The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Joseph Tran dips his fingers briefly into the bowl of liquid nitrogen to test how different it feels to dipping your fingers in water, while classmates wait their turn.

What’s more fun than a co-enrolled chemistry class? It's a chemistry class with a demonstration that ends in everyone getting ice cream, of course.

Students in Jane Dunn’s classroom at Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School were introduced to liquid nitrogen on Thursday when Amber Hawk, with Sub Zero Ice Cream and Yogurt, brought her tools of the trade to school to show students some of the properties of liquid nitrogen.

The presentation included discussions of solids, liquids, and gases, the atmosphere, condensation and evaporation, the Ideal Gas Law and the Leidenfrost Effect. Students were able to see and feel the liquid oxygen that condensed on the bowl holding the liquid nitrogen and saw the flaring effect it had on the flame of a Bunsen burner. The favorite part of the demonstration came when Hawk poured the element into a bowl of flavored cream to instantly freeze it. One of the effects is that the texture is more creamy and smooth than traditional ice cream due to the crystals being smaller. There was no problem with participation during that class.