Watch Steve's Science Demos on Ellen

Ellen hit a science home run! She whipped off the tablecloth, smashed the veggies and popped the pumpkins like a pro. We just returned from the Ellen Show studios in Burbank, California, and I couldn't be more excited (and relieved) about the segment. The relief part comes from the fact that the producers selected a few high risk demos like the tablecloth pull and the self-carving pumpkins. As I've written in the past, I never get a chance to practice any of the demonstrations with Ellen. She even mentioned this during the introduction… "I purposely don't know what is going to happen because I want it to be a surprise."

The segment started by teaching Ellen how to use the law of inertia to pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I felt that teaching the viewers at home (especially the kids) how to do the famous tablecloth trick was the most responsible thing I could do! The key instruction was this simple statement… pul the cloth straight down… and she did! Nice job. After whipping off the tablecloth, we moved to flash freezing fruit using liquid nitrogen. It's amazing the mess you can make with a few pieces of frozen fruit and a rubber hammer. We moved to the big finale with a table filled with pre-carved pumpkins. If you know anything about me, you can probably guess what happened. Look Mom… my chemistry degree paid off. Three kabooms and three carved pumpkins (minus one eye that refused to fly away).

After the segment, I got a chance to talk to Ellen just long enough to thank her for shining the spotlight on all the teachers and parents who are helping to make science education more exciting and meaningful. A few ooohs & ahhhs go a long way. Thanks Ellen.

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Our Hands-on Science Boot Camp team just returned from two great days in Houston and Dallas where we were privileged to spend some time with teachers who are in the trenches… motivating students… teaching science… and assessing student progress. As I often say, these one-day science workshops serve as a catalyst to get teachers talking about and sharing their best practices and strategies to engage students in the process of doing real science (and having fun at the same time). We talked at length about the value of turning ordinary activities into unforgettable learning experiences and finding ways to integrate science with other parts of the curriculum. I was really impressed with the number of teacher "teams" that attended the workshops - groups of teachers from the same school working together to make their science teaching more effective in grades K-5. It's also encouraging to see teachers developing their own curriculum support materials to further enhance the science benchmarks at the district and state level. All of this aside, I guess the most impressive part to me was to spend time with early childhood and elementary teachers who are truly excited about teaching their students how to think critically, to test variables, to experiment with new ideas and to use their problem-solving skills to make new discoveries. Science education is alive and well in Texas.

If you attended either the Dallas or Houston science boot camp, what did you take away from the experience?

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Hats off to Martha Stewart for job well done on her glow-in-the-dark pumpkins (okay, she called them funkins featured on October 26, 2007, on her television show. Our Media Product Coordinator, Brian Firooz, worked with the segment producer for several weeks to create a very cool effect using our Glow Powder and a little Martha Stewart creativity. The end result was a very cool glow-in-the-dark effect that was enhanced even more by using a black light. 

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I’m honored to have been asked back as a return guest on the Ellen Show on November 1, 2007 for some more science. I received the phone call yesterday from the producer who asked, “I think Ellen would really enjoy that exploding pumpkin demo you do. What do you think?” What do I think? I think Ellen could make any science thing I do funny… and she’ll have a blast with exploding pumpkins (pun intended). We’re working out the final details on all of the experiments and we’re off to Burbank.

Any thoughts on what demos might complement a few exploding pumpkins?

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Move over all of you TV science guys… there’s a new science person hitting the airwaves (even if it’s just for a day). A producer from the Martha Stewart Television Show called to let us know that Martha (Ms. Stewart?) likes one of our science products and wants to use it on an upcoming episode of her show. The product creating the buzz (or is that glow) is called Glow Powder, a special powder that absorbs light energy and glows an eerie green color when the lights go off. The glowing pumpkins segment is scheduled to air on October 26th.

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Everyone knows Halloween is my favorite time of year. It’s time to blow things up, create bubbling potions and cultivate the “ooze and ahhhh” response. My Halloween parties consist of plenty of green and glowing slime, bubbling dry ice experiments and scary sounds to scare the trick-or-treaters.

If you are looking for the scariest or spookiest ideas for your haunted house, Halloween party or just new ideas for the kids’ Halloween party, I have compiled my favorite Halloween science recipes and videos. Learn how to make a dry ice crystal bubble, get the official slime recipe, or sit back and watch how I carve pumpkins.

This year, my boys and I have also perfected a new way to use dry ice. We call it “boo bubbles - ghostly dry ice.” For the complete instructions on how to make the touchable, smoky bubbles - click here.

My family also loves to have fun in the dark. If you want to do something gross and cool, try mixing up a batch of atomic slime or atomic worms. They are guaranteed to make everyone shiver and squirm.

You can also create a Mad Science Lab with the Halloween Science Kit. It is filled with gross and scary Halloween experiments for a party or use in the classroom.

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You probably received the e-mail showing a guy who taught everyone how to remove a wine cork that had been pushed completely into the bottle. The video included no verbal explanation, but viewers learned that the secret to the trick was the use of a thin plastic bag and an ingenious way to grab onto the cork. We received dozens and dozens of e-mails from people who had tried the demo but failed. Some people even thought that it was a hoax.

Well, I just had to try it… but the first bottle of wine just didn’t work (the bag kept tearing). The second bottle of wine didn’t work… neither did the third. So I switched to a nice Reisling… but no luck. Merlot? Shiraz? Now I can’t think straight. Maybe I should be focusing on the cork! Finally, I found a few bottle & cork combinations that worked. Both of the bottles featured in the video have a plastic or wax coating, but I’m confident that I’ll get a real cork cork (make sense?) to work.

During the segment on television I also mentioned that the classic solution for this puzzle used a cloth table napkin. I also said that I had never seen anyone perform this successfully using a cloth napkin - that’s why I was excited about the plastic bag method. Maybe you know how to do it using a cloth napkin and you’ll teach us all a new trick. Anyone had any success?

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The more than 1,000 Mentos geyser participants in Cape Girardeau, Missouri are calling it the latest in attempts for the Guinness World Record. If you’re new to the craze, the ingredients are simple… Mentos, diet soda and a Geyser Tube (the loading device that ensures a perfect, high-flying reaction). The goal was to launch at least 860 bottles in order to break the previous Mentos geyser record.The event took place on October 3, 2007 and was sponsored by the Heartland News - KFVS channel 12. Huge kudos for Jason Lindsey who is not only one of the station meteorologists but the chief organizer of Science Day.

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Here’s a great practical joke based on the string trigger method that many people used with Wintergreen Lifesavers years ago. The Mento is cleverly suspended above the liquid and hidden by the cap of the Diet Coke bottle. One twist and it’s all over. Remember our motto… Don’t try this at home… try it at a friend’s home.

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