Under the direction of Bill Deese and Kristie Ruddick and in partnership with the SCILS Region 8 LASTEM Center at Louisiana Tech University, middle grade students from A.E. Phillips, Cedar Creek, and I.A. Lewis gathered on the Tech campus to launch the 2024 version of Middle Grades in the Mix. The students learned about density with Ruddick, engaged in a chemistry lab, explored chemistry careers, and enjoyed exciting demonstrations presented by Deese. The project is funded by EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program through a grant offered by the National Science Foundation. It is the fourth consecutive year the collaborative effort has successfully received the EPSCoR funds and will impact close to 200 middle grades students this year.