Tag - Sunscreen

UV Bead Necklaces – Cute, Fun and a Reminder of Sun Dangers

By Blog Editor Susan Wells

Our customers are always coming up with unique and creative uses for our science toy products. Marilyn Daggett from Arizona designed duck necklaces with sun energy beads to trade on an upcoming Quacker Factory cruise in October.

Marilyn purchased a pack of our Color Changing UV Beads a few years ago to monitor her sun exposure at the urging of her dermatologist. She had about 500 left over and decided to create necklaces to trade with friends during the cruise. She mixed the UV Beads with crystal and plastic beads along with the duck lamp work beads.

The cruise sets sail in October to several ports of call including the Bahamas, St, Thomas and St. Martin. Quacker Factory is a very popular brand of clothing that sells exclusively on QVC and offers cruises for about 500 of their most dedicated fans. The ladies (and some of their husbands) bring ducky-related items to trade and share during the cruise. Marilyn has made about four dozen necklaces to trade.

She thought they’d be perfect for monitoring sun exposure and fun to wear. (We agree.) Only a few of
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UV Beads Used in South Africa to Teach Dangers of Sun Exposure

South Africa has the highest rate of skin cancer in Africa and is second to Australia in the world skin cancer rates. The Human Alliance for Cancer Awareness (HACA) is working to create clubs in South African high schools to improve students’ knowledge and awareness of cancer.

The HACA team shares videos on the impact of cancer and engages the students in a quiz show about their knowledge of cancer.

Each attendee also receives a wristband with UV Beads from Steve Spangler Science. UV Beads contain pigments that change color when exposed to ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet (UV) light is invisible radiation that will give you a sunburn and injure your eyes. It is important to use sunglasses and sunscreens as they reflect UV photons.

The students in South Africa wear the beads to help them indicate their exposure to the sun. Dark-skinned Africans are less prone to sunburns but are in danger of getting skin cancer from sun exposure.

UV Beads Help Students Understand the Importance of Sunscreen

You might have seen t-shirts or special jewelry (beads) that changes color in sunlight. UV Beads look like ordinary white beads used to make a craft project, but embedded in the plastic is a special pigment that changes color when exposed to ultraviolet light. The color change takes place in just seconds – almost like magic. Mrs. Bratteli’s Third Grade Class from Aikin Elementary School in Paris, Texas, used the beads as a way to see if sunscreen lotion really blocks out harmful ultraviolet light from the sun.

We did an experiment with your UV beads and sunscreen and the types were 10, 30, and 50 SPF. We put them each on a foam plate and had a nothing plate. They changed colors exactly how they were supposed to, but the 50 you couldn’t see. Read the full experiment write-up.

But, like all good experiments, these third graders discovered something else…

We left them all over the weekend and here are our results. The SPF 50 sunscreen also ate through the Styrofoam plate! The spf 10

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