Science staples involve things that go boom and things that blast off. With the Ping Pong Popper kids’ science experiment, you’ll take both the booming and blasting to new, hands-on levels. You get to construct popper toy and learn about combustion!
Drop one weight into the tube and, no surprise here, the weight drops to the ground with a thud. Go figure… it’s gravity at work! The second weight might bend your mind a little, though. Drop this weight into the aluminum tube and… wait… why didn’t it come out the bottom? Give it a second, that weight just takes a while longer, but figuring it out may be a bit tricky. That’s why we call it Newton’s Nightmare!
Air pressure is one of our favorite invisible forces, especially when Bernoulli’s Principle is involved. The Soda Can Jump utilizes this awesome principle to launch an empty soda can out of a coffee mug. It’s a hands-on experience in physics that you won’t want to miss.
When it comes to scientific muses, Sir Isaac Newton is definitely near the top of our list. Our favorite laws to break involve physics, movement, and motion! That’s why we came up with the Coin Tower demonstration. Using a butter knife, you’ll remove the bottom coin from an entire tower of coins. What’s the secret? Perform the project to find out!
Do you know what a voltaic battery is? You probably do! Voltaic batteries come in all shapes and sizes, turning chemical energy into the electrical energy we need to power our cell phones, iPods, tablets, cars… you name it! These batteries seem pretty complicated, but you can make a real voltaic battery right at home! Grab some vinegar, nails, copper wire, and an ice tray… you’re in for a lesson in circuits you’ll never forget.
It’s probably the world’s most baffling optical illusion. Hold one arc above the other and ask the question, “Which arc is bigger?” The bottom arc will always look bigger than the top one, yet they are actually the same size! Reverse the arcs to make the other one look bigger. What you see is not always what you get! Keep reading and we’ll let you in on some presentation ideas and stunts that will really amaze and fool your friends.
Graffiti Research Lab first introduced us to the awesome throwie idea, and we loved it. Ever since, we’ve been playing around with the idea of using light-emitting diodes (LED) and throwies as a great hands-on method to teaching science. You can do it, too, and we’ll show you how!
Smartphones are used more frequently than for watching videos than ever before, but sometimes you just want a bigger viewing area. For those strapped for cash or in the mood to do something creative, you can construct your own Homemade Projector. All the project takes is a cardboard box, a smart phone, and a few basic tools. The result is a real, working projector that you’ve made with your own hands!
We’ve found an awesome new science activity that uses Cartesian divers. No, it’s not Hook or Squidy, although they are pretty awesome, too. We’re talking about the Five Divers experiment. This project features, you guessed it, five individual Cartesian divers, but they’re all in the same bottle. Give the bottle a squeeze and watch as more divers sink as the pressure increases. Try it for yourself!
Notebooks are a necessity in every science setting. Graphs, observations, procedures… all of science falls by the wayside without a way of recording the information. Here’s a fun fact: two notebooks are even better than one! When you intertwine two notebooks, page by page, they become Inseparable Books! Check out this hands-on activity and see if you can overpower the friction between the books!
Photographic paper has long been a popular warm weather activity for kids and adults, but did you know that you can use fabric, too? With Sun Sensitive Fabric, just lay objects on the UV reactive cloth and expose it to the sun’s rays. After ten minutes, rinse the fabric with water and lock the images in place. You even have multiple colors to choose from! Try making images from red, green, or even yellow fabric. Get out in the sun and enjoy Sun Sensitive Fabric!
You’ve seen Steve use a giant smoke ring launcher made from a modified trash can, but there’s a way you can construct a smaller version at home! Using an empty coffee container and a smoke bomb, you’ll be creating swirling vortexes of smoke in under 10 minutes. In addition to the awesome smoke ring launcher you’ll have, you will also gain a new understanding of the movement of air and vortexes!
Just imagine if the solution to an oil spill was this simple: Sprinkle a small amount of a non-toxic powder onto the layer of oil and in seconds the powder bonds to the oil, forming a sponge-like material that can be easily removed from the surface of the water. It’s more than just a dream… a new form of superabsorbent polymer technology is changing the way environmental scientists approach oil spills and waste management problems. The results are amazing!
It’s a popular topping at your local frozen yogurt store… popping boba balls. But how to do make them? Our science guy, Steve Spangler, introduces us to a kind of food science that is sweeping trendy restaurants throughout the country.
Steve Spangler is a celebrity teacher, science toy designer, speaker, author and an Emmy award-winning television personality. Spangler is probably best known for his Mentos and Diet Coke geyser experiment that went viral in. Spangler is the founder of www.SteveSpanglerScience.com, a Denver-based company specializing in the creation of science toys, classroom science demonstrations, teacher resources and home for Spangler’s popular science experiment archive and video collection. Spangler is a frequent guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Denver 9 News where he takes classroom science experiments to the extreme. For teachers, parents or DIY Science ideas – check out other sources of learning:
Do you think you can successfully perform the Steve Spangler Science inertia challenge? Balance a yellow ring on the mouth of an empty 1 or 2 liter bottle and place a hex nut or other heavy object on top of the ring. When the yellow ring is removed, the hex nut will drop straight into the bottle. It might take a little bit of practice, but you’ll get it. Inertia rings are a perfect tool for introducing students to physics, motion, and inertia.
If you’ve ever needed to clean a coin like a nickel or a dime, you might have used vinegar. That’s a perfect combination, unless you forget to dry the vinegar off of the coin! With the Colorful Coins activity, you’ll see how there is more to a shiny nickel or dime that initially meets the eyes.
You may have seen your favorite circus performers or magicians perform the classic Bed of Nails Trick… but what is the secret? Using a smaller version of the bed and a clear balloon, you can see the science behind the trick.
When you swing a bucket of water over your head, you probably expect a big, wet rush of water to soak you as the bucket goes upside down. However, if you were swinging the bucket fast enough, nothing happens. What in the world?!? Well, we have a pretty incredible physics demonstration to help you understand just why you remain dry. It’s called the Centripetal Force Board, and it will help you experience the physics and forces at play when three plastic cups of water leave you high, dry, and with new hands-on science topics in mind.
One balloon is blown up inside of another when you use a magnifying glass to focus light onto their surfaces. You expect the balloons to pop, but only the balloon on the inside bursts. What’s going on here? The Mystery Balloon Pop is a tremendous lesson in the power of the sun’s rays and the absorption of light and heat. Did we mention you’re popping balloons for science? Get started!
Science is often referred to as the most fun subject in school, but it can be the most delicious subject, too! When you create Homemade Rock Candy, you’ll be diving “string-first” into a science experiment and project that easy enough to do right at home! Young scientists will engage with principles like sedimentation and supersaturated solutions. How tasty does that sound?
We’ve found a method to take our famous Naked Egg experiment to a new level. By dropping your Naked Eggs into Karo corn syrup or water, you’ll witness eggs that have the strange ability to grow and shrink. It’s all an investigation into chemical reactions and permeability that is fun and engaging.
Amuse the neighbors for hours as you make objects float in midair. Believe it or not, the secret to this mystery of levitation is right in front of your nose. All you’ll need is a hairdryer and a ping pong ball to experience the power of air.
It’s the ultimate prank using the simplest of props… a plastic soda bottle filled with water. Even though the words “DO NOT OPEN” are printed on the bottle, people just can’t resist the temptation. Watch out, the fun is just beginning!
When Sick Science! first got its start, we introduced an experiment called the Color Mixing Wheel. This spinning science toy was a great way to show you what happens when the primary colors blend together to make secondary colors. Our Sick Scientists have taken it a step further. What happens when you spin a wheel that has all 6 primary and secondary colors?
The human body is a magnificent machine. Every part serves a purpose that seems to work like magic (except maybe the appendix). The more science discovers and understands about the human body, the more opportunities we have to replicate their processes. With the Homemade Lung science project, you’ll learn how you can replicate a working lung with household objects. You’ll have a blast recreating this bodily function, and you don’t have to give up a lung to do it!
Water and bleach: historically, this pair go together pretty well, namely in the world of cleanliness. Bleach is a remarkably caustic base that, when diluted with water, can clean stains from whites and linoleum. However, apart from their similarly clear appearance, water and bleach are very dissimilar. Bleach is very alkaline, but water is a neutral pH. Chemically, that is saying a lot. But what does that have to do with vivid colors?
Kaleidoscopes are an incredible tool for witnessing the effects of refracting light, but putting your own kaleidoscope together can be a pain. We’ve simplified the process using our famous Rainbow Peepholes. Witness a literal rainbow of colors when you build your own kaleidoscope with the Homemade Kaleidoscope experiment.
White flowers are beautiful, and so are pink flowers, but what if you could have flowers that changed from white to pink and back again? That’s exactly what happens with the Magic Color Changing Flowers. The chemistry behind these magnificent flowers will boggle your mind and create stunning visuals that will have you, and your audience, wanting to repeat the process all day.
A bottle balances precariously on it’s mouth. Nothing special, right? Well… put a dollar bill underneath the bottles mouth. Now, bet your friends a dollar that they can’t pull the dollar out from under the bottle without knocking it over. Sit back and enjoy their futile attempts as friend after friend knocks the bottle over. What’s the secret? Read on to find out!
You can have a ton of science fun with a straw. You can make it into a blow gun, using the properties of air, or it can double as a pipette when your lab has run out. But did you know you can perform some awesome hands-on science with the straw’s wrapper, too? It’s true. With the Wrapper Worm, we’ll reveal how to turn an ordinary straw wrapper into a growing worm!
Plug the drain, fill the sink with water, and take the plunge with Steve Spangler’s floating science challenge. We all know that certain things float in water while other things sink, but why? Do all heavy things sink? Why does a penny sink and an aircraft carrier float? Think you know the answers? Well, get ready for a few amazing surprises!
There’s something very important about oil that you need to know: oil doesn’t mix with water! That’s why oil spills in the ocean float on the surface and why throwing water on a grease fire is just going to make the fire worse. Now that you recognize that oil and water just don’t mix, let’s have some fun with them.
