What does 3,000 Alka-Seltzer Tablets, 3,000 film canisters and Steve Spangler have in common with the Ellen DeGeneres Show?
Steve demonstrated the explosive power of carbon dioxide when thousands of film canisters rained down on the Ellen set Wednesday. Cameras were covered, Ellen dressed in a rain coat, safety goggles and a hard hat and even Tony had an umbrella for protection. To say Steve blew the roof off of the Ellen Show is saying Mentos and Diet Coke make a small mess.
Do you ever wonder if your child is getting enough Science?
As an educator and parent I have observed over the years that with more and more time focused on Reading, Writing and Math our children are not getting enough time for deeper levels of understanding of in science at school. Children need more opportunities for hands on exploration and time to process the experiments and concepts at their own pace. Are you thinking this is something I can help with at home but where to start? Do you know what concepts your child is supposed to be learning in science at school? It’s easy you can just check the Standards for their Grade Level and support from home. Your local school board website will have a link.
The bad air in Denver is notorious. It’s so bad that it has a name – the Brown Cloud.
Denver’s location at the foot of the Rocky Mountains make it prone to temperature inversions in which warm air traps cooler air near the ground, preventing pollutants from rising into the atmosphere.
What is a temperature inversion?
Warm air is lighter than cold air. Hot air balloons rise because the warm air inside the balloon is lighter than the cold air surrounding it. In the wintertime, the sun warms the surface of the earth during daylight hours. This warm air rises and mixes with other atmospheric gases. When the sun goes down, the surface area cools and the air gets colder. The less dense warm air high up in the atmosphere often blankets the colder air that rests closer to the surface of the earth.
Google has opened its online international Science Fair for kids between the ages of 13 and 18. Students can work alone or in teams.
Find your passion, learn a little science and maybe win a prize.
To enter, you only need a little inspiration, an idea and a Google account. Sign up at GoogleScienceFair.com. After signing up, run your test or experiment and enter all information on the project site. Submissions are due by April 30, 2013.
After the first round of judging, we’ll announce 90 regional finalists, whose work will then be reviewed even more closely by a panel of judges. The top 15 students will be invited to our finalist event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA, where they’ll present their work to a panel of scientists, tech innovators and Nobel Laureates. In the end, we’ll be honoring three winners, including a Grand Prize winner.
What is the grand prize, you ask? Just a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions and $50,000 in scholarship funding. There are also lots of other prizes for finalists and in age categories.
Meet Brittany, 17, the grand prize winner in 2012. Her winning project was an app to test for breast
Bake a little science cake for your love this Valentines Day. This experiment mixes a little kitchen science, candy science and physical science. And the end result of this activity is delicious.
To make a 3-layer density cake, you will need the following materials –
Cake mix (flavor is up to you, we used Devil’s Cake)
Bag of small marshmallows
2 cans of cherry pie mix with whole cherries
Eggs
Oil
Water
Clear glass cake pan
Instructions –
Prepare cake batter per box directions.
Spray the bottom of the cake pan.
Cover the bottom of the pan with marshmallows.
Pour cake batter over the marshmallows.
Layer the cherry pie filing on top of the batter. Do this quickly, as the marshmallows will start to float up almost immediately.
Bake the cake according to box directions.
As the cake bakes, the marshmallows and cherries will switch
