November 20, 2008

Intern Gets a Little Wet While Launching 700 Mentos Diet Coke Geysers at NAEYC 2008

It's tough to really demonstrate the Mentos Geyser Tube in an exhibit hall filled with teahcers... until we created the Mentos Geyser Chamber. It's a plastic box that measures 4 feet square and 7 feet tall. It's the perfect enclosure to launch off a few hundred Mentos Diet Coke geysers. The only other thing you need is someone to stand inside the box for a few hours. Most of the time, Drew Vriesman is an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying marketing. But when he puts on his intern hat at Steve Spangler Science, he's never quite sure what to expect. Drew Vriesman and Taylor Marsh took turns launching geysers at the NAEYC 2008 conference in Dallas. Combined they launched 700 erupting Diet Coke geysers using over 4,000 MENTOS® Chewy Mints. The interns spent about 20 hours in the Geyser Box over three days and entertained (or amused) about 15,000 teachers who stopped by the Steve Spangler Science booth.

August 21, 2008

Science “Left Behind” in American Schools

You may have seen the recent commercials showing a child raising flags representing America's standing in school ranking world-wide. I came across an article for the same campaign that shared some striking, but unfortunately not surprising, statistics. According to the "One Nation Left Behind" program, 20 countries outscore the US in science education and 93% of US middle school teachers have little or no science training. As standardized testing becomes key in schools nation-wide, the decline in science education becomes widely apparent. The Strong American Schools Website offers more staggering statistics and eye-opening quizzes that help drive home the point that our children are not receiving enough science education. Check it out and be prepared for some shocking results. However, the One Nation Left Behind campaign is committed to creating awareness about the growing education problem in America... from science, to math, to English.. and offers opportunities to get involved in your community.

August 15, 2008

Going Green and Plastic Free

The BBC UK called our offices yesterday to get permission to use the Inside the Soda Can experiment, that I've done on 9News, for Chris Jeavans "plastic-free" blog. Chris is trying to live for one month without using any plastic products. As the soda can experiment proves, Chris is finding that this may be a harder task than she once expected! When you perform this experiment, you will find that aluminum cans actually have a plastic liner, which prevent the acid in pop from eating away at the metal can. Mark that up as one more product Chris will be eliminating from her life this month! Be sure to check out Chris' blog for some great info on what it means to "go green" in this consumer-driven world. It's always fun to see our experiments making it around the world.

June 23, 2008

Experiment of the Week Travels to Germany

It’s great to get your e-mails and photos of your children and students doing the science activities featured in our Experiment of the Week. These photos are from Sheila Allen, just one of a number of great teachers in the Department of Defense Schools at Ramstein AFB in Germany. Sheila writes... “Well today was the big day and boy did the children have fun! I think my favorite was the Expanding Ivory Soap activity, and I picked just the right kid to trick with the Do Not Open Bottle. We were doing an A-Z countdown to the end of school and so for E we did experiments, and we thought your activities really hit the high point for us! There are 9 kindergarten classes at Ramstein Elementary school (K-2) , and it is a good place for science to happen.” Sheila Allen and her team of mad scientists are a great example of how early childhood teachers are having an incredible impact on the science concepts that young children are being exposed to in the early years of their education. Over the last 15 years, I’ve seen countless examples … (more...)

June 5, 2008

Mentos Geyser Tube - Slow Motion

Robert Woodhead is always looking for a new challenge with his Casio EX-F1 camera. I found Robert's first Mentos Geyser reaction on Gizmodo using just a roll of Mentos and a bottle Diet Coke. Watching the reaction at 1200 fps is truly amazing. Robert found a willing subject (the kid running from the exploding bottle) and sent us this video. Huge thanks! If you haven't seen the Mentos Slow Motion Video from the people at Perfetti Van Melle, watch it! At 2,000 frames per second, you can actually see the carbon dioxide bubbles forming on the nucleation sites.