reaction, liquids that could change colors, milk fireworks, and the determination of the fat, carbohydrate, and protein composition in various fruits and vegetables, etc. On June 2nd, students went to the lab room and tried the color-changing liquid experiment. The teacher added some white powder to the water and stirred. The liquid proceeded to turn blue. He added some black powder to the solution and stirred. Suddenly, the liquid appeared completely colorless, and a pinkish-brown precipitate was observable. So magical! As always, the students eagerly await future experiments.

(Written by Rongzhang Hu, Michael Martin Pictures by Fei Chen Edited by Huang Shiyuan, Mikah Jimenez)