This is an exciting week at Liberty Science Center, because it is the first week of LSC Science Camp! This summer is going to be bigger and better than ever, with new astronomy courses in the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, as well as returning courses all about coding, robotics, dinosaurs, video game design, nature, music, 3D printing, and more.

Today we took a peek downstairs to check out some of the cool things that were happening. Here's what we found: a group of campers learning about bubbles!

These campers from our “Messy Science” course were introduced to various properties of bubbles. They began the day by designing and building their own bubble wands in different shapes: squares, triangles, pyramids, and more. The campers went outside to test their wands and learned that no matter the shape of the wand, a bubble will always come out circular.

Next, they experimented to see what surfaces would and would not pop a bubble. They tested tables, sandpaper, grass, hair brushes, and even their own hands. Here they learned an important lesson in surface tension. The bubbles would stick to any surface that was covered in soapy solution because of the intermolecular force of attraction between particles.

The rising fourth and fifth grade campers already have explored many other messy favorites like slime and shaving cream, and have more exciting science experiments lined up for the rest of the week.

Interested in joining the fun yourself? There's still space available at LSC Science Camp for the season, open to students entering grades 1 through 8. Click here to sign up and see a list of available courses.