Experiment. Discover. Innovate. Science Comes Alive.

Science is about asking questions, testing ideas, and discovering how the world works. In the Chemistry & Physics Workshop, students become scientists as they explore chemical reactions, investigate the properties of matter, experiment with light and energy, and discover the principles behind everyday phenomena.

Each class is a hands-on laboratory experience. Students work with real scientific materials and equipment, conduct experiments, make predictions, collect measurements, and analyze their results. Some investigations produce colorful, surprising, or dramatic reactions. Others require careful observation, precise measurements, and repeated testing. All of them encourage students to think and work like scientists.

New for spring, the Chemistry & Physics Workshop meets every week, allowing students to explore each scientific investigation over multiple sessions. Rather than completing an isolated experiment and moving on, students have time to investigate the underlying science, change variables, compare results, and conduct increasingly sophisticated experiments. They'll discover not only what happens, but why it happens—and how changing the conditions can produce different results.

Throughout the semester, students explore chemistry, physics, and material science through investigations that connect scientific principles to familiar objects, surprising phenomena, and real-world applications. They'll discover how chemical reactions produce gases, how light interacts with matter, how scientists separate substances, how new materials can be created, and how forces and energy affect motion.

Students don't simply watch demonstrations or follow instructions to reproduce predetermined results. They're encouraged to ask their own questions, develop hypotheses, experiment with different approaches, and use evidence to explain their discoveries. Beginners learn essential laboratory techniques and scientific concepts, while returning and more experienced students take on additional variables, more precise measurements, and increasingly challenging investigations.

• Conduct hands-on chemistry and physics experiments using laboratory tools, materials, and techniques
• Explore chemical reactions, acids and bases, polymers, light, forces, motion, and energy
• Develop scientific reasoning through observation, prediction, measurement, and experimentation
• Learn to identify variables, compare results, and draw conclusions based on evidence
• Investigate how scientific principles apply to everyday materials and real-world problems
• Build confidence using laboratory equipment and following appropriate safety procedures
• Develop curiosity, persistence, and the ability to think independently as scientists

Every investigation offers opportunities for deeper exploration. Students work at their own level, with more experienced participants extending experiments, testing additional hypotheses, and exploring more complex scientific questions. New and returning students can participate together, and each semester offers new opportunities to build scientific knowledge and laboratory skills. All equipment, materials, and supplies are included.

Spring 2027 Scientific Investigations

• Bath Bomb Engineering — Chemical Reactions: Investigate what happens when acids and bases react, why certain reactions produce gases, and how ingredients influence the speed and intensity of a reaction. Students experiment with different formulations, measure and compare results, and develop their own custom bath bombs while exploring the chemistry behind the fizz.
• Light & Matter — Optics and Color: Discover how light travels, reflects, refracts, and interacts with different materials. Students investigate lenses, mirrors, prisms, filters, and colored light through experiments that reveal how we see color, why objects appear differently under different lighting conditions, and how scientists use light to study the world.
• Color Chemistry — Chromatography and Separation: Explore the chemistry of dyes, pigments, and mixtures by investigating how different substances move and separate. Students experiment with chromatography, compare the components of different inks, and apply their discoveries to create custom refillable markers.
• Milk Plastic Lab — Polymers and Material Science: Transform ordinary milk into a moldable bioplastic while investigating how chemical changes can produce materials with entirely different properties. Students experiment with formulations, compare strength and flexibility, and explore how scientists and engineers develop useful materials from unexpected ingredients.
• Acids, Bases & pH — Chemical Analysis: Investigate how chemists identify and compare acidic, basic, and neutral substances. Students create and use indicators, measure pH, test familiar materials, and explore how changing chemical conditions affects reactions. More advanced investigations introduce neutralization, concentration, and the importance of controlling experimental variables.
• Forces, Motion & Energy — Experimental Physics: Investigate gravity, friction, momentum, and energy transfer through hands-on experiments. Students design tests involving ramps, moving objects, collisions, and different surfaces, collecting measurements and comparing results to discover how forces influence movement and how energy changes form or transfers between objects.
• Filtration & Purification — Environmental Chemistry: Discover how scientists separate mixtures and remove unwanted materials from water. Students investigate different filtration media, compare the effectiveness of their designs, and develop multistage filtration systems while exploring the chemistry and engineering involved in water treatment. Experiments emphasize that clearer water is not necessarily safe to drink.
• Reaction Engineering — Catalysts and Reaction Rates: Bring together the semester's scientific skills in an investigation of catalysts, reaction rates, and experimental design. Students explore the chemistry behind the Elephant Toothpaste reaction, investigate how changing selected variables affects the results, and use their findings to plan, test, and refine a carefully controlled demonstration.

Guardians are required to complete our waiver before the first club meeting--if they haven't already done so for a different SPARKGROUNDS event. All events are led by professionally trained and insured staff who have passed a Level 2 background check. Students can withdraw from a class series at any time simply by emailing us and prorated refunds are always provided automatically.

This SPARKGROUNDS event is available for direct pay through Florida's Step Up FES-EO, UA, and PEP scholarships. Find events in the Marketplace by selecting 'find providers' and searching for 'SPARKGROUNDS.'