Miss America Shows Off Scientific Knowledge

The miss America pageant took place in Connecticut, the United States, in December 2019.

Each state sends a contestant to compete for the crown.

This year's winner was Camille Schrier from Virginia, who did something unusual for the talent portion of the contest.

Schrier is a university graduate with a degree in biochemistry.

So, instead of dancing or singing like many other contestants, Schrier performed a chemistry experiment.

During the experiment, Schrier made an explosion of foam using hydrogen peroxide.

While the foam expanded dramatically onstage, she spoke about her love of science and her goals.

"It's my mission to show kids that science is fun, relevant, and easy to understand," Schrier said.

As Miss America, Schrier plans to advocate for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

In the past, Miss America was strictly a beauty pageant, and contestants were mostly judged for their looks.

Nowadays, however, it tries to emphasize intelligence and talent.

 

• Show Off ~을 자랑하다  pageant ˈpædʒənt 미인 대회(미모뿐 아니라 개인적 자질, 재주 등을 겨루는 대회) (→beauty contest)

• contestant kənˈtestənt  (대회·시합 등의) 참가자  portion ˈpɔːrʃn  (더 큰 것의) 부분[일부] /  (부분몫으로) 나누다[분배하다]

• explosion ɪk|sploʊʒn 폭발, 폭파  dramatically drəmǽtikəli 희곡[연극]적으로, 극적으로 onstage |ɑːn│steɪdʒ 무대 위에서의, 관객 앞에서의 (→offstage)

• relevant ˈreləvənt  (사람들의 삶 등에) 의의가 있는[유의미한] ,관련 있는, 적절한 (↔irrelevant)  advocate ˈædvəkət 지지하다[옹호하다]