There are literally thousands of online videos featuring the Mentos Geyser experiment, but this video is worth a few minutes of your time. It’s a first-class video produced by Mr. Delos Santos and his third grade class at Stone Ranch Elementary in San Diego, California.

Mr. Santos says that the project first started out as just a science experiment for the unit on Matter, but quickly grew into a much bigger project. But it’s not just a video, the class created their own “Fizz”ical Science website. “The largest challenge in producing a project like this is being able to engage all students in the digital learning process. Teaching them the proper technique and how to convey their message in a clear and systematic way was another challenging aspect of our project,” according to Mr. Santos.

Here’s the best part… The video has been nominated for an iVIE (Innovative Video in Education) Award! The award ceremony will take place on May 20th, and we’ll keep you posted.

BUT… We held our own screening earlier today and our staff would like to present Mr. Delos Santos’ third grade class with our own video award - a $100 gift certificate from SteveSpanglerScience.com Congratulations to the third graders from Stone Ranch Elementary!

…and nice job Mr. Delos Santos - the gift certificate is on its way.

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Thousands of science teachers found their way to St. Louis for the 2007 National Science Teachers Association convention, and we wanted to make sure they had something to take back to their students. So, we loaded our trucks with experiments and products from the website along with 5,000 rolls of MENTOS stuffed into plastic test tubes and headed for the Gateway City. We were fortunate to have 14 teacher ambassadors from the Hands-on Science Institute join us in the booth to each share their favorite science activities. Aside from 500 bottles of Diet Coke and a mountain of MENTOS, all eyes were on the 18 foot tall soda eruption chamber. We were demonstrating the new Geyser Tube by triggering a MENTOS geyser as fast as we could set-up a launch (about every 2-3 minutes for 3 full days). At the end of the convention, the soda was gone, the rolls of MENTOS were in the hands of 5,000 teachers, the truck was cleaned out… and we all had a blast. It’s back to the classroom for the 14 ambassadors to start working on cool stuff for next year’s NSTA in Boston.

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We’re excited about the official launch of our new Spangler Geyser Tube. Think of it as the perfect Mentos loading device to trigger a 30 foot geyser of soda. Just load the Mentos candies into the tube, lock the nozzle in place and pull the pin. Okay, it’s bes

t to pull the pin and then run away. The Mentos drop into the bottle triggering the reaction and the powerful soda geyser comes shooting out the top with enough pressure to reach an incredible height of 30 feet. Onlookers scream, “Do it again!”… and you do.

The Geyser Tube retails for $4.95 and is currently only available at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com However, as a result of our licensing agreement with the maker of Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle), the Spangler Geyser Tube will be released into mass market distribution (all of the major toy stores, print catalogs and online stores) in June 2007.

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I’ve always been a fan of Apple Computers (now Apple Inc.). From my very first Apple IIe to my current MacBook Pro (and about a dozen in between), these computers and products have helped me and our employees to do some very amazing things over the years. That’s why it was an honor to be invited to visit Apple last week and speak with a group of their employees about my experiences running our business on a Mac platform. During my visit, we also taped some online seminars that will be posted on apple.com/business in the near future.

Okay, the secret is out… we’ve been in business for 16 years and never had a PC in the office. Read the rest of this entry »

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In addition to being the Business Columnist for the Denver Post, Al Lewis is now a fan of the Mentos and soda mixture. Al called last week with questions about our recent license agreement with with Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle, the maker of Mentos. His column entitled Mentos-Soda Mix a Mint for Scientist looks at the business side of the popular Mentos Geyser. He asked lots of questions about things other than my work on the Mentos experiment. He wanted to know about my background, my teaching and my parents.

“Let me get this straight,” I said to Spangler. “Your father was a scientist and a magician. David Copperfield hung out at your house. You are now 39 years old. And getting a pop bottle to squirt 20 feet in the air is the best trick you know?”

“This isn’t the best trick,” he said. “It’s the trick that got the most notoriety.”

Al also wanted to learn how this science experiment turned into a viral marketing sensation with the Mentos video that aired on 9NEWS in September of 2005.

Al asked me if teachers are really doing this experiment and how they’re turning it into a learning experience. Share your Mentos Geyser experiment with Al Lewis on his blog.

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I recently received an email from Mimi Sylvia and her grandson Scott. Mimi (she has been called that since her oldest granddaughter tried to say “grandma” and it came out “mimi”) loves to teach science to her 10 grandkids and says she doesn’t plan on growing up herself anytime soon.

Every summer, Mimi Sylvia and her husband travel to Montana to visit their daughter and her family. Mimi Sylvia says they pack their car full of experiments and crafts. She loves to show the kids that science is fun.

Mimi and Scotty tried the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment and WOW did they make a splash. Scotty outdid his two older sisters and brother.

We were so impressed with the photo she sent, that we had to share! Keep aiming high, big guy!

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Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the Eepybird guys who turned the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment into art are jumping from the Internet to the mainstream media.

They appeared on David Letterman last Thursday night and on the “Today Show” Friday morning. They demonstrated their version of the Bellagio Fountains done with Mentos and Diet Coke on both shows.

Their video went viral after they posted a 3-minute video on their website using more than 500 Mentos and more than 100 two-liter plastic bottles of Diet Coke in June.

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I was in Talkeetna, Alaska when I received a call from my television producer. “Have you seen the Mentos video yet?” I asked which one she was referring to and she said, “The one with the two guys and 102 bottles of Diet Coke.” I quietly snuck out of the hotel room with my laptop - I was on a mission to find a wireless connection. Thirty minutes later (after lots of snooping), I was watching the amazing video by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz. The first time we did the Mentos Diet Coke experiment on 9NEWS in Denver was March of 2002. We featured variations on the Mentos experiment four other times (different ways to drop the candy into the bottle… warm soda vs. cold soda… brand name vs. generic). But the Eepybird.com video was a stroke of genius.

As a tribute to their video, we gathered a few of our instructors and staff from the Hands-on Science Institute and taught viewers how to make their own trigger device. We filled the back of the SUV with 52 bottles, about 300 Mentos, a cordless drill and a pile of pipe clearners. Here’s the Spangler video at 9NEWS…

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Believe it or not, research scientists have actually concluded that Diet Coke produces the best stream of flying soda (much to the joy of the Mentos Experiment enthusiasts). I received an email from Dr. Joe Maglaty, Director of Education Outreach from the Merck Institute for Science Education with this information:

I recently came across an article that you may, or may not, be aware of. In the April issue of the Journal of Chemical Education, a chemistry professor from Illinois State Univ. took on the analytical process for showing gas solubility in aqueous solution - that is, how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is released from soda (pop) using ultrasonic energy. Read the rest of this entry »

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These television news shows just can’t seem to get enough of this. I’ve been away in Alaska on a family vacation and the phone keeps ringing. Television producers are all asking the same questions… “Why does this work and why are people so drawn to posting videos on the internet?” Well, we can help out when it comes to explaining the science behind the reaction. As for the reason why people like to post videos on the internet, I’ll leave that up to you.

The latest Mentos sighting was on Good Morning America this morning.

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