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.
If you’ve ever made your own tie-dye shirt, you know that it can be a real mess… especially if you’re using the right chemistry to make really vivid looking shirts. While I’m no tie-dye expert, I learned from three people who used to travel with the Grateful Dead (well, they followed the Dead from gig to gig and sold their tie-dye apparel to the pickiest of Deadheads). The secret to making amazing tie-dye shirts is to use fiber reactive dyes. The teachers and parents at Wilder Elementary in Littleton, Colorado reward each graduating 5th grader with the opportunity to make their own graduation tie-dye shirt. I joined the kids last week at school to share the science of tie-dye and to help them create a one-of-a-kind shirt.
Lots of kids learn how to do tie dye, but the fifth graders at Wilder Elementary got a dose of art and science today when yours truly and art teacher extraordinare, Jill Day, approached the activity from a slightly different angle. You won’t find the science of tie dye in the fifth grade curriculum, but today’s lesson was both a gift from the Wilder staff and PTO and a rite of passage as these students move onto middle school. From the science perspective, the students learned about three “secrets” of tie dye, and on the art side, Mrs. Day covered the coolest way to use colors in a tie dye pattern. In addition to washing their tie dye t-shirts tonight, the students were invited to share some of the “secrets” they learned and some of the finer points of learning the “real” tie dye methods (as one of the students said, “Direct from the tie dye hippie artists to our classroom!”) The students will be posting their comments all night long… check back tomorrow and we’ll even have some pictures and video up …
It’s official… I’m flying out to be a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show next week. Back in April of 2006 when a producer on the show originally contacted our office, I asked for your suggestions on experiments to do with Ellen. Lots of people suggested my Smoke Rings demo and Ellen might have taken your suggestion (hint, hint). Let’s just say that our office was filled with lots of smoke today as someone practiced shooting cups off of everyone’s head. We’re told that the air date will be next Friday, September 21, 2007. More to come.
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.
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… 