If a genie in a bottle doesn’t inspire a student to attend Baker University next fall, there’s not much that will.

Chemistry students and faculty welcomed prospective students with experiments that were sure to awe them at the Baker University Visit Weekend Saturday.

“It’s basically used as a recruiting tool for us,” Professor of Chemistry Gary Giachino said. “We put on this show to make students see what our department is about.”

Prospective students chose what events to attend while at the Baker University Vist Weekend, and the chemistry show was an option for those who may be interested in the chemistry department at Baker.

The goal was the chemical experiments would fascinate the students, provide entertainment and encourage students to participate in the chemistry program when they came to Baker.

Instead of lecturing about the department, Giachino believes the chemistry show is a better way to interest the students.

“I used to give a big, long lecture about the chemistry department, but students would much rather see things happening,” Giachino said.

The idea of putting on a chemistry show in order to show students what the chemistry department does began about 15 years ago. A student at the time decided there are many interesting things from class that others should see. The students organized the event and it has continued since then.

Now, Giachino organizes the event himself. Current and past students volunteer to perform the experiments at the show.

Chemistry majors as well as students who are currently taking chemistry, or have taken the course in the past, participated in the show.

A few Baker alumni also returned to participate.

Although there was time to rehearse, for the most part, the show was the first time the students displayed the experiments.

“To be honest, the rehearsal was actually the show,” Giachino said. “If a student needs to rehearse, they could have come in and done it earlier, but many of the experiments are fool proof, so there’s not a lot of things that could go wrong.”

Some of the experiments included a genie in a bottle effect, burning a gummy bear andturning water different colors.

“There was just a variety of different experiments that all have their own interesting flare,” freshman Sean Webb said. “We did experiments that were interesting and fun to look at to show that chemistry can be fun.”