I was invited to speak at this year’s HerWorld 2010 Conference put on by DeVry University in Denver. HerWorld is a conference for high school junior and senior young women interested in science and technology. It supports STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and exposes students to career opportunities in those fields.

They participate in games, hands-on projects like building robots and circuit boards and live discussions. They even do a mock CSI crime scene investigation for those interested in forensics as a possible career path.

I spoke to a group of more than 650 young women about the importance of building connections, sharing ideas and creating experiences for others. I may have also shot off a few potatoes and giant smoke rings.

Everyone took part in a group science lesson about Bernoulli’s Principal and inflated giant Wind Bags. A perfect time to take out the phones and take some pictures to share.

Thanks to everyone at DeVry for hosting me at the event.

Over 750 people experienced the Bed of Nails demo at our booth at NAEYC this year… and some of the really excited people took home the t-shirt.

Do you think the holes in the back are too much? No way… especially if you have a specially rigged shirt that springs a leak. Thanks to Brian Firooz for wearing the leaking shirt and drinking gallons and gallons of water over the course of the three-day conference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have you guessed what our surprise experiment might be yet? Let me give you one more clue… it just arrived at NAEYC – forklift and all – and it has 4,500 sharp nails, all staring up at us, waiting for the first victim… um, guest of the day. Just in case you still don’t know, here’s a picture to help you out.

That’s right… it’s our giant bed of nails from the Ellen Degeneres Show!  And guess what?  Just stop by our booth at NAEYC and we’ll take your picture on the bed of nails and even give you a personalized nametag with your photo on it for free!  We can’t wait to see everyone there.

We’re calling it a full body on science experience with our Bed of Nails demo at the NAEYC annual conference in Washington D.C. Teachers from all over the country (actually the world) come to NAEYC to learn the latest strategies and methods to get children excited and motivated to learn… especially when it comes to science. Our science island (as it was called) in the exhibit hall featured more than 50 cool science toys and hands-on science activities teachers could share with their children. This year we wanted to share something special with the teachers… something they would remember for years to come. Let’s turn hands-on science into a full body experience using the coolest Bed of Nails demonstration we’ve ever seen.

We want to thank Sherry Marshall from the Science Museum Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Museum Network for allowing us to share their motorized Bed of Nails demonstration with the participants at the NAEYC 2009 annual conference.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I first fell in love with this Bed of Nails when the producers at the Ellen DeGeneres Show asked me to find a safe way for Ellen to do the Bed of Nails demonstration. The experts at Hands-on! Inc. had just the piece of equipment we needed. As you can see in the video, this is no ordinary Bed of Nails. With a push of a button, nearly 5,000 nails raise up from the table top and lift a person weighing up to 300 pounds. The creativity and craftsmanship behind this exhibit makes it world class.

Each person at the NAEYC conference who visited the Steve Spangler Science booth and experienced the Bed of Nails had their picture taken at the moment the nails made contact with their body and lifted them a few inches above the surface of the table. Their WOW! memory was captured and turned into a new name tag – a nice way to remember the experience. And teachers weren’t the only ones climbing onto the Bed of Nails. In the midst of clean-up, even the union guys and security guards took turns on the “nail ride” as it was called. It’s easy to bring out the kid in all of us… when you have a motorized Bed of Nails and someone with a persuasive gift of gab.

So, what’s in store for this year at the NAEYC annual conference? We have a science surprise for everyone who stops by our booth (#323). While I can’t let the cat out of the bag right now, I can give you a few hints. It’s totally hands-on and it’s so large that it requires a forklift to move it. If you’re lucky enough to be attending the conference, follow us on Twitter so we can give you a few more hints and let you know how and when you can participate.

Washington D.C. is preparing for the arrival of thousands of early childhood teachers at the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) annual conference. Over the years, I’ve been honored to present hands-on science workshops and featured sessions, but I probably enjoy my time in the exhibit hall the most… because we always try to plan something over-the-top for the thousands of teachers who stop by the booth. We’ve filled our science demo island with hundreds of gallons of Instant Snow, shot off 700 Mentos Diet Coke geysers, and introduced the release of our Geyser Tube toy with a life size Boy in a Box demo. Last year, a volunteer from the audience vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Here’s what happened last year…

If you’ve ever taught a day in your life, you know that the job is both rewarding and exhausting. In an effort to keep our students inspired and motivated to want to learn, sometimes we forget to recharge our own teaching batteries. Amy Crawford is an amazing elementary teacher based out of Knoxville, Tennessee who understands the need for teachers to have a profound impact on the lives of their students… but she also understands the need for teachers themselves to stay motivated. In 2006, Amy and a her dream team created a non-profit organization called Reach Them to Teach Them. The mission is clear… To train, motivate and inspire leaders so that every child is equipped to reach his/her maximum potential. I was honored to be invited to serve as the keynote speaker at this year’s event at the historic Tennessee Theater with 1,700 teachers on hand.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of Amy Crawford’s many secrets is to surround herself with an amazing group of people (she calls her dream team) who each bring a special set of skills to the organization. One member of Amy’s dream team is Dave Gorden, past president of the National Speakers Association. Dave is a great friend who originally shared with me the Reach Them to Teach Them vision and built a connection between Steve Spangler Science and the organization he is so proud to serve.

Huge thanks to Amy Crawford, Dave Gorden, the dream team and the 1,700 teachers from the greater Knoxville area who came together to celebrate the joy of teaching.

It’s just too bad that no one ever has any fun at our Hands-on Science Secrets Boot Camps… check out the pictures to see how bored these awesome teachers were.

Demonstrating the Laminar flow demo called Twist of Time

We just arrived in Shannon, Ireland and we’re headed to the University of Limerick for the Irish Science Teachers Association meeting. I’ve had the great fortune of speaking at this conference twice in 1997 and 2000 where I made some fantastic friends in the science education world. When I spoke the first time in Cork, I can remember taking all of my demos over with me on the plane (oh how times have changed). Twelve years later, FedEx delivered my demos after signing my life away and, I’m happy to report, everything arrived in one piece. But there are a few things that are difficult to ship over for one reason or another. When I arrived at the University of Limerick today, I was greeted by Bob Kelly who had a 220 volt smoke machine in hand, a bag of balloons filled with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6 for the Reverse Helium demo), and a large trash can. I just can’t remember if I asked them to turn off the smoke alarms during the lecture?

Back in July, I had the opportunity to be interviewed on an Irish talk radio program to talk about science, things that explode and the Mentos reaction. During the interview, I mentioned that I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the ISTA (Irish Science Teachers Association) were I first showed the Mentos reaction in 1999. Several months later, I got a call from Jim McNamara from the ISTA with an invitation to join them in Limerick, Irleand for their 2009 conference.

I pulled my noted from my last lecture in Dublin for the ISTA 2000 conference and started to pull together an hour long program. Within a week of creating my set list, I got a call from the conference planners with their own list of demos that they had seen on YouTube.

Amazing… YouTube didn’t even exist a decade ago and today it’s a resource that is changing the way we teach. I’d much rather take over demos they want to see, but I wonder how we’re going to get the cement mixer and 2,500 boxes of cornstarch. We might have to resort to plan “B.”

Just when you think that everyone in the world has seen the Mentos Geyser experiment, you run into a few thousand people attending the New York Toy Fair who are surprised by the reaction. Last Monday I spent the entire day launching off soda geysers in the Be Amazing Toys booth at the Toy Fair. Over forty of my science toys and educational kits are licensed to Be Amazing Toys who distributes them to retailers internationally. The Geyser Tube demonstration drew some great crowds at Toy Fair thanks in part to the thirty foot tall geyser chamber that occupied the corner of the booth. The most common question I got the entire day was, “Could you do that again for my friend?” And, of course, I just had to do it again.. and again… and again. In total, we launched off about 400 two-liter bottles of diet soda (diet isn’t sticky and really blasts off well) using the Mentos Geyser Tube toy.

A photographer from the Associated Press camped out in the booth for part of the morning as well as a handful of bloggers who wanted to know more about how the Mentos Geyser works. My job was to keep the people in the aisles happy while the sales people at Be Amazing Toys helped buyers select new science products to stock their shelves.

Be Amazing Toys originally started as the wholesale division of Steve Spangler Science in 2002 with a small product line of about twenty science toys and kits (including the original Instant Snow). We sold Be Amazing Toys to a Utah-based corporation who wanted to continue to license all of the Spangler created products and to expand the line of science-based educational toys. “We currently offer more than 100 science toys and kits through Be Amazing Toys,” according to Renée Whitney, Vice-President of Sale and Marketing for Be Amazing Toys. “Steve Spangler’s licensed products represent about 40% of our product line. We’re never quite sure what Steve is going to come up with next. Let’s hope it’s as popular as his Mentos Geyser Tube.”

Doc Gizmo performs Bob Becker's Methane Mamba

It was easy to spot Doc Gizmo as you wandered through the exhibit hall at the Colorado Science Convention. He was the only person dressed in a tie-dyed lab coat with multi-colored socks and a smile that beamed from ear to ear. Even before watching his program, there was no question that this guy had found his calling.

Doc Gizmo, whose real name is Phil Arnold, has been traveling around the Midwest for several years doing his science assembly program for a wide variety of audiences. Phil told the audience that his wife teaches chemistry and physics in Bucklin, Kansas, and he was recruited to build a few science demonstrations for her to use in the classroom. One thing led to the next and Doc Gizmo is traveling the Midwest with his science show speaking to anyone and everyone who wants to learn why science is fun.

During the hour long program for an audience of science teachers at the Colorado Science Convention, Doc Gizmo skillfully weaved a handful of classic science demos into a presentation that showcased the accomplishments of his wife and his core theme that science is fun. At the age of 75, Doc Gizmo’s character is that of a wacky science guy who isn’t afraid to dip his hand in some liquid nitrogen or even light his hand on fire while holding bubbles filled with methane gas. He offered a book of his science demonstrations and sold a few cases of his Newton’s Beads demonstration kit (Phil told everyone that you could buy it at Educational Innovations for $19.95 or pick one up for $6 after the show). Needless to say, Doc Gizmo was surrounded by a large group of people with six bucks in their hands.

The best take away for me was his twist on the classic Egg in the Bottle demonstration. Instead of light paper on first and jamming it into the bottle, Doc gently places a small candle into the top of the hardboiled egg and covers the candle with the inverted milk bottle. After a few seconds, the flame goes out and the egg is pushed up into the bottle. It’s a beautiful twist.

Phil was kind to include several demonstrations from my 1999 Reg Friesen Lecture at ChemEd as he closed his presentation. The Growing & Shrinking Head was a big hit and his presentation of the Afghan Bands was a great way to wrap up the show.

Hats off to the planning committee at the Colorado Science Convention for sharing Phil Arnold and his Doc Gizmo science show.

It’s tough to really demonstrate the Mentos Geyser Tube in an exhibit hall filled with teahcers… until we created the Mentos Geyser Chamber. It’s a plastic box that measures 4 feet square and 7 feet tall. It’s the perfect enclosure to launch off a few hundred Mentos Diet Coke geysers. The only other thing you need is someone to stand inside the box for a few hours. Most of the time, Drew Vriesman is an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying marketing. But when he puts on his intern hat at Steve Spangler Science, he’s never quite sure what to expect. Drew Vriesman and Taylor Marsh took turns launching geysers at the NAEYC 2008 conference in Dallas. Combined they launched 700 erupting Diet Coke geysers using over 4,000 MENTOS® Chewy Mints. The interns spent about 20 hours in the Geyser Box over three days and entertained (or amused) about 15,000 teachers who stopped by the Steve Spangler Science booth.

If you attended the annual NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) conference last week in Dallas, Texas, it wasn’t hard to find the Steve Spangler Science booth. All you had to do was listen for the shouts of surprise as we launched over 600 Mentos Geysers with the Geyser Tube™ in our own take on the classic dunk tank… the Boy in a Box. It was great to see the teacher reactions when they pulled the string and sent a blast of Coke raining down on our never-tiring Boys in a Box.

As my team can attest, I lost my voice at the conference… just like I do every year… from explaining to everyone who passed by the science behind the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction.  It’s important as educators that we don’t just drop some Mentos in a Coke and call it science.  The resulting geyser is a great effect, but you are missing the key piece of the lesson.  Shoot off a geyser, then listen as your students start to ask questions… “Why does that happen?”…  “What if we used more Mentos?”… “What if we didn’t use Diet Coke?”.  Now you’ve got it.  Not only are you creating an unforgettable learning experience, but you are setting the gears running for your students to wonder, explore and create.  Put those questions into action and you are teaching even the youngest scientists the fundamentals of the scientific method.  Change the number of Mentos in the tube, try different types of soda, ignite curiosity in your students.

I also had the honor of speaking to over 1,000 teachers in a 60-minute workshop at the conference.  If you attended the workshop, hopefully, you would agree that this wasn’t your average teacher workshop.  In the course of an hour we launched potatoes, made a confetti snow storm, launched even more Mentos geysers and ended with an outrageous Liquid Nitrogen Explosion.

As always, our team is so excited to have the opportunity to meet so many amazing early childhood teachers and learn how they are using science to get their students excited about learning.  If you saw us at the conference leave a comment below and let us know how you are using these methods to make your classroom amazing.

We just wrapped up our first ever MOSAIC science workshop for teachers… and we had a blast. Here’s the idea behind MOSAIC – amazing teachers from diverse backgrounds coming together to share best practices and to learn how to the tools in their classrooms to create unforgettable learning experiences. All of this year’s participants received a special invitation from our workshop team because they had previously attended our week-long Hands-on Science Institute from Regis University or, more recently, they attended a three-day workshop called Science in the Rockies. I as said, this was the first time we ever offered a small-scale, very one-on-one training of this caliber. Judging from response… I think we’ll do it again in 2010.

UPDATE – MOSAIC 2010 is scheduled for June 23-25, 2010. If you previous attended Science in the Rockies, you’re eligible to register for MOSAIC. Learn more about the hands-on science training for teachers at MOSAIC 2010

Here are just a few memories from the MOSAIC 2008 workshop experience…

The Mentos Geyser made history once again as the star attraction at the NAEYC 2006 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the rumble of the crowd in the exhibit hall, you could hear someone from the Spangler Science booth yell, “GEYSER!” followed by a few screams and cheers of excitement. The “geyser” was actually the eruption of a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke powered by Mentos. As soon as people approached the booth and saw the mountain of soda and the display of Mentos, they knew what could happen… but most people didn’t believe that we would actually launch the geysers from behind the booth. Surprise!

Instead of just launching the Diet Coke just for fun sake, we used each opportunity to deliver a quick science lesson and followed it up by putting one of our Geyser Tube Experiments in each of the teacher’s hands. Out of the 11,000 people reported to be in attendance at the event, we personally handed out 7,000 Geyser Tube Experiments (which included a roll of Mentos). We even had a few guest “geyserists” take center stage in the booth and try their hand at a launch.

This is not the first time these educators had seen or performed our Mentos Geyser which was featured on stage three years ago in Anaheim, California at the 2003 NAEYC Conference. One teacher commented, “We’ve been doing this experiment for the past three years, and it took the rest of the world this long to catch up!”

Thanks to our partnership with Perfetti Van Melle, the people who make Mentos candy, each teacher who visited the exhibit received a free Mentos Geyser Tube experiment which included a roll of Mentos, the launching tube and instructions to explain the science behind all of the fun.

Pete Healy, Vice President of Marketing for Perfetti Van Melle, commented on the interactive aspect of the geyser experiment.

“We’re excited that Steve Spangler Science is using the Mentos Geyser experiment to demonstrate that learning can be fun. Teachers know that interactive learning is powerful””and Steve Spangler Science has been a leader in this area for years.”?

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola supplied 700 two-liter bottles of Diet Coke for the geysers that launched every two minutes over the course of the entire show. That’s right, we launched 700 bottles of Diet Coke… one at a time.

Coke.com is running a contest through the end of the year called Poetry in Motion, celebrating the fun and beauty of everyday things used in unexpected ways – just like the popular Mentos and Diet Coke demonstrations on the internet. Teachers are encouraged to post their creative class projects on coke.com.