Chemistry Week: The Hidden Life of Spices

When you think of spices, you think of how you’re seasoning your food. Did you know spices can do more than that? FWCD Organic Chemistry students are exploring the science of spices with sponsors and partners of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History during National Chemistry Week, October 23-25. Twenty-one Upper School students are joining in on the fun of this year’s theme, “The Hidden Life of Spices,” as they run events at the museum TOMORROW, Saturday, October 25, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 

An annual event, National Chemistry Week highlights the pivotal role chemistry plays in our everyday lives. Under the theme “The Hidden Life of Spices,” students show how chemistry plays a role in something everyone has in their home: spices. From using spices to enhance flavors to creating natural dyes for hair and clothing, the chemistry of spices has been part of human history since their discovery.

Throughout the week, museum-goers engaged in a number of activities, including using their sense of smell to guess different spices, testing spices to see if they are hydrophobic vs. hydrophilic, making turmeric invisible ink and more!

Leading up to the event, Upper School students attended Lower and Middle School assemblies to demonstrate a fun experiment and highlight National Chemistry Week. Eight students helped lead the way and organize the presentations: Kerri Tsai ’26, Eliza Hilliard ’26, Catherine Hart ’26, Zaiya Collins ’26, Madeline O’Neill ’26, Andrew Lobo ’26, Ethan Lampka ’26, and Eleanor Holm ’26. Other students involved were Grady Roth ’27, Rayden Liddell ’27, Gavin Rentería ’27, Elisha Evans ’27, Catherine Zhang ’28, Blake Wood ’27, Mary Evans Bumstead ’27, Ryan Bagshahi ’27, Lucy Wegman ’27, Zayn Alame ’27, Claire Schwartz ’27, Martha Linker ’27, Ameer Ali ’28, Paxtyn McPeak ’26, Nate Blan ’26 and Nathan Horsche ’26.