Dear Future 8th Grade Student,

Hello, I am Maddie, and I have a question for you. Have you ever considered if the snow in Colorado is real? Well, you don’t need to because the truth is that our snow has always been real, but it is still cool to think that humans can make our own snow using two ingredients; sodium polyacrylate and water. Anyways, let me introduce my science group topic sodium polyacrylate, or in simple terms, instant snow. Basically, in this project, we have one main ingredient, sodium polyacrylate–a polymer chain that can absorb nearly 800 times its size–where pressure is formed when the water is combined with it and causes the polymer chains to expand and cause a powder-like substance. Once it turns into the substance scientifically known as solid water, it can only be reverted by letting the water evaporate or by adding salt to it. For our exhibition experiment, we made our project more engaging and interesting by adding colors to the snow to make it more fun looking and by putting the snow in a holiday diagram to show how it is commonly used. At the end of our experiment, we even let the audience interact with the snow and touch it, which ended up being a hit for the little kids and sparked lots of questions in the audience. What really made this exhibition work so well and be so enjoyable for me in the end was the teamwork part of it; if you can learn to work well with your teammates to do your work and help collaborate ideas and questions respectfully, the project seems much more fun and easier. However, this project wasn’t all easy–my group and I faced many challenges during this. For instance, we had to cancel our one big experiment only days before the exhibition where we would add salt to the activated sodium polyacrylate to turn it back to a liquid, but it ended up not working at all so we had to call it off. While it was disappointing to see our main attraction fail, we ended up making an even better idea to make our own holiday diagram using the “snow” for the audience to play with, which we all ended up thinking was a better idea anyways. Overall, if some things don’t work out, it’s ok, just keep going with a positive mindset to make it even better. In this experiment, there were obviously some flaws that I would have fixed, but my entire group can agree that those mistakes are what make the Chemical Theater Exhibition so unique and interesting. Just make sure you're having fun, working well with your group, doing your work, and being safe. You’re going to have so much fun during this exhibition, good luck!