Titled "Discovering chemistry in everyday life" Prof Timm Wilke and Jessika Boer, head and member of the working group Chemistry Education, prepared and delivered a programme for 3 students of class 7 and 8, who spent their  Girls'/Boys' Day (Zukunftstag 2025) at the Institute of Chemistry.

At the beginning, the pupils were given 6 white powdery substances. But what exactly are these substances? That was the task that had to be solved! To do this, they first had to determine the properties of the substances, such as their solubility or melting/boiling temperature. Under the guidance of Jessika Boer, the experiment "Recognising acids and alkalis" was also carried out using red cabbage juice. "Anthocyanins are colourings contained in red cabbage. They change colour depending on the pH value: if you add a little citric acid to the purple red cabbage juice, it turns red (or red-purple). If an alkaline solution (e.g. detergent) is poured into the red cabbage juice, it turns (purple-)blue. The pupils who took part in the Future Day were able to determine whether the substances found in the laboratory were acids or alkalis on their one by following these rules," explains Jessika Boer. She adds to her report: „The effervescent rocket and effervescent cannon were simply a must on a day like this. These and such experiments can be used to show that gases can develop high pressure when formed in a closed container and then expand. The day was very intense but also very exciting for all of us. So we ended this successful (Gilrs'/Boys'-)day with a loud bang.”

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Zukunftstag 2025, CvO Universität Oldenburg
ChemOL 
Working Group Chemistry Education