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Joshua Erickson, a chemist for Special Programs Division at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, discusses a formula with students during their Dec. 18 visit to the Hazardous Materials Test Facility. Four students and their science teacher...
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Chemist Jim Moff of Dugway Proving Ground demonstrates some properties of hypergolic (spontaneous fire) reactions to four Dugway High School students Dec. 18, 2018. They were guests of Special Programs Division at its Hazardo...
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Chemist Jim Moff of Dugway Proving Ground demonstrates some properties of hypergolic (spontaneous fire) reactions to four Dugway High School students Dec. 18, 2018. They were guests of Special Programs Division at its Hazardo...
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One Dugway High School teacher, and four of her students were guests of Dugway Proving Ground's Special Programs Division Dec. 18, 2018. Chemists at the Hazardous Materials Test Facility demonstrated the pyrotechnic results of mixi...
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Jim Moff, a chemist at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, demonstrates to Dugway High School students how differing chemicals produce different colors and burn rates when ignited. Chemists from Dugway's Special Programs Division instruct...
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Jim Moff shows a chemical mixture to Dugway High School science teacher Rachel Gardner before it is ignited, during a Dec. 18, 2018 high school chemistry class tour of Dugway Proving Ground. Four of Gardner's best chemistry student...
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At Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, chemists demonstrated Dec. 18, 2018 how various chemicals exhibit distinctive burn rates and colors. The demonstration was done for four students from Dugway High School who show great aptitude in ch...
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Dugway High School student Gregory James grinds chemicals with a pestle Dec. 18, 2018 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. He and three students with high aptitude in chemistry were invited to learn from working chemists at Dugway's Haz...
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McKenzie Thackeray of Dugway High School grinds chemicals in a mortar in the Hazardous Materials Test Facility at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Four local students with high aptitude in chemistry were invited by Dugway's Special Pro...
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Gregory James (left) and Ethan Tolentino are illuminated by the brilliant crimson light of an ignited chemical mixture. Four Dugway High School students and their science teacher were invited to the Hazardous Materials Test Facilit...
The Dugway High School students, accompanied by their science teacher Rachel Gardner, were invited Dec. 18 to see how chemicals differ in color and burn rates when ignited. The demonstrations were conducted at the Hazardous Materials Test Facility, where chemists usually instruct military and civilian specialists how to recognize the work of the world's havockers.
Though it was not under an official S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) national program, the invitation to the students was in the same spirit: nurture their yearning for chemistry and related sciences.
Jim Moff and Joshua Erickson, chemists with the Special Programs Division of Dugway's West Desert Test Center, enjoyed demonstrating active chemistry.
"It's a different audience but it's fun," Moff said. "It's always fun to see science in action; practical application is always rewarding to convey."
Using mortar and pestle, and electronic scales, the students measured the oxidizer strontium nitrate and the fuel hexamine (familiar to Soldiers and campers as a campfire starter), to observe the compound's burning rate and color. For safety, visitors viewed all burning through clear polycarbonate barriers, at a safe distance; Moff ignited all the demonstrations.
At the end of the tour, the four students and teacher reviewed what they'd learned. In a classroom, Erickson reviewed some basic chemistry formulas and observations: potassium burns purple, materials that don't self-ignite lack activation energy, and modern explosives leave little behind but nitrogen gas. The students and teacher also took a 10-question quiz, based on the demonstrations.
"It's so fantastic to see real scientists, a cool job site, and you get to play," Gardner said of the Hazardous Materials Test Facility. "It's really wonderful for the kids to see real professionals doing exciting things in the field. It's a fantastic program."
As the students climbed into a Tooele County School District van to return to their school, they chatted and chuckled excitedly about all they'd seen and learned. Perhaps someday one or more of them will be working in Dugway's labs, or the HMTF itself, puzzling out how to identify and defend against toxic chemicals and homemade explosives.
If their enthusiasm is any measure, the chemical students may someday be tough adversaries for the havockers of the world.
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