Recently, Mr. Wallisch and Mrs. Rohar’s Science and Art classes created interactive sculptures that would explode when chemicals were added.

“We wanted to create an interactive sculpture that could be strong and stand alone as an interesting piece, and then when a chemical reaction was added, it would become a whole new piece,” art teacher Mr. Wallisch stated.

Mr. Wallisch and science teacher Mrs. Rohar were in charge of the project, and stated that the idea for it came from the students themselves.

The classes had to research ways to create the reaction and used chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide to create a substance called elephant toothpaste. Elephant toothpaste is a foamy substance used for the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide which leads to the foaming reaction/explosion of the projects.

“The hardest part of the project was to work out the reaction of the solution and how much was needed so the reaction would be the right size,” explained Wallisch.

Rohar agreed stating, “Mixing the chemicals and figuring out the proportions and which bottles to use inside the sculptures were the hardest parts of the project.”

As for the takeaway of the project, Mr. Wallisch hopes for students to understand the connection between two seemingly opposite subjects: science and art.

“I hope that the students will realize that art and science go hand-in-hand. Everything in art works through science,” stated Mr. Wallisch.

Mrs. Rohar thinks that this project will help students to realize their own creativity and ability to “create their own plans and have them carried out.”

“We’re looking forward to the next students’ plans we can carry out!” said Mrs. Rohar.

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