Science Camp, Computer Camp at Calvin

June 28, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

This week Calvin College is holding both a science camp and a computer science
camp in conjunction with the GT Resource Network (formerly the Kent County
Association for Gifted and Talented).

Among the items on display at the science camp will be glow-in-the-dark
candy!

Those will be two of seven Academic Camps for Excellence (ACE) that Calvin
sponsors with the GT Resource Network, an advocacy group which supports gifted
students and their families.

Other camps will focus on such areas as literature and math. All of the camps
are for either children entering sixth through eighth grade or children
entering grades eight through twelve.

This week's science camp is called "Light & Luminescence" and will teach
students all kinds of things about light and color, including, says Calvin
chemistry professor and camp director Mark Muyskens, the many fascinating ways
to make things glow in the dark.

Muyskens says all five days of the camp will be visually appealing to
students. Even ordinary materials, like cellophane, he says, give very
impressive colors viewed through polarizers. In addition on Wednesday, June 30
he will demonstrate chemiluminescence, taking glowing red, green and blue
liquids and mixing them to create an effect he says is very impressive. On
Friday, July 2 the sessions will look at the fluorescence of laundry
detergents.

Says Muyskens: "We will be having lots of fun." But, he adds, in the midst
of all that fun learning takes place.

"I expect participants in this camp to come away with a much better
understanding of the properties of light and how they relate to color," he
says. "A very common and important way of making light is by heating something
until it glows like the filament in a light bulb. But our focus will be on
ways to make light without heating an object - like the glow of a firefly.
There are actually many ways to do this and by studying them we will be
learning about different ways of making things glow in the dark. We will be
studying lots of different areas of science: chemistry and physics, biology and
geology. In the process we will discover surprising and amazing things that
glow. We will get an understanding of extremely practical devices that play
important roles in our everyday lives, and we will learn about techniques that
are advancing science and technology and improving our health."

There will be two identical sessions of the camp this week with one being held
from 9 am to noon and the other from 1 pm to 4 pm. All the sessions will be
held in Calvin's DeVries Hall of Science in room 306. For more info contact
Mark Muyskens, professor of chemistry, at muym@calvin.edu or 526-6269 (o),
243-3668 (h) or 540-1350 (m).

For more on the GT Resource Network see http://www.geocities.com/kcagt/

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Received on Mon Jun 28 12:43:20 2004