Having fun with science

Emily Gowdey-Backus

09/01/2017

GENERATING INTEREST: University of Rhode Island graduate student Ben Cromwell demonstrates Party Elements programming. URI professor Mindy Levine started the business to get more people interested in science. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND/MICHAEL SALERNO — GENERATING INTEREST: University of Rhode Island associate professor of chemistry Mindy Levine, with the help of two URI graduate students, started Party Elements, a science-themed party business to get more people interested in science. From left, Prout School junior Isabella Abilheira watches as Ben Cromwell, a first-year Ph.D. student in chemistry from Stoughton, Mass.; Levine; and Dana DiScenza, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in chemistry from Pomona, N.Y., demonstrate Party Elements programming.

Using shaving cream, cornstarch, lemon juice and other easily accessible materials, University of Rhode Island associate professor of chemistry Mindy Levine hopes to interest more people, especially young women, in science. “Science is a lot of fun,” she said. Although she repeatedly sees people have a “negative gut reaction” when she introduces herself as a

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