Last Saturday, good little children gathered outside the gates of Frick Chemistry Laboratory at Princeton University. They all had a special invitation to meet the marvelous creator of all things sugar and science, Mister Willy Wonka!
Well, maybe not the Willy Wonka, but it was a marvelous morning of hands-on science tables followed by an auditorium show that included, among other things, screaming gummy bears (we have footage later in the post!).
The Cotsen Children’s Library was delighted to collaborate once again with the Department of Chemistry and Science Outreach at Princeton University to bring this free education event to the community. It began with hands-on tables provided by the undergraduate and graduate students of Science Outreach at Princeton University:
Back Row (left to right): Catherine Hexter (UAF graduate student), Alexander Luna, John Woo, Ashton Marnik, Jack Langan, Catherine Arbaugh, Joanna Lin, Davis Hobley, Danielle Burke, Paryn Wallace (Associate Director). Front Row (left to right): Sophie Wang, Tanya Zhou, Anna Buretta, Shalini Shankar, Ria Tomar
The event tables featured experiments with density, buoyancy, Pop Rock inflated balloons, the centrifugal force of cotton candy, gum drop candy engineering, sugar crystals under microscopes, and oozy non-Newtonian chocolate rivers!
The thoroughly sugared audience then moved to the auditorium, where the talented Angie Miller from the Department of Chemistry wowed them with not just chemistry, but her sheer enthusiasm for all things science!
Angie demonstrated the scientific method, neon rainbows, giant marshmallow men, candy-colored flames, exploding balloons, a tower of carbon, annnnnd as promised…SCREAMING GUMMY BEARS!
Did the great candy maker himself make an appearace? Why yes, he did, courtesy of Angie’s brother Tom, and his adorable twin boys. Who incredibly, look exactly like Oompa-Loompas.
Let’s see the full costume…
A fantastic time was had! We would like to thank Angie Miller, Department of Chemistry and Paryn Wallace and the students from Science Outreach at Princeton University for a job well done. Hats off to you!
Like last year, we ran 3 identical rooms simultaneously, every half hour, for 5 hours. The 3 classrooms we used were lined up down a long hallway, each door marked with a different color – red, green, or blue. We also had an extra classroom to serve as a “waiting room” for kids and parents.
In between the rooms were cool displays of vintage machinery and mechanisms. Like these old record players (our 
Annnnnd drumroll please! This is what the escape room looked like…
As the kids entered, a game master welcomed them to Mr. Wonka’s “Inventing Room.” She explained that there were job openings at the world-famous factory, but in order to make the cut, the team had to solve the puzzles Mr. Wonka had left for them. They had 20 minutes to find the ultimate solution. Here we go…
Next, find the black light flashlight in the pocket of a lab coat hanging nearby:
Then head over to the lab table, which had a number of objects on it, including the aforementioned Invention Book:
The book was full of recipes, ideas, diagrams, and quirky thoughts (all Roald Dahl appropriate of course, Katie really did her research):
But shine the black light on the pages, and secret messages are revealed in UV ink!
Eventually, with several directional clues like “This way,” “Go Back,” “Stop,” or “Too Far!” you end up on this most curious page:
The clue leads to an inflatable kiddie pool filled with giant plastic “gumballs”
Count the balls, solve the equation, and you get the three digit code for lock #1 (we provided a calculator to help them with this calculation. It can be hard to do math under pressure):
Inside the lock’s chamber is a piece of paper requiring 3 measurements: 1) The length of a gummy bear’s leg; 2) The number of red candy cane stripes; 3) The diameter of Smartie’s candy. But, of course, nothing is QUITE the right size. The gummy bear, for example, was simply enormous:
When we test-piloted the room, some kids said they had trouble recalling diameter. So we snuck the information on the classroom blackboard to help out:
Once you have the 3 numbers, open lock #2, which holds a key. The key opens the pink box on the lab table, which reveals a test tube. Your instructions? Smell the tube’s contents:
The tube contained McCormick banana extract. After a good sniff, teams had to vote and select the correct flavor from a rack of test tube labeled with various fruit smells:
Once the selection was made, the game master produced a tube and said “If I add this liquid to the tube you picked…and the liquid turns purple…you WIN!” Unbeknownst to the kids, the winning “banana” test tube was filled with phenolphthalein, and the game master’s tube contained sodium carbonate. Combine them to get an awesome purple color change (sorry, the only photo I have is Katie testing it in her kitchen!):
