What happens when you put 150 teachers from 23 states and three countries in the same room for three days with a team of instructors who are over-the-top excited about teaching science? Enthusiasm for making science fun spreads like a virus. Concerns about test scores, curriculum changes or the ever-changing pressures of being a teacher seem to vanish. For three days, these teachers put their worries aside and focus on ways to bring wonder, discovery and exploration back into their classrooms. Here’s a glimpse at what happened at Science in the Rockies this year…
Not all of the participants who come to Science in the Rockies start out loving science. Hilary Vanderveen admits she was a student who didn’t like science all that much, but this experience taught her how to avoid that attitude in her classroom. Vanderveen believes the key is raising the “I wonder factor” in her students’ minds as they approach various …
It’s probably the most asked question we get… “How exactly does that experiment with the Mentos and Diet Coke really work?” From the outset (nearly eight years ago), we hypothesized that the exploding soda was a physical reaction, and the key factor in the release of carbon dioxide was the microscopic pits on the surface
of the chewy mint. However, there was no real scientific study that anyone could point to as the definitive answer… until now. In the June issue of the American Journal of Physics, Tonya S. Coffey, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Appalachian State University, in Boone, N.C., and her team of fearless physics students reported on the ingredients, temperature dependence, duration, and other parameters of the suddenly famous Mentos-Diet Coke reaction.
There has been considerable debate over gum arabic (found in the coating of the mint) and the role it plays in the physical reaction. Coffey’s group was able to confirm that the surfactant gum arabic is a key component of the reaction: It reduces surface tension, thereby
So, America throws it back to the Europeans… from Louisville, KY to Turiba University in Latvia there is a new Mentos and Diet Coke World record. On June 19th, 1,911 students from Business University Turiba in Latvia launched an amazing geyser eruption and landed themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records, just over a month after students at Male High School in Kentucky launched 1,800 simultaneous geysers to earn their own world record status. The Latvian University students were celebrating the school’s 15th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than with Mentos and Diet Coke. Check out the video of this monumental occasion. Now, who’s next…
Not to be out-done by Europeans, students at Male High School in Louisville, KY, set off 300 more geysers than the previous record-breaking effort just a few months ago in Belgium. School officials thought exploding Diet Coke and MENTOS would be a great way for students to blow off a little steam before finals and celebrate a great school year. The students were recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the new official record holders with 1800 geysers. All proceeds from the event were donated to the Ronald McDonald House. Congrats to Male High School students… now who will be next in the race for a new geyser world record?
According to Guinness World Records, the 973 Mentos-powered soda geysers launched at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau, Missouri is an official new record. Jason Lindsey from KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau shared his goal with us for setting a new world record back in August and needed just a few Geyser Tubes and Mentos® chewy mints to make it happen. "Contributing the materials was the easy part. Our hats are off to the team at KFVS-TV and Jason for setting the record and convincing 1,000 people to show and and get wet," says Carly Reed from Steve Spangler Science.
Whenever a big geyser launch like this one makes the press, there's no end to the number of people who complain that this is a huge waste of candy and soda. Let me respond by saying this… YOU COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT! The goal is to get people of all ages engaged in doing a science activity, thinking about the science behind the reaction, testing a variation on the reaction, and ultimately sharing their excitement about
