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.

September 1, 2007

A Look Inside Our Lab on Modern Marvels

The crew from Modern Marvels on the History Channel visited our science lab back in July to play with some really cold science experiments. In other words, the liquid nitrogen was flowing and the onions were exploding! Mark your calendars… Modern Marvels: Deep Freeze will officially be airing on the History Channel on Tuesday, September 25th at 8pm EST.

July 11, 2007

Exploding Watermelons

I love Halloween. One of my favorite activities is to "carve" pumpkins using a simple reation inside the fruit. First, you carve the face then carefully replace pieces. After creating a reaction by generating a gas inside and igniting it (ask your local chemistry teacher for the details) the face pieces are blown off with a small explosion. Halloween is more than 100 days away and I just couldn't wait. So I initiated the new weather anchor at the local Denver television station by introducing her to carving watermelons. The problem was, we didn't really carve the watermelon, it exploded. Watch the Video to see how we skipped right over the carving and went straight to exploding.

July 8, 2007

Hooked on Learning - Jack Spangler’s Magic Trick

Jack is 8 years old and likes to perform (he must get that from his Mom). Three years ago, the owners of Frog Street Press invited Jack to accompany me to their amazing summer conference for teachers called SPLASH. I helped Jack perform his first magic trick in front of a large audience (about 1,200 teachers) and that's all it took. The Frog Street Press people were kind enough to invite us back this July, and Jack was ready to hit center stage. Jack's routine is an original twist on a classic magic trick you might have seen performed by another magician using pom-pom balls. The audience in this video consisted of almost 1,700 early childhood educators (primarily pre-K through 2nd grade). Here's Jack... http://www.youtube.com/v/jftX2WyAHd4

June 18, 2007

Water Flowing Uphill?

Not exactly... but this stuff is really cool. It's probably best described as a self-siphoning gel. The chemical is called polyethylene oxide or Polyox and it has an incredibly large molecular weight - about 4 million. When the powder is mixed with water (that's the tricky part), the liquid becomes very thick and will literally siphon itself from one container to another. As a kid I order a product called Moon Blob - "The Gravity Defying Gel" - which promised to do the same thing. It did... but now I'm doing it as an adult! It's tough to explain it... just watch the Polyox video.