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.
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 …
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.
Dropping a roll of Mentos into a bottle of soda used to be something that kids did for fun. Now adults are getting into the act. I opened my e-mail and received these cool pictures from the organizers of the event that took place on July 10th in Flower Mound, TX. Representatives from the Guinness World Records certified the record-setting effort, which went off at 6:30 pm inside the Circle R Ranch Rodeo Arena where 850 independent sales representatives from Books Are Fun, a Reader’s Digest Company, simultaneously dropped Mentos into 850 two-liter bottles of soda using the Geyser Tube Toy. The previous Mentos geyser record was set on May 24, 2007 in Cincinnati, Ohio when 504 Mentos-and-Coke geysers were set off. Watch the Video: The Largest Number of Simultaneous Mentos Geysers Please remember that you’re looking at 850 screaming adults… not kids… running away. Yes, learning is fun for people of all ages.
Dropping a roll of Mentos into a bottle of soda used to be something that kids did for fun. Now adults are getting into the act. I opened my e-mail and received these cool pictures from the organizers of the event that took place on July 10th in Flower Mound, TX. Representatives from the 