Sci-Quest Fourth of July event to teach kids the science behind fireworks

The Sci-Quest Hands-on Science Center will present their Red White and Fun event July 4 in Huntsville. (Contributed photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – It's not the same salt you put on your French fries. But types of salts determine what colors fireworks produce, Sci-Quest director of education Angela Giles says.

"It's a copper salt, a lithium salt, a strontium salt. When you put them under heat they will actually fluoresce different colors. So when a firework does explode, it explodes that color basically because of something called an emissions spectrum."

Giles continues, "Probably the easiest one to think about is copper. If you think of copper pennies, it's a nice red color, a copper color obviously, and then when it gets corroded it turns a green color. That's actually chemical decomposition of that copper, so when you actually take a copper salt and then light it on fire it turns green."

On July 4, Sci-Quest Hands-on Science Center (102-D Wynn Drive, 256-837-4536, will offer a Red White and Fun event 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., teaching kids the science behind fireworks colors and other aspects of the pyrotechnic displays.  

"For us, fireworks are a natural progression from a lot of other experiments we already do with fire safety and things like that," Giles says. When she's reached via phone for this interview, she's in her first-floor Sci-Quest office, down the hall from a classroom where students are learning how to solder.  "Fireworks are really interesting because they have a very long history. They date back thousands of years to the Chinese."

Other Red White and Fun programming will examine how fireworks propel themselves into the sky, using an experiment called "whoosh bottles."  

"Basically we show different types of propellants with alcohols and show exactly what the reaction rate it – so you have a 70 percent solution, a 90 percent solution, then you have two different types on top of that, that are even more reactive," Giles says. "And then we light them all on fire and you can see how fast they react. That is actually related then to how those fireworks get up in the sky, because some of them are kind of down low and some of them are really up high, and that's related to the type of repellent that they use in the fireworks."

Of course, safety is emphasized in these Sci-Quest experiments. And during the presentation, Giles even refers to the "medical alcohol" used (which is substituted for actual firework propellant material to demonstrate the concept in a safer manner) as "special science fuel" so the youths "don't try this at home."

"Fire is definitely something you don't want to play around with," she says. "I've been working with fire for about 10 or 12 years now, and it's definitely something you should always respect."

Giles hopes kids leave Red White and Fun with a foundation for future studies and their imaginations, well, sparked.

"Basically, kind tricking someone into learning is totally fine with us. At the end of the day, this is a study of chemistry, which is a study of change."

Red White and Fun activities are free with Sci-Quest general admission: $8 children, $9 adults, $8.50 seniors. Free admission all day to military personnel, active and retired, and their families.