If you’ve had fun reading about Steve Spangler’s science adventures in this blog, you should check out his extensive experiment library. SteveSpanglerScience.com offers hundreds of ever-changing, ever-growing free experiments!
From floating, growing Ivory Soap to finding the iron in a dollar bill, you are sure to find just the right experiment that uses materials you have right in your home. This library represents all of Steve’s most amazing, most requested experiments from his 9NEWS television segment as well as other appearances throughout his career.
All you need to create the perfect bubble is a bowl of water, a little Dawn dish soap and a pipette. A little glycerin won’t hurt either. Bubbles are always round, right? But how do you make that round bubble square? It’s easier than you think. Take out your trusty Square Bubble Maker, dip it in the perfect bubble solution, and shazzam, you have the makings of a square bubble.
The students in Mr. Kane’s second grade class at Wilder Elementary learned about eco-friendly materials and how they can help us all go green. Mix two chemicals together and wait for the reaction. The chemicals produce a polymer called polyurethane foam. Polyfoam has a high R value and is used in furniture, packaging, insulation and floatation devices. Homebuilders spray the polyurethane into the walls of a house to give insulate against hot and cold weather. The lightweight foam expands to about 30 times its original liquid volume and becomes rigid.
For more information on making polyurethane foam and its uses, visit the experiment page. Steve Spangler Science does not sell or share the chemicals used in this experiment. For more information or to purchase it, call Flinn Scientific at 800-452-1261.
We salute and thank all of those great teachers out there who find engaging activities to get their students back in the seats and ready to learn for another school year. If you’re a teacher, you know all too well the challenges we face keeping our students engaged and interested. If we’re not careful, it’s easy for some students to disappear into their surroundings and become that “invisible kid.” This segment featured two demonstrations from our Science of Leadership workshop for teachers that use elements of the science demonstration as a metaphor for learning. Oh, by the way, teachers shared their best first days of school activities on our Facebook Fan page this week.
Take a look at our First Days of School Kit with ideas for getting your students excited about the year after the first bell.
Humans conduct electricity. All you need to do is complete a circuit to demonstrate how electricity moves around the human body. The electricity conducts or moves over the skin. To demonstrate this, use an Energy Ball to describe an open and closed circuit. When the two metal electrodes on the ball are touched simultaneously and the circuit is closed, the Energy Ball will flash and make a buzzing sound. Touch clothes, shoes and other accessories to test whether or not it will conduct the electricity. If skin conducts electricity, what about something like a pickle? Watch this demonstration only to see how a pickle can light up the night sky. Here’s a hint – salty pickles work best.
We are back from our Science at Sea Alaska adventure. About 100 teachers cruised with us to learn about the science and environment of the Alaskan region. Traveling with the teachers were embedded naturalists who gave lessons about Alaska, its people, its wildlife and ecosystems. Steve, one of our naturalists, gave teachers a lesson about whales and their blubber to bring back to their classrooms.
The question is – how do whales survive in icy cold water? The answer is – their blubber keeps them warm. That’s a fun fact, but how do you get kids to really understand this and remember it for the dinner table talk that night? First, place the child’s hand in icy water and tell them to keep it there. See how long can they have it in the freezing water before their hand starts to hurt and they have
