Imagine being in 5th grade and having your teacher give you a model rocket to build as your homework assignment. I visited the “Rocket Kids” at Willow Creek Elementary this morning in Centennial, Colorado, to help Mrs. Heaton (a modern day Miss Riley from Homer Hickam’s October Sky) launch rockets with her students. Aside from the thrill of getting to jam an engine into the bottom of a rocket, I asked the students to reflect on what they learned in the process and how it related to the book October Sky.

Each of the students was asked to post a blog entry about their experience. Mrs. Heaton had this to say… Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s always a buzz this time of year about ways to conserve water as we head into the hot and dry summer months (but remember that there’s no such thing as global warning!) Aside from reducing the amount of water we use, the water-wise are turning to water-absorbing polymers as a way to reduce watering times by 50 to 80%. These jelly-like crystals start out small (like the size of rock salt) and absorb tremendous amounts of water… like a water-slupring sponge. The so-called Water Jelly Crystals hold water in the soil so it can be released to plants as they need it, and they can help reduce watering demands of plants by up to 80% in drought conditions. Learn more about the application rates and how to use the polymer in your garden or watch the video from television.

Anyone using the crystals either in class as an educational tool or in your garden?

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Disappearing Ink is a great tool for chemistry teachers to demonstrate acid-base indicators. Just squirt a little on your shirt and the carbon dioxide in the air turns it from blue to colorless. If your breath works well, it only makes sense that a shot of carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher works great… and it does. Here’s the Fire Extinguisher Demo in action - the lab coat guy looks surprised…

But here’s what you didn’t see on television. I was on set and ready to go with Nick O’Kelly when I looked down at the fire extinguisher and thought to fire off a test blast. I pulled the trigger and… nothing. Nothing! We were less than 30 seconds to air time when I ran to the back area of the studio and pulled the CO2 extinguisher off the wall… broke the tab and I was ready to go. Literally seconds later, the red light came on. I squirted disappearing ink on Nick’s coat just as planned and told him that the secret to making the “ink” disappear was carbon dioxide. When it came time to blast Nick with a little carbon dioxide, little did I know that it would come flying out with the force of a hurricane! The fire extinguisher that I normally use is a kinder, more gentle spray as opposed to a blast.

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I just returned from a national conference with a program as thick as a phone book. At any given time, there might have been up to 50 concurrent workshops being offered. How do you decide which workshop to attend? You guessed it - by reading the clever workshop title and the well crafted description promising an action-packed hour long session. I’m sure that I’m not the first to notice that some workshop titles are far more clever than the actual workshop itself. But it seems to be a growing problem, and the people who attend these promise-filled sessions are growing more and more leery about devoting an hour to something that might not pan out. I’m seeing more people sit in what I call “fast get-away” seats at the ends of isles or in the back of the room… just in case. Even worse, I’m seeing a growing number of people who just pack up their stuff and walk out in the middle of the workshop (much to the horror of the presenter). Why were people leaving? The workshop title and description was better than the actual workshop.

Okay, so what’s my point? This just serves as a gentle reminder to all of us who speak at conferences: Let’s make sure what we present in our workshops exceeds the promises we make in the program description.

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