If asked any other time of the year, Nikki Burnett will say that she is a Chemistry teacher at Baldwin High School. But during the month of October, she’s been known to show a bit of a different side.

Burnett has invented her own holiday, although it usually overlaps on Halloween. It consists of a Chemistry-based Halloween show that her college chemistry students perform for the sixth graders. Each of her students dress up in a costume and are in charge of two Halloween themed chemistry demonstrations.

“Chemoween is one of my favorite days of the school year,” Burnett said.

Burnett looks forward to her eighth year of Chemoween, which will take place in her classroom and lab on Oct. 30 while her regular classes go to the library with a different activity and substitute teacher.

“It’s so fun, but also very stressful. My students must be very organized. We even do a rehearsal the day before. It’s worth it,” she said.

Adam Carlson, a junior and current College Chemistry student, gave a description of what the class has done so far to prepare for the event.

“We basically started planning for Chemoween in late September,” Carlson said. “Almost every Friday since then, we do one of the experiments that will be a part of the performance. Last week we blew up a pumpkin. After we divide out the experiments and figure out who’s doing what, we have a class of fourth graders come. You could say that they’re our lab rats. And that’s when we practice all of our experiments.”

About 75 percent of the show are tried and true demonstrations, but every year Burnett pushes her students to come up with new experiments.

“I want to get junior high kids excited about science. Kids often times think that science is all about memorizing terms, but I want them to be curious about the magic of Science,” she said.

Garrett England, now a sophomore, remembers his sixth grade Chemoween experience.

“I remember Mrs. Burnett using a bubble machine,” England said. “Once it had made enough bubbles, she would scoop some out and place them in your hands and then light it on fire so that there was a huge flame. I really liked it and that’s kind of why I’m taking Chemistry so that I will be able to do some of that cool stuff.”

Former College Chemistry student Cody Latham, a senior, shared his leadership experience from last year’s Chemoween.

“The idea is to get kids more interested in science,” Latham said. “It’s a challenging class but if you like chemistry, you should give it a try.”

Burnett does not feel the need to celebrate Chemistry additions of every holiday with elaborate performances because Science appears everywhere in our everyday lives.

“My College Chemistry kids do a really good job and I love watching younger students look up to the older juniors and seniors. It’s a really good leadership opportunity,” she said.