STEAM Labs Science Program: Glow Paint

• Library Meeting Rooms
• No registration necessary
• This program is in English

Join us for a special program to learn the science behind glow paint and color-changing paint. Participants will get an introduction to the concepts and get to try hands-on experiments. For children in 1st – 5th grade and their caregivers. Glow paint focuses on teaching kids how fluorescent paint works. I will be making fluorescent paint ahead of time by mixing phenyl oxalate ester (inside the glow stick tube) with hydrogen peroxide, in which a chemiluminescent reaction occurs. The kids will sketch out a design that they would like to paint, and then a couple of volunteers and I will help them paint it (to avoid exposure to chemicals). After everyone’s painting has been created, I will spray it with hydrogen peroxide and then turn the lights off. Shortly afterwards. The paintings will begin to glow in the dark! MB paint is a color-changing reaction, where kids will create their own painting first, and then I will spray it with a methylene blue solution. Then, a “color change” reaction will occur, and the kids will watch the spray transform their paintings from having a clear spray to a blue one, leaving a blue layer over the whole painting. The program is from STEAMLabs, which is a nonprofit stemming from a team of high school students passionate about STEM, dedicated to making science, technology, engineering, and math more accessible to elementary and middle school students. Through hands-on lab experiences and interactive learning, we aim to inspire curiosity, creativity, and a love for STEM in the next generation.