Science and reading are fun

Valerie Bogert, the Mad Scientist, shows off the most popular demonstration of the participants in the Nevada Library's summer reading program Make A Splash -- Read!. Bogert dropped Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke and the resulting foam reached to the ceiling of the Franklin Norman Community Center. --Photos by Steve Moyer/Daily Mail

She wasn't scary and she didn't have an assistant named Igor, but Valerie Bogert was a hit as the Mad Scientist Wednesday at the Franklin P. Norman Community Center. Bogert entertained the participants in the Nevada Library's summer reading program, Make A Splash -- Read!, but she also taught them some fun science facts at the same time.

The first thing Bogert demonstrated was the different densities of liquids. She filled a test tube one third full of water, one third full of oil and one third full of rubbing alcohol. Each liquid was a different color; water was blue, oil was yellow and alcohol was green. Each liquid stayed separate -- the rubbing alcohol was on top, the oil in the middle and the water on the bottom.

The second demonstration was also about density, Will it Float? Bogert dropped an orange, a lemon and a lime into a container of water. The orange and the lemon floated but the lime dropped to the bottom. She also tried a golf ball and a baseball. The golf ball sank while the baseball floated.

Mad Scientist Valarie Bogert finds out that even mad scientists can have an oops moment. Bogert pushed a chopstick through a plastic bag filled with water. The bag was supposed to seal around the chopstick and not leak but it didn't and water cascaded down. "Don't buy the cheap store brand of bags, get the good ones." Bogert said.

The third demonstration was different, it involved a non-Newtonian fluid, which in this case was a mixture of corn starch and water. Non-Newtonian fluids don't react the same way as other fluids do, sometimes they act more like a solid and sometimes more like a liquid, Bogert compared it to quicksand.

"If you hit it hard it acts like a solid but if you just move slowly it will ooze off your hand," Bogert said.

For 10-year-old Logan Miller, this was the best part, hitting the liquid only to have it stay solid.

The Mad Scientist watches as participants in the Nevada Library's summer reading program, Make A Splash -- Read!, make craters in "moon dust" Wednesday at the Franklin Norman Community Center. The demonstration showed how even solids can make a splash.

"I liked it, it was funny," Miller said. "I liked it where I punched the mud thing."

Without a doubt one of the favorite activities came at the end when Bogert demonstrated the effect of dropping Mentos into Diet Coke.

Allison Fowl, 7, said the program was awesome and she really liked the last part where the soda squirted up to the ceiling.

The Mentos candy has a sugar shell with a lot of craters in it to help it form bubbles, a process called nucleation. Bogert said you could use almost any soda but the reaction was more energetic if a diet soda was used.

"You can do this at home, if your parents allow it," Bogert said. "You can use almost any soda but a diet soda works better than a sugary one."

Children enrolled in the Make A Splash -- Read! summer reading program will receive a packet that includes a reading log. At the end of each week, the child brings the reading log into the library for stickers and prizes. Those children who meet their weekly goals will have their names in a drawing for the grand prize: Oceans of Fun/Worlds of Fun tickets.

The drawing will be held on June 30 and the child does not have to be present to win. All Vernon County children can sign up for a complimentary library card for the summer to encourage their participation in the summer reading program.