Last week the producers at the Ellen Show called to see if I had anything new that might amaze Ellen… and make her laugh. Hmmm… what do you think? After a few phone calls and some time trading some demo videos over e-mail, we’re set with the show line-up for Tuesday, April 15th. The most asked question I get after one of these appearances is how do I go about picking the science experiments. Does the producer pick everything? Do I get to make any suggestions? The answer is both. In the case of the Ellen Show, the producers come to me with some requests after watching a few of my science video segments from 9NEWS and ask for my feedback. We trade ideas and finally arrive at a final list of demos that the segment producer pitches to his executive producers. The moment we get the thumbs up, we move into high gear getting everything packed and shipped off to the studio in Burbank. That’s the boring answer to the question.
I had the wonderful pleasure of presenting the keynote address at the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children (MIAEYC) 2005 conference. This presentation was, however, a little more challenging than most because of what DID NOT arrive in my suitcase. Oh, my luggage arrived but just not all of it. It seems that the nice screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decided that my bag looked particularly interesting and they decided to take a peek… without my knowing it. Someone also decided to help themselves to a few of my demonstrations and visual aids. When I opened my case on the morning of the presentation, all of my books were gone along with a few cool science gadgets and, most importantly, my potato launcher! Mind you, my potato launcher is a piece of plastic tubing and a wooden stick! It does a nice job of demonstrating the properties of air and it is in no way a threat to anyone. With less than one hour before my presentation, I scurried through the convention center and the exhibit hall in search of anything that might work as a temporary potato launcher. The science demo Gods must
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