Chem Club puts twist on CSI

On Saturday, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Chem Club hosted CSI: Heidelberg, a daylong science camp with a forensic twist aimed toward middle-school kids. A total of 14 kids participated in events such as separating skittle dye using electrophoresis, extraction of DNA from strawberries, fingerprinting, hair analysis, chromatography and studying organs. 'Berg students and faculty taught the kids about a certain chemical demo and ended the day by having the parents watch their child conduct a demo in a demo show.

The Chemistry Club received a grant from the American Chemical Society to create the Heidelberg: CSI program, which comes a little more than a year after their popular community demonstration that drew more than 125 people, many of them children.

Chem Club member Ali Bauer, who led the event, said the excitement and reception of that earlier demonstration prompted the club to develop other ways to reach out to the community and get children involved in science.

“The club loves being able to engage the minds of young people and get them excited about science,” Bauer said. “We hope that actively engaging students might ignite a passion and appreciation for science.”

In addition to Ali, other Chem Club members who participated in CSI: Heidelberg were Dani Blum, Melanie Cohn, Allison Perry, Lily White, Erica Riffle, Becca Webb, James Howard, Alex Thompson, Kiera Malone, Christian Hieronymus, Colin Ihrig, Kevin Scrudders, Marki Hogle and Rory Bage.