This year’s Miss America had a science demonstration as her talent

December 22, 2019 • 9:15 am

If you’re as ancient as I, you’ll remember the time when the Miss America pageants were a big deal. Everyone reserved the evening to watch the finals on television, often eating before the screen on t.v. tables (remember them?). And whoever won was given big-time publicity.

But times have changed, and I think for the better. It’s no longer acceptable to see women flaunt their bodies in swimsuits as a criterion for the crown, and many of the “talents” were laughable. Ratings and viewers for the show have plummeted, and it’s been decades since I watched it.

We can thus take it as both good news and a sign of the times that, as Dallas station WFAA reports below (click on the screenshot), a talent this year involved science, the swimsuit competition is gone, and the science performer, Camille Schrier, who was Miss Virginia, actually won, becoming Miss America for 2020. You can read about her victory below, and see the “experiment” that helped her nab the title.

From the report:

Camille Schrier, a biochemist from Virginia, says she hopes to “break stereotypes” about what it means to be Miss America in 2020.

The 24-year-old wowed the crowd at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, with a science experiment, a first for a Miss America winner.

She wins a $50,000 scholarship.

Schrier’s victory comes as the 99-year-old contest tries to change its image and focus on women’s accomplishments and not appearance.

Here’s Schrier’s demonstration when she won the Miss Virginia pageant.

She did a similar demonstration at the Miss America pageant, below, but here you can see her explanation of what she’s doing. More good news: it’s not just a “gee whiz” moment, for she describes exactly what’s happening.  She also had some good answers to the panel’s questions:

Well, I could quibble: I’d call it a “demonstration” rather than an experiment, as does the New York Times in the text below (Schreier herself says it’s a “demonstration”, so the exaggeration isn’t her fault). But the important point is that it is a demonstration of scientific principles, and it sure isn’t baton-twirling! I could also quibble with the term “biochemist” applied to someone in the process of getting a Doctor of Pharmacy degree—perhaps “budding pharmacist” would be better. But that’s not important.

This excerpt from the Times article tells what happened above. The piece also tells you how you can do a similar demonstration at home:

When she walked onto the stage for the talent portion of the Miss America competition, Camille Schrier wore a simple white lab coat, stood in front of three flasks containing hydrogen peroxide and joked, “Don’t try this at home.”

Soon-to-be-Dr. Schrier (who is studying to obtain a doctor of pharmacy degree at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond) picked up a beaker of ominous yellow potassium iodide, dumped it into the peroxide and sealed her legacy as a Miss America who would be remembered for winning over the judges with science.

. . . The 24-year-old’s classic chemistry demonstration showed that hydrogen peroxide decomposition can be sped up to fantastic effect. But lower concentrations of hydrogen peroxide that are typically found in stores and used for cleaning cuts and scrapes can be safely used to reproduce the experiment at home.

. . .What Ms. Schrier demonstrated in her experiment was that semi-stable compounds like hydrogen peroxide need a little help to speed up the decomposition process at room temperature.

“You can imagine that it’s like trying to go over a hill,” Dr. Morris said. “It takes some energy to walk up the incline and you’ll sweat a little bit, but once you get past the top, you can keep going really easily.”

Adding a catalyst, such as potassium iodide, essentially bulldozes a path through the hill. The substance helps hydrogen peroxide form less stable compounds that can stroll through the newly opened path to the other side. Basically the catalyst helps produce water and oxygen, while releasing some heat.

Store-bought yeast also contains a chemical called catalase that can help break down hydrogen peroxide, although its effects are not as dramatic as potassium iodide. This means that adding yeast to a solution of hydrogen peroxide will break down the peroxide. The oxygen gas that’s released will form bubbles and try to escape.

Mixing in a little bit of dish soap in the reaction will create enough surface tension that oxygen bubbles will get trapped, Dr. Morris said.

“It helps you visualize what’s happening by creating foam.”

Schrier was celebrated by Virginia Tech, her alma mater.

The only question that remains, and I have no strong opinion about this, is whether the entire concept of a “Miss America” and the attending pageant is outmoded. After all, beauty is still part of it, and the ladies parade their evening gowns. But I’ll leave this one to the readers.  In fact, let’s have a poll:

 

h/t: cesar

67 thoughts on “This year’s Miss America had a science demonstration as her talent”

  3. I voted “no opinion” because my thoughts are more in line with Oliver’s general conclusion. I’d vote to ditch it outright, STEM or no. There are better contests, like the Regeneron one (formerly sponsored by Westinghouse, maybe Intel)..

  4. I’m not a big fan, but the “science” demo probably has value in catching the attention of children and encouraging some to learn more about lab science as they mature, and perhaps get hooked on science.

      1. Not many, I would think. But for the parents there – it would signal that science degrees are good choices in the path to being chosen as a beauty queen.

        1. I don’t know… seems a bit like arguing that baseball games are useful for their exposure of children to Newtonian physics.

          1. I agree. It’s a bit of a stretch. I think the only real message it sends is if you’re going to do science you ought to be pretty when you do so so be sure to put on your fake eyelashes and lipstick first. Cynical maybe but it’s exactly what I took away as a kid. Actually, I took away that it was very important to be pretty but I stupidly thought that if I was smart, I could get a high paying job and make myself pretty through plastic surgery. I didn’t understand that smart and money don’t always go together.

          4. I don’t think you’re being cynical, Diana. I think the message is pretty clear… If you want to get ahead, girls, make sure you are pretty while you do your science.

          5. This is also true for the women science popularizers who use their sexuality not only in obvious ways, but make it a feature of their work. I won’t name them; I’ve written about them before.

          6. A precise illustration of the problem

            I’d argue the changes to the “rules” as demonstrated by the winner – a very intelligent winner, with a very delightful demo – are entirely designed to serve the Miss America Pageant itself.

      2. This point is what I posted Rober’s video for – I can guarantee that kids – Y chromosome or not – enjoy this presentation.

      3. I used to watch when I was young with my parents, but maybe it wasn’t for the science (unless you count human reproductive biology).

    1. I was just going to comment – elephant toothpaste! I remember this from researching science activities for my nephew. Steve Spangler does a bunch of activities with this.

      (An aside – eventually I tried to get away from stuff like this – I think there are too many ‘science’ activities that involve pouring ingredients together and watching them explode, and ‘STEM’ activities that involve marble runs – in reality the skills one needs for those fields are discipline and an ability to sit and focus on often boring material for extended periods of time. To that end I think my nephew gets more STEM training when he sits and memorizes hundreds of Pokemon cards, a current favorite activity. Even so, a demonstration like this is better than baton twirling I suppose.)

      1. I JUST got Spangler’s book – never heard of him but there’s a few damn interesting demonstrations in it – unmixing dyes, for instance- don’t understand yet, so I’ll try to report back…

  6. I work in a lab and two of my colleagues have pageant backgrounds. One of them told me a rather amusing story about her first big pageant as an 18 year old. For their final question, the gal in front of her was asked something schmaltzy. She got up, prepared to say something nice and was asked “What mistakes did the US administration in the handling of missing Malaysia flight 370?”. Ouch!
    –
    I do think that pageantry can offer some good life skills; public speaking, looking presentable, diplomacy, etc. But the beauty aspect is outmoded, I think.

    1. “What mistakes did the US administration in the handling of missing Malaysia flight 370?”.

      Sounds like a reasonable-enough question to ask of anyone running for POTUS.

      Perhaps they should be just as predisposed to have the contestant derive the quadratic formula from y = ax^2 + bx + c.

      1. Sounds like a reasonable-enough question to ask of anyone running for POTUS.

        Ha! Imagine tRump being asked.

        “Lot’s of mistakes. Not just one or two. Obama did everything wrong! It was the biggest mess ever.”

        “But, Mr. tRump – can you describe a specific mistake?”

        “Milsaysa is a great place. I think I even have buildings there. It was all…they’re talking about airlines. Not just a few either. They say Obama really caused the whole thing…They should look into Obama and that Biden guy.”

        1. It would actually be funny to respond to that question , “for my answer I am going to respond in the character of President Trump” then launch into a full Trump impression.

          2. I wouldn’t. I somehow have a lot of fun doing it and it disturbs me how easily I can fall into the rhythms.

          3. This reminds me: there used to be a ton of comics who would make fun of Presidents, like Vaughan Meader with JFK and Rich Little with Nixon. But I’ve never heard anyone do a Trump impression, much less make it most of their career. Why not?

          4. Nah, you’ve just forgotten about Alec Baldwin, probably the best one so far. Jimmy Fallon has done him as has Dana Carvey as well. Bill Maher does him ad hoc pretty regularly also.

  7. I could also quibble with the term “biochemist” applied to someone in the process of getting a Doctor of Pharmacy degree

    Well, it is also a first degree, and many students go into college feeling that they should be preparing for a profession; my first degree was in Secondary Education. I’ve taught many Pharmacy students, with more than a few going on to careers as scientists.

    1. Pharmacology is pretty clearly a branch of chemistry and pharmacy is the application of pharmacology. I personally don’t see a need to restrict “biochemist” to use only for research professionals.

  8. I suspect the idea of Miss America, Miss Universe or other type shows are on the way out. Times have changed and they really make no sense. They can dress them up with things such as this example but really, are we now hunting the globe searching for good looking female science contestants?

    The business, if that is what it is, has always been a shady one. Donald Trump was big in this so called business so that should tell us something. Are we next going to see them starting a Mr. America event of this type and will bathing suits be allowed?

  9. Oh, hell yes, the Miss America contest is “outmoded.” Among your readership here, I’d be surprised if more than a few outliers thought otherwise.

    Haven’t watched one myself since ’83, and that was by happenstance. My wife and I were flipping around the channels and chanced across the announcement of the final 10, and there were two black chicks in it, so we watched the rest of the way out, hoping one of ’em would win. (As it turned out, the fetching Vanessa Williams did, and the other black gal — who was Miss New Jersey, though whose name I cannot recall — finished second, or “first runner-up” as Bert Parks used to call it. She wound up finishing the term as the reigning Miss American when Vanessa had to resign because that scumbag Bob Guccione published some racy photos of her.)

    Anyway, it’s great to see the display of such skills by Ms. Virginia, even if it’s from someone you’d just as soon didn’t exist — you know, like finding out your mother-in-law knows plumbing so can come over to unclog your sinks and toilets. 🙂

    1. Oh yes and you’ll recall Vanessa Williams’s Penthouse scandal that caused her to relinquish her title which is the icing in the sexist cake that a contestant had to be pure from such villainy as the naked body.

    2. Ken, the recently crowned Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi, is black, and a stunner she is. No scientist in the jury though.

      2. Yeah, I don’t think a black woman winning a national or international beauty contest is much of a novelty anymore. But it had never happened before back in 1983, so, as little as I cared about beauty contests in general, it was kind of a big deal then.

  10. Oh and I do have to say that the only time o took interest in a competition like this is when the contestant did a comedy routine for her talent. I remember she walked out on stage with her hair all over the place pulling a toy dog on wheels. I loved her instantly! Finally a funny woman! A woman with wit and humour! If you’re a woman in the 80s or even a woman of today, being funny can be a brave choice. I don’t remember who she was or what beauty contest it was but she was actually very good.

    1. I can take you back a bit further to the 1965 Miss America, Vonda K Van Dyke. I saw her perform many times in 1964 as Miss Arizona, her talent was ventriloquist and she was pretty good. She performed regularly at the amusement park Legend City, in the Coca Cola Palace Saloon.

  11. I think this sort of pageant is an anachronism. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump campaigns to make America great again by bringing them back, bathing suits and all.

    2. He used to own a pageant. He tended to use it as his huggy/grabby/kissy toy. Also, he became president of the United States. Now he uses us as his huggy/grabby/kissy toy.

  12. Regarding whether this is outdated – I would say it’s mostly pointless, at this point. This used to be representative of competition in the larger world of being a woman. Outside of a few situations (sorority rush and looking to be a trophy wife, perhaps,) this particular brand of competition is no longer the case – women compete in the workplace and as entrepreneurs, on Instagram and social media, in trying to out-perfect each other on blogs, etc. Whether this modern brand is any better or worse is up for debate (competitive activities tend to be universally bemoaned as shallow but somehow never go away,) but I’d say if nothing else Miss America is rather irrelevant to modern life.

    1. Could you specify “modern life”? Do you mean whatever are the current prevailing winds of mass pop culture? E.g., is opera irrelevant to U.S. modern life? Those who don’t like opera no doubt consider it irrelevant to them. Those who do like it consider it relevant, and don’t care whether anyone else considers it irrelevant. Is Kanye West relevant? No doubt he is to a vast multitude, but not to me.

      1. If you think of pageants as a hobby or theater rather than a competition culminating in an achievement (i.e., the crown,) then yes, you could compare them to opera and such. Esoteric recreation for those who enjoy it. I was referencing them in the sense of a competition for young women.

    2. I’d say beauty pageants set a narrow scope of criteria that was considered acceptable for a woman to excel in. There are much broader categories now and women are no longer confined to these ones. At least in the West.

      1. Yes, and I suppose its relevance depends on whether you take a narrow or broad view. Looking fabulous in an evening gown with an updo isn’t relevant for many women once prom is over (I think back in the day country club membership and such made this more relevant to a larger group of women), although fashion in general is. Rename the contest Miss Instagram and it would probably have huge viewership with just a few tweaks.

          1. Of course, but I wouldn’t say they are irrelevant today either. As I said in my first comment, I won’t get into debating whether today’s version is better or worse than yesterday’s, but such standards tend to be decried but still appear in each generation.

          2. I think the difference is that in yesterday’s standards, those things were the only things you could be as a woman and therefore being good at those things made you a better woman. So you weren’t valued for running a company, driving a truck, or solving a math equation. You were valued for looking pretty, smiling, and performing some tricks. Yes, I’m being a bit facetious but there were very specific and limited things a woman was expected to do and to venture out of those things was punishable through social sanction and ridicule. So it’s not necessarily that the things themselves are bad, it’s that there is no choice but those things and worse, it wasn’t necessarily women who were deciding which of those few things were valuable – this was for the satisfaction of men. Sure, women went along with it like they always do, playing the role of social enforcer, but they didn’t pick the criteria.

          3. You reminded my that when my older sister graduated from high school in 1961, the family discussed possible career options. I think there were only a couple that seemed available to her: an airline stewardess, or a secretary. She rejected nursing because the sight of blood made her upchuck.

          4. Yes and it seemed a lot of educated women became nurses. I hate other people so that would not have worked for me but my auntie (now in her 90s) and my mom (early in her career) became nurses. I probably would have been a secretary but would have sucked at it as I’m just not good at that kind of work. I probably would have been fired early on.

          5. Interesting perspective – I am sandwiched between Gen X and the Millenials, so I sometimes forget (although I shouldn’t) just how different things were even a generation ago.

          6. Diana, despite your lack of job qualifications, I know you have so many fine qualities, you emerged a winner. I think you’re very cool.

          7. I have lots of job qualifications – just more the same as men and not at all the ones associated with women.

    2. I gather that men are underrepresented in the Miss American/Universe pageants. Will that be corrected by the emergence of transgenderism?

  14. Back in 1966 (or so) we were told of a similar (and more biochemical) experiment by Jeremy Knowles, then my D.Phil. supervisor. He had been approached by someone who was off to teach chemistry in Ethiopia and wanted to know of an experiment that would demonstrate the effectiveness of enzymes without needing any expensive ingredients. He suggested pricking her thumb in front of her class and allowing a drop of blood to fall into a small beaker of 10-volume hydrogen peroxide. We tried it, and the frothing (and instantaneous increase in temperature) was very convincing.

    Incidentally, I agree that beauty pageants are completely outmoded, and I haven’t watched one in at least 30 years.

  16. The cash prize is $50,000.

    And the new Miss America is going to use it, from what I’ve read, to pay for her education.

    Is that jealousy I sense among the responses???

  17. Lets take the at least half full glass…her undergrad degree is a double major in biochem and systems biology from va tech (with honors) and she is currently in pharmacy school at va commonwealth university. According to a couple of sources…yeah the scholarship money will likely be well used by this young woman. I am very happy for her.

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