Get Your Red Cabbage Ready For MSU Denver Chemist's Give Virtual Girls & Science Demonstration

By Kelly Brown

DENVER (CBS4) – This year's Girls & Science event is going 100% virtual for the clubhouses and there are activities you can do at home.  It is all to help kids connect with women in STEAM careers for the entire month of March.

Metropolitan State University of Denver's Dr. Sophia Tran is a chemist.  She is MSU Denver's clubhouse mentor this year. In her clubhouse, kids can take red cabbage and make something called a pH indicator.

Tran says something most people do not think about is that everything in the world is a chemical.

"I think that understanding of something is acidic or basic is really important in that general understanding of the world," she said.

She also says know the acidity or basicity of things will help everyone understand if something's going to be really corrosive or harsh in their yard or in their home, for example.

Tran says she has always loved math and science. She says her parents always emphasized both to her as a kid, so she was always mathematically inclined. But it was in high school when CSI was really popular that inspired her.

"I wanted to become a forensic scientist and so I went into college kind of with that goal and things just kind of morphed and I became a chemistry student."

After that she realized she loved teaching.  She teaches at MSU Denver.

To put together this experiment at home you need, red cabbage, a pot and water to boil the cabbage, a strainer, measuring spoons and clear cups.

Dr. Tran's clubhouse zoom is Thursday at 6 p.m. For more information you can log onto the Denver Museum of Nature & Science website.