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.

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Heather, who blogs at OhMy StinkinHeck, proudly tells the blogosphere about her daughter Emelie’s efforts to earn some extra credit in science (with a great recycling twist). Emelie needed only 2 more points to have a 100% in science, and she was determined to get those points. But was she content with something mediocre, worth ONLY two points? Not this young woman!

Emelie decided that her project would involve materials that were already around the house, and what she ended up with was a birdhouse that any environmentally conscious bird would be proud to call home.

Using plastic bottles and lids, bubble wrap, leftover paint and wafer board, and a few other “odds and ends,” Emelie built a birdhouse like no other.

We are ESPECIALLY proud of Emelie because she did this entire project herself. When a parent does any kind of project for a student, there is no deserved pride. Emelie did a wonderful job and she earned the praise she very naturally received.

Way to go, Emelie. And thank you, Heather, for sharing this story with us.

Let us know if you have a science project you want to share.

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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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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.

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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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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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The opening day at Toy Fair was amazingly busy for those companies who had cool science product, according to a staff writer from CNET News.com. Caroline McCarthy writes, “Amid the madness of the 2007 American International Toy Fair here, a somewhat unexpected trend was visible: apparently, science rules.” Caroline stopped by the booth yesterday to ask a few questions about our new Geyser Tube toy and, more importantly about general trends in science education. She points out some very interesting observations in her article - teachers should read this.

Despite the perpetual debate over whether the United States is losing ground in raising the world’s best scientists, today’s pop-culture climate is remarkably conducive to making science trendy. The ubiquity of science kits and gadgets at the Toy Fair made me wonder–is science actually cool now?

Even YouTube has its influence. Be Amazing, a toy company that specializes in chemistry sets and licensed products from Steve Spangler Science, was drawing massive crowds with its demonstration of a “geyser” apparatus that allows kids to replicate the Diet Coke and Mentos experiments that have resulted in an explosive (literally) viral video sensation.

There’s no doubt that science products were the talk of Toy Fair this year. In just the first two days of the show, we gave away more than a thousand geyser test tube experiments for people to test out at home. That’s a lot of Diet Coke flying through the air.

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