Everything was going great. I loaded the tray with four glasses filled with water and told Becky Ditchfield (the lovely meteorologist from 9NEWS) to swing the tray over her head (demonstrating Newton’s Laws of motion). It looked like things were going so well…

And then the tray accidentally hit Becky’s leg…

Of course, Becky was concerned about my safety… but she was more concerned about the million dollar HD cameras in the studio. The recovery was amazing and morning television viewers got a chance to see what really happens when you do science demos. Watch the video.

 

 Online Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Lots of kids learn how to do tie dye, but the fifth graders at Wilder Elementary got a dose of art and science today when yours truly and art teacher extraordinare, Jill Day, approached the activity from a slightly different angle. You won’t find the science of tie dye in the fifth grade curriculum, but today’s lesson was both a gift from the Wilder staff and PTO and a rite of passage as these students move onto middle school. From the science perspective, the students learned about three “secrets” of tie dye, and on the art side, Mrs. Day covered the coolest way to use colors in a tie dye pattern.

In addition to washing their tie dye t-shirts tonight, the students were invited to share some of the “secrets” they learned and some of the finer points of learning the “real” tie dye methods (as one of the students said, “Direct from the tie dye hippie artists to our classroom!”) The students will be posting their comments all night long… check back tomorrow and we’ll even have some pictures and video up on the site.

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There are literally thousands of online videos featuring the Mentos Geyser experiment, but this video is worth a few minutes of your time. It’s a first-class video produced by Mr. Delos Santos and his third grade class at Stone Ranch Elementary in San Diego, California.

Mr. Santos says that the project first started out as just a science experiment for the unit on Matter, but quickly grew into a much bigger project. But it’s not just a video, the class created their own “Fizz”ical Science website. “The largest challenge in producing a project like this is being able to engage all students in the digital learning process. Teaching them the proper technique and how to convey their message in a clear and systematic way was another challenging aspect of our project,” according to Mr. Santos.

Here’s the best part… The video has been nominated for an iVIE (Innovative Video in Education) Award! The award ceremony will take place on May 20th, and we’ll keep you posted.

BUT… We held our own screening earlier today and our staff would like to present Mr. Delos Santos’ third grade class with our own video award - a $100 gift certificate from SteveSpanglerScience.com Congratulations to the third graders from Stone Ranch Elementary!

…and nice job Mr. Delos Santos - the gift certificate is on its way.

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Have I mentioned that if you do sign up for the Experiment of the Week, you’ll be eligible for our weekly drawing? Oh, and the Spangler team doesn’t believe in wimpy gifts. That’s why the winner of our weekly drawing gets a $100 gift certificate to SteveSpanglerScience.com

If you already receive our weekly science experiments and cool videos, thanks for subscribing (and I hope you win). If not, let me be the first to invite you (okay, I hope you win too).

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Someday you might be invited to compete on Jepoardy and you’ll thank our trust blog contributors for this nerdy information. Did you know that a musician named Gustav Holst was so fascinated by astronomy that he wrote several pieces of classical music about planets? In fact, he wrote music for all of the planets except Earth and Pluto. Why was Pluto excluded? Holst wrote The Planets in 1918, before Pluto was discovered!

Remember, the planets were all named for ancient gods and goddesses, so when it was time for Holst to title his music about the planets, he chose titles that reminded people of the god or goddess for whom the planet was named.

Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, the Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; and Neptune, the Mystic.

Want a little preview? Here’s Holst’s Mars: Bringer of War, by Gustav Holst

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The final stop in New York on the Science Boot Camp tour was a great way to wrap up our twelve city tour. I always enjoy working with east coast teachers (there’s an edginess to their sense of humor) and this group of highly motivated teachers was no exception. And not all of the workshop participants were from New York. I was honored to have teachers from all over the east coast, in addition to a number of non-teachers.

One non-teacher participant introduced herself as a Chinese art dealer from New York who found out about the workshop through our website and wants to be a “science mom” at her child’s school. I’m seeing more and more of this type of hands-on parental involvement on this year’s tour than ever before. Maybe it’s a sign of great parents or maybe it’s an indication that parents are worried that we [teachers] are allowing science to become an extra-curricular activity. We were also fortunate enough to have three alumni from Science in the Rockies 2007 (our three day Hands-on Science Institute in Colorado) in attendance at the workshop who spent a good part of the lunch break answering questions about the summer experience. Not a bad way to wrap up a great Science Boot Camp tour.

People who attend my workshops know that I don’t pass out “smile sheets” at the end for comments and suggestions. Instead, I send all of the participants a link to the blog post and ask them for their honest feedback once they’ve had the opportunity to try out some of the ideas and teaching strategies. Check back in the coming days for the results.

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I’m always searching for other science bloggers, especially the science teachers who find time to teach and blog. Jane Goodwin shared this information about a site called What It’s Like On The Inside and the blogger herself, the Science Goddess - I’m told she’s an amazing science teacher who knows what it’s like on the inside. And when it comes to knowing what makes great, unique teacher gifts, she knows that, too. On the top of her wish list for Teacher Appreciation Day from her students is Instant Worms, the Multi-Study Microscope (she would really like to have 8 or ten or these!), Quirkles, Axle Annie, and - The Science Goddess confesses that this last one is for her, personally, because of her - ahem! - Bunsen and Beaker obsession, left over from childhood but still going strong today!

The Science Goddess has this to say about the products at SteveSpanglerScience.com…

“These look like a great lesson launch—read, do an experiment, then do some writing. . . literacy connections to help build a foundation for inquiry.”

I have a feeling that the FedEx truck will be stopping by the Science Goddess’ lab in the next few days with Beaker stuffed into a beaker (you get the idea), and her students can surprise her with a few other goodies. If you know about a science teacher who blogs, please post a comment and let us know.

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We just wrapped up the final leg of our teacher boot camp tour with workshops in Pittsburgh and New York. While everyone on the team is exhausted, the one thing that keeps the energy high is meeting other teachers who are truly making a difference. I met teachers in both cities who paid to come to boot camp on their own - no funding from their schools or the district. I asked the same question you’re probably asking, “Why did you do it?” One self-funded teacher in the Pittsburgh workshop described answered with this…

I’m a professional who believes that training is important. I think that teachers who isolate themselves to their classroom never grow. I really enjoy teaching science and I came to the workshop to find new ways to get my kids fired up. Once my Principal sees the results, she’ll support more and more. I know it.

It’s tough to believe that we work in a profession where our leaders don’t believe in or support professional staff development, but I can’t help but be inspired by her dedication to teaching and to her students.

I also met these two amazing teachers… Penny Hampshire and Kim Carpenter, teachers at Clawson B.E.S.T. Pre-K. I’ve learned over the years to pay particular attention to the teachers who sit in the front row at my workshops. They either don’t know any better (and they’re going to get soaked in flying soda) or they’re extremely enthusiastic. Penny and Kim were both! Here are two teachers that do more solid science with their Pre-K children than some kids get during their entire elementary school experience. I could go on and on, but just check out the Claswson website - Science Thursdays and enjoy watching master teachers at work.

As always, I invite teachers who attend my workshops to share their comments and take-aways on the blog. Any thoughts from Pittsburgh?

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Brandt Callahan and Jackson Bartlett, who go to Parkview Intermediate School in Bedford, Indiana, took the Experiment of the Week and won FIRST PRIZE in the third grade division of the Science Fair!

In fact, Brandt and Jackson added a little OOMPH to the experiment by using several different kinds of cereal instead of just one, and using a blender instead of a baggie and their hands. The boys admit that most of the cereals they used just didn’t seem to have any iron in them, in spite of what their labels claimed.

Next time, they’re going to use Life cereal, because they want to SEE the little black dots of iron! They’ve also decided that there definitely won’t be any raisins involved - the ICK factor was just too high with raisins.

Brandt and Jackson are in the third grade, and they learned about this experiment from their teacher. Jackson had won First Prize in first grade, and Brandt had never entered a science fair before, so they decided they’d be perfect partners!

Both Brandt and Jackson love science, but since Brandt’s mom is a math teacher, he added that math is his favorite subject. GOOD ANSWER, Brandt!

While the boys confessed that science is a lot more fun when they can get up and put their hands in it, they also said that experiments seem to go more smoothly when they’ve done a little reading about it beforehand.

Congratulations to Brandt and Jackson! Science Fairs can be loads of fun, and it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to win First Prize.

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I’ve posted socially redeeming information about bubble wrap in the past, but don’t expect that high level of content with this. It’s just fun… and that’s not all bad. Go ahead and click on the bubble wrap. You probably can’t control your urge to pop a bubble - do it!

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