Fairytale chemistry at the Kinder Academy

The Kinder Academy at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences offers children ages eight to twelve a fascinating glimpse into various scientific disciplines. The Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences makes an annual pre-Christmas contribution to this event. During the event, the audience is treated to fascinating chemistry demonstrations, which are woven into an exciting narrative and presented in a theatrical format.

While in December 2014 the children were still enchanted by the witchcraft of Bibi Blocksberg, on December 4, 2015, the program featured a Christmas-themed retelling of the fairy tale of Snow White, the dwarfs, and Santa Claus. The lead roles in the play—Snow White and the dwarfs—were quickly cast from among the children. Accompanied by Santa Claus, who served as the narrator, Snow White set off for the dwarfs’ house. Once there, she stood up to the evil queen, enjoyed a delicious ice cream and a refreshing Coke, and marveled at a series of impressive demonstration experiments. In some of the experiments, the budding scientists were even allowed to participate themselves. Finally, each child received a small Christmas gift to take home and was treated to a spectacular, smoky closing fireworks display.

The experiments for this somewhat unconventional lecture are tested, prepared, and conducted by students in the Bachelor’s program in chemistry and the Master's degree programmes in chemistry and energy. For the presentation last December, a big thank you goes to: Katja Klötzer, Eva-Maria Kosubke, Martin Glaß, Alexander Fürll, Johannes Heller, and Daniel Rathmann.

The chemistry department thanks all the children and their chaperones for their keen interest in the event and is already looking forward to the next Christmas demonstration lecture for the Kinder Academy.

With the kind support of the Friends of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences e.V.