Archive - October 2004
October 28, 2004
Television viewers in Denver woke up this morning to the sounds of exploding pumpkins. It was actually a new version of my self-carving pumpkin trick for Halloween. See the Exploding Pumpkin video that aired live on the NBC affiliate 9NEWS earlier this morning. It was great to see the news anchors scream! You can see more videos here.
Editor’s Note: This experiment was presented in this forum for educational purposes only. We DO NOT recommend trying this experiment in the classroom unless you have had proper training to do so. Please note that Steve Spangler Science takes no responsibility for comments posted on this site.
On a personal note, I know that Steve practiced this experiment at least 20-30 times with trained professionals, in a controlled environment, before presenting the experiment on the air. Even for television, the experiment was performed with safety personnel and fire officials on-site. This is not a do-it-yourself activity.
Please have a safe and happy Halloween - the Editor
October 27, 2004
As a youth speaker, I’ve had the opportunity to share my message at most of the leading youth conferences in the country. However, in my 15 year career as a youth speaker, I had never heard of the KIDS PLUS Conference in Duluth Minnesota. I just returned from one of the best student leadership conferences in the country! The 13th Annual Kids Plus Conference was sponsored by the Northland Foundation and was an experience nearly 2,000 youth and adults will not soon forget. It’s no easy job to pull off a quality learning experience for 2,000 students, but the conference organizer, Carol Valentini, did it with style and class.
Carol invited me to present a featured session entitled, “Exploding Soda and Flying Potatoes: Uncovering the Secrets of Creativity”. As you might imagine, the session drew an a wide range of audience members from science enthusiasts to kids who just wanted to see build a connection between the Exploding Soda Trick and a lesson in leadership. And I was just one of 54 speakers at the conference! My hat is off to Carol Valentini and the Northland Foundation for creating a quality event that was overflowing …
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October 21, 2004
It’s true. My home in Colorado was hit by a meteorite and I survived the impact. Okay, so maybe the meteorite was small in size… very small… so small you’d need a microscope to see it… but I was hit. Chances are your house has been hit by a few thousand micrometeorites, and you’ll be able to find a few if you know the secret place to look. The next time it rains, place a bucket under a drain spout in order to collect a good quantity of rain. Get rid of the leaves and roofing materials and then sift the remains through a bit of old window screen. What you’re after is so small that you’ll need a very strong magnet (neodymium magnet) to find them. Use this super-strong magnet to determine if any of the remaining particles contain iron. Those particles may be space dust, also known as micrometeorites.
Place the collected particles under a microscope - high power will be required to see them clearly. The micrometeorites will show signs of their fiery trip through the atmosphere — they will be rounded and may have small pits on their surfaces. Most meteorites falling through earth’s atmosphere will burn up before landing on earth, but some will reach the earth in microscopic sizes.
I recently ran across a fantastic article by Robert Beauford who is an expert in all things meteorite. The article steps you through the process of finding micrometeorites and the necessary background to create a killer science fair project.
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October 16, 2004
I recently received this picture in my inbox from Solar Scientist Jim Stryder with the note - “Spooky Aurora”. I just had to ask the question, “What’s a spooky Aurora?” Here’s Jim’s response…
The “spooky” Aurora’s, or (northern lights), are actually caused by the Sun. A solar storm, in this case, solar wind, is blasted into space, consists of billions of tiny charged particles. When these charged particles hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, you’ve got Auroras. Amazing! The green or red color is from oxygen and nitrogen glowing in the atmosphere. Sometimes you can also have “purple” colored Auroras. Aurora’s are called Aurora Borealis (northern hemisphere), and they also occur over the (southern hemisphere), and are called “Aurora Australis”. Happy Halloween!
October 10, 2004
It’s conference season and I find myself on the road way too much. People often comment on how glamorous it must be to get to travel so much. Orlando this week, San Francisco next week and a quick trip to Duluth in between. Wow, what an exciting life! I hear it all of the time, but I’m never brave enough to blurt out, “Traveling sucks! I just want to be home with my wife and kids.” Okay, I said it. You know you travel too much when you have memorized the seating configuration of every airplane Boeing makes… and you’ve memorized your 16-digit frequent flyer number. Looser with a capital “L”.
When I’m not on the road being the science guy, you’ll find me in the backyard with my wife and our boys diggin’ in the dirt, planting a new tree, or just giving the boys a wheelbarrow ride. Oh, yes… I had a million business things I could have been doing today… posting blogs, creating new products, writing new curriculum. But none of that really matters when you come around the corner of the house only to find your oldest boy teaching the 2 …
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