Dow Hosts Thuwal Elementary Students

Grade 5 and 6 students from Thuwal got the chance to learn science and explore the brand new Dow Innovation Center in the KAUST Research Park, in an event jointly organized by KAUST Social Responsibility and Dow Materials. 

The 48 students and their teachers were welcomed by the Dow team to an impressive conference room, overlooking KAUST Harbor.  Mona Alsomali, a KAUST PhD graduate and now a Senior Microbiologist at Dow, introduced the morning’s events, and engaged in a lively discussion with the children about their career aspirations – there were a lot of potential doctors, engineers and artists in the audience.  Abdullah Zubair from KAUST Social Responsibility thanked Dow for being so welcoming and was followed by Lead Research & Development Engineer Mona AlSaydlani, also a KAUST MS graduate in Chemical Engineering, who gave a brief talk about Dow’s products, explaining how they are found in many everyday items.  Hussain Alhaji, Research & Development Engineer, gave a health and safety briefing to the students advising them what to look out for in the labs, how to handle materials safely, and finally Haedar Albahrani, a Chemist at Dow, got down to the really interesting details of what sort of experiments they would be conducting.

Haedar’s experiments utilized easily available household materials and the children gave enthusiastic feedback when asked questions during the demonstrations.  After the presentation, the students moved to the labs for a hands-on experience, with the support of mentors from the Dow team.  The students conducted four experiments – firstly, to understand the concept of pH and how it is affected by acid and base, they used red cabbage juice as a natural pH reader, seeing it change color depending whether an acid such as vinegar or lemon juice, a neutral or an alkali is added.    The students learned about surface tension by sprinkling cinnamon on the surface of a dish of water and seeing what happened when they made contact with the water using soap on their fingertips.  The concept of surfactants and emulsifiers that enable mixing normally immiscible materials was tested using vegetable oil and water in a small plastic bottle - the students discovered the two substances would only mix with the addition of detergent.  The final experiment demonstrated a single chemical reaction and subsequent energy release using a half-full bottle of cola, vinegar, an uninflated balloon and baking soda.

The activities were organized as part of the Math & Science Preparation element of Social Responsibility’s Young Learners Development Program – a long term, multi-strand program that engages students in a range of STEM activities in collaboration with graduates, faculty and KAUST partners.

Dow is a founding member of the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP), which facilitates academic research and industry partnerships to commercialize research breakthroughs into practical applications for the market.  The Dow Innovation Center was inaugurated in May 2018 and the design of this light, bright, energizing building has created an inspiring research space – it was a great opportunity for the students to experience working in real laboratories, thank you to all the members of the Dow team involved for all their efforts in preparation and delivery of this exciting morning.

    

Part of the Young Learners' Development Program - read the Program Overview here

March 20, 2019