Surrounded by plastic pumpkins spewing dry-ice smoke, graduate students from UF's chemistry department educated children about science Saturday by making slime, forming "spider webs" and crushing soda cans.
The UF Center for Catalysis hosted Halloween Molecular Mania at The Oaks Mall in celebration of National Chemistry Week.
Graduate students completed experiments at different stations designed to get young people to interact with chemistry.
At one station, graduate students froze foam soap and orange slices in liquid nitrogen to show thermodynamic chemistry in action.
At another station, children could make their own "slime" and learn about polymers.
"Do you see the spiders swimming around in there?" said Patrick Hillesheim, a chemistry doctoral student, to two girls at his station.
He pointed at a beaker filled only with clear liquid.
Sticking a paper clip into the beaker, he pulled out long strings of spiderweb-like material.
He explained that he was creating nylons by breaking the surface between two non-mixable liquids with the paper clip.
At another station, chemistry doctoral student Gary Guillet introduced children to the ghost of The Oaks Mall.
"The ghost of Oaks Mall likes kids," Guillet said. "He doesn't like soda. He takes the cans and just crushes them."
As he inserted hot, empty soda cans into cold water, the cans imploded with a loud pop and splash of water, illustrating what happens when hot and cold gases interact.
The cold water makes the hot gas in the can contract, crushing the cans, Guillet said.
Sheila Efferin, mother of a participant, said she and her daughter, Monica, happened upon the event while shopping.
Efferin said she thought the hands-on approach was one of the best ways to get children interested in science.
Staci Graff brought her two daughters to the mall specifically for the event.
"We're letting the kids experience chemistry in action, so they won't be scared of science," she said.
Adam Veige, an assistant professor in the chemistry department and organizer of the event, said the goal of holding it at the mall was to attract a diverse group of children, some of whom might not normally be interested in science.
Although the mission of the event was education, the organizers also aimed to make the experiments enjoyable, Veige said.
