Festival of Children's Art: High School Students Enjoyed a Workshop on Dry Ice

As part of the Festival of Children's Art (FEDU), an educational and informational workshop for high school students on the application of CO2 in the food industry, beverage industry, and machine cleaning was held today at Trg Oslobođenja - Alija Izetbegović in Sarajevo, reports the Patria news agency. 

This workshop is one in a series stemming from the development project "Possibilities of Gas Application and Practical Teaching in High Schools." The program is led by MESSER BH Gas d.o.o. and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – the German government development agency, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) within the "develoPPP.de" program.

This is a project whose important part relates to practically oriented teaching in high schools in the field of gases and their application, with the aim that, in addition to the classical method of teaching on this topic, students gain updated knowledge and practical experience. The educational-informational workshop "Dry Ice and Its Application" was based on a one-hour practical application of this gas.

Students from the first and third grades of the Catholic High School in Sarajevo, as well as citizens of Sarajevo who wanted to see the magic this gas produces in a very short period of time, enjoyed an animation lesson led by Messer engineer Avdo Dedić.

Dry ice is CO2 in a solid aggregate state at a temperature of – 79°C, and it is obtained from liquid CO2 under controlled conditions in a specially designed machine – a pelletizer. After that, it is prepared through technological processes for use in winemaking, cleaning various industrial machines and tools.

The importance of this workshop lies in the benefits that our schools, students, and the entire curriculum can have by introducing practical elements of chemistry into teaching.

The students themselves participated in creating ice and snow, making foam balloons, tasting water that becomes carbonated through a chemical process, as well as learning about freezing food and the help of CO2 for its preservation. It was interesting to see how a smoke curtain is formed, which is used to create effects at concerts, promotions, and in the theatre. It was also shown how large surfaces and machines are cleaned using CO2, and how the pH value of water is reduced and increased.

The students had a lot of fun and learned about a gas they thought only served as food for trees, which take it in and release the oxygen so necessary for living beings. They stated that they would like to have more such lessons, which were refreshing and different for them.