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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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.

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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.

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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…

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As I was driving home this evening, I received a call from a fellow science teacher who shared the news of the passing of Don Herbert. As I reflect on the impact Mr. Wizard had on science education and me personally, I can’t help but be thankful for his dedication and contagious enthusiasm for learning science. It’s difficult to find a science teacher who doesn’t have a favorite Mr. Wizard story. A recently retired teacher loved to tell the story of how Mr. Wizard taught him how to cook a hot dog by literally electrocuting the hot dog using a lamp cord and 120 volts of electricity. I remember watching Mr. Wizard’s World on Nickelodeon in the mid 1980’s and being impressed by the simplicity of the experiments but also the way Don made you want to conduct the experiments at home. Don Herbert made a career out of making science fun.

During the late 1990’s, I was fortunate enough to get to work with Don on several projects, and I took the opportunity to ask for his advice as I started my television career. Don challenged me to do everything in my power to make science accessible to everyone. He reminded me to “be yourself… and don’t let those television producers put you in a white lab coat… just be yourself.” Don always preferred a casual sweater to a lab coat in his later years.

Don received an honorary doctorate from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and I was invited to share a few science demos during his ceremony. While waiting to go on backstage, Don shared these thoughts on science education… “People call me a science teacher or a scientist, but I’m actually a science entertainer. I think of myself as a person who likes science and has the ability to communicate my enthusiasm about science over the airwaves. I really enjoy being a cheerleader of sorts for science… but I wouldn’t call myself a science teacher. That’s a job I have to leave to the pros.”

In place of their nightly bedtime story, I pulled my first edition copy of Mr. Wizard’s Supermarket Science from the shelves this evening for my boys and shared a few stories about one of the special people who inspired me to be a teacher.

Please click on comments to share your thoughts and memories about Don Herbert.

Visit the official Mr. Wizard website for more information.

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Only a very cool teacher gives this kind of homework to her students… “Using only construction paper and tape, I want you to design a rocket.” Lisa Heaton, the Gifted and Talented teacher showed her students a specially designed rocket launcher made out of PVC plumbing parts from the local hardware store. The idea for the PVC rocket launcher comes from U.S. Space Camp for Educators curriculum. I had the privilege of assisting Mrs. Heaton with the launch of the paper rockets. As the students will share in the comments below, the first launch revealed their design strengths and flaws. The five students with the best launch served as mentors for the rest of the students as they returned to the classroom to repair and redesign their paper rockets. The second launch proved to be the real learning experience - be sure to read comments from the young rocketeers below.

“This rocket launch activity coincides with the students reading Rocket Boys (also known as October Sky) by Homer Hickam. I want these kids to experience first hand the feeling of failure and success through the trial and error process of building their own rockets… and this air-powered rocket launcher does the trick,” says Lisa Heaton as she turns to help a 5th grader repair a rocket that didn’t fair well during the first launch.

These 5th graders are also using this hands-on science experience to learn about the science of blogging (pun intended). Student bloggers from Mrs. Heaton’s class in past years posted blog comments about their rocket experience that were even read by Homer Hickam (the author of October Sky) himself. Be sure to read the student comments below.

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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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I’m not sure if Halloween was better for me as a kid or right now as an adult… okay, it’s better now! It’s no secret that I make the most out of every Halloween - from the oozing slime at school to the ghoulish fun at home, Halloween is the perfect time to let your creativity out for an evening of fun.

I think it all started growing up in a family where my parents turned Halloween into a full fledged show. I learned not to bother my Dad after about two o’clock in the afternoon on Halloween because he was getting the entry way of our home ready for those poor unsuspecting Trick-or-Treaters. My favorite memory was getting to sit in his home-made electric chair - complete with blinking lights and giant sparks of static electricity coming from the metal hat. It was great! When the doorbell rang, it was showtime… and my job was to yell at the top of my lungs, “Hey Mister… all I wanted was a lousy piece of candy!” We never gave away much candy on Halloween - no one ever stuck around long enough to ask for candy, but lots of kids brought back their parents for the show. We always ended up with a house filled with people who loved Halloween as much as we did. I guess it just rubbed off on me… and now it’s my job to teach my three little boys the finer points of making Halloween fun.

Here are a few of our favorite Halloween science experiments…

Dry Ice Fun - Dry ice experiments and bubbling potions

Dry Ice Bubble - Make a dry ice crystal ball filled with smoke

Don’t miss the Exploding Pumpkins video

Note: The instructions for the Exploding Pumpkin are not available on this site for liability reasons. However, it is a favorite demo of chemistry teachers everywhere. If you want to do this demo, it’s time to make an appointment to visit your favorite chemistry teacher.

Real Slime! - Uncover the secret recipe for slime

Instant Worms - Make a batch of ooey gooey worms

Halloween Science Smoke Ring Launcher - Steve’s signature smoke ring trash can launcher

Elmer’s Glue Slime - The classic Borax and glue recipe

Bleeding Paper - This one is freaky!

Quicksand - This stuff feels like the real thing!

Screaming Cup - Make a weird, eerie sound using a cup and string

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I’m not sure if Halloween was better for me as a kid or right now as an adult… but it’s no secret that I make the most out of every Halloween. As a holiday, Halloween has changed so much over the years. I never remember my parents being invited to an “adult�? Halloween party, but now these parties are more popular than ever. When my family and I arrived at a neighbor’s Halloween party last year, we were greeted by ghosts and goblins on the driveway who lead us through an awesome maze, into their hanunted house on our way into the party. The whole garage had been transformed into a full-blown haunted mansion! Yes, Halloween has changed over the years and this is part of the inspiration behind a our Halloween Science Kit.

As a teacher, I could hardly wait for the first of October to roll around so I could start planning my Halloween Science demos and activities for my students. Every year my Halloween Science unit grew… and so did the storage space I needed to keep everything. Beakers, graduated cylinders, cauldrons, static electricity machine, growing body parts… you name it and we probably have it in storage. I also found this addiction to be quite contagious. It didn’t take long to get my fellow teachers hooked on the idea of using this “crazy�? time of the year to actually teach some cool science. Every year my fellow teachers and I would add new demos and activities until we were bursting at the seams with a great Halloween Science unit.

We’re very proud of our Halloween Science Kit. It’s filled with lots of great science and the fun-factor is at an all-time high. Take a look and tell me what else you would have added from your collection of eerie science favorites.

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I’ve written about Kenny Luna, an 8th grade science teacher in North Babylon, New York, who wants Oprah to help him give every child in America (PreK-12) just one Compact Fluorescent(CFL) bulb in an effort to reduce electricity costs and lessen the impact on global warming. Kenny just sent me a follow-up with an interesting photo…

“… at the press conference i’m going to talk about how “we’ve asked oprah to stand up with us in the fight against global warming, and that the home depot already is standing up with us here today… is there anyone else who also cares about our childrens futures, and is willing to stand up with us?” We’re going to have all my students standing behind me, holding signs that spell out “HELP US OPRAH!!” That should help too:) “

The picture says it all…

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