Our Insta-Snow® powder has become pretty famous for being the most realistic faux snow on the market. What many people don’t know is that you can make instant snowballs from the fake snow! Insta-Snowballs might not work for snowball fights, but they’re remarkably easy to make, and ridiculously cool!
We’ve shown you how different sodas will either sink or swim in plain tap water, but what’s the deal with eggs? Drop as many eggs into plain tap water as you want, but they’ll all sink to the bottom. In the Floating Egg experiment, we’ll show you how the addition of something as simple as table salt, can drastically alter what happens to eggs in water.
Did you know that the majority of burps are simply caused by swallowed air? It’s true! Burping is a natural human phenomenon, but it’s also possible for a bottle to burp. Say what?! Believe it… bottles can belch just like a human. All it takes is a bit of science know-how, especially when it comes to the properties of air and water.
Table tricks are all the rage when it comes to post-dinner “oohs” and “ash.” That’s why you need to keep the hits coming! For instance, give the Balancing Glass Trick a try. All you need are some knives, bottles, and a drinking glass. Before you know it, you’ll be wowing your audience with a glass that seems to defy gravity and the laws of physics.
Slime is a staple of Halloween, chemistry, and science, in general. What could be better than stretching a glob of goo between your hands or letting it run between your fingers? Well, if you’re like us, you want to be able to eat it. With this Edible Slime recipe, that’s exactly what you can do. What are you waiting for? Mix up a batch of your own.
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:
Here’s an easy-to-do experiment using only a balloon and a hex nut from the hardware store. This is the perfect science of sound activity because kids will love it and parents will be left shouting, “STOP!” Be sure to buy enough supplies for all of your friends. This is also the perfect Halloween experiment for making spooky sounds.
It looks like an ordinary glass of water… crystal clear water. But hiding just below the surface of the water is an amazing collection of large, jelly-like marbles that become invisible when submerged in water. The Jelly Marbles become invisible due to an identical index of refraction with the liquid. In other words, they vanish like magic! As you’ll see, there’s more to this experiment than meets the eye.
Everyone knows that water can’t flow uphill. Not so fast… When a small amount of Polyox (polyethylene oxide) is mixed with water, it dissolves, forming a thick, slippery, gooey, mucous-like gel. Oh, the visual imagery! When the gel is poured back and forth between two beakers, the gel mysteriously siphons from the higher held beaker to the lower one. Maybe water can flow uphill. You have to play with the stuff to believe it.
It’s a demonstration that almost has to be seen in person to believe. Otherwise, you’re likely to say, “It’s fake… there’s no way that could happen!” As you’re watching the video, please remember that there is absolutely no trick photography. When disbelievers see the demonstration performed, the reaction is nothing short of astonishing. Based on our past experience, we know that color mixing is not a reversible process. Mix red and blue and you make purple. Separating the colors back into their original form is not only tricky but incomprehensible for many of us. Watch the video… you’ll see why we call it a “Twist in Time.”
Steve’s son, Jack Spangler, decided that it is just too hard to pour soft drinks by turning a 2-liter bottle of soda upside down. The bottle is just too heavy. So Jack decided to use the power of Mentos and Diet Coke to fill 6 glasses at once and solve his problem. It’s a fun, creative, hands-on way to utilize the epic Mentos Geyser in a way that harnesses it for your drinking pleasure.
The Energy Stick makes quite the “buzz” when you’re using it. To the untrained eye, it appears to be a plastic tube with a jumble of wires inside and two silver bands at each end. Well, those silver bands are actually electrodes. All the wires on the inside? They’re a solid state sensing circuit, tone generator, sound transducer, battery power supply, and LED lights. The perfect use for the Energy Stick is as a simple, yet fun, tool for learning about continuity and circuits. So… how do you turn it on?
All it takes is a slight tug and the long string of beads literally pull itself out of the container and onto the floor. Best of all, fifty feet of beads empty from the container in under five seconds! How does it work?
You might think that you can’t fit many drops of water on the surface of a penny. Pennies are just so small! In the Drops on a Penny experiment, though, you’ll experience surface tension and cohesion at their finest. How many drops of water can you fit? There’s only one way to find out… by adding one drop at a time!
Vision and the way our brains perceive what we are seeing are incredible. Just think of optical illusions, 3D images, the fact that your eyes are processing the world around you upside-down! A fun trick to play on your eyes and brain uses a zoetrope. This fantastic tool is able to change multiple still images, into a moving animation that would make Walt Disney jealous.
Do square bubbles really exist? That’s the question of the day and the answer is yes… if you know the science secret. Square bubbles are easy to make and serve as a great learning tool as students explore the concepts of soap films and surface tension. Get ready to amaze your friends.
Sometimes, gardening and planting seeds can be very boring. This can especially be the case if you are a young scientist that loves action and excitement! Thankfully, there are gardening methods that can offer a bit more kick than just digging holes and planting. Introducing Seed Balls, the method of gardening that allows you to throw to sow!
Bubbles usually only come as individual spheres of soap and water. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can get a whole bunch of bubbles in one cluster… but it always seems random. Luckily, we’ve found a spectacular way to create entires snakes made of bubbles and teach you how to make them in all the colors of the rainbow!
Marshmallows are a delicious, fluffy staple of summer, campouts, and barbecues. Did you know that there isn’t really much to them? It’s true. The best way to see what really comprises a marshmallow is to put it to the Marshmallow Masher pressure test. You’ll use the power of air to demonstrate what you’re really eating when you roasting ‘mallows this summer.
M&Ms have the slogan of melting in your mouth, but not in your hands. You wanna know something cool? The special melting property is totally scientific. The results are an amazing phenomenon that we call Floating Letters.
Purchase DVD here: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/sick-science-dvd-volume-1
If you’ve experienced our Sick Science!™ series before, you know that the videos are all about bringing science to life for young learners. The best part? The hands-on science exploration can be done using items found right in your own home or classroom! Each volume of the Sick Science DVD series features 10 experiments that leave young scientists with a question. Sometimes, they may be asked to figure out why the experiment works. Other times, they may be asked to determine a mystery component of the activity. The entire experience is designed to encourage investigation and inquiry… a sure-fire way to keep everyone engaged and wanting more.
Sick Science™ is a trademark of Steve Spangler, inc.
Tissue paper is known for a few things. For example, tissue paper is soft and nice for blowing your nose. Tissue paper is not, however, known for its tensile strength. Most people wouldn’t be surprised if a common housefly could tear through a piece. In the Magic Tube – Strong Tissue Paper experiment, though, we’ll show you a way to make tissue paper nearly impenetrable.
Who taught these noodles to dance, anyway? Go on – gather up some pasta noodles, turn up the music, and get ready for an old-fashioned pasta party. Just when you thought you were done at the dinner table… here is some kitchen science that will have you learning about volume and density in a brand new, hands-on way!
“For this trick, all you need is a bit of un-popped pop corn and a ball bearing.” It’s the perfect phrase to get all of the people around you excited for a bit of science magic. Many people don’t realize that pop corn and ball bearings have a remarkable chemical reaction that turns the ball bearing into a ping pong ball. In fact, when you perform the demonstration, your audience won’t believe their eyes.
Who needs a magic wand to create levitating objects when you have a balloon? In the Static Flyer experiment, we’ll teach you how understanding certain scientific ideas can result in a trick that would make Harry Potter, Gandalf the Grey, and even Merlin jealous.
If someone told you that they could balance a full-size text book on a piece of paper, you might call up the looney bin. That’s a crazy idea, right? Well, the notion that a book can sit, precariously, atop a plain piece of paper isn’t quite as bonkers as you might think!
Mystery liquid revealed here http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/sink-or-swim-surface-tension
There are times in science where changing one variable can be the difference between fire and smoke, conducting and insulating, and in this case, sinking and swimming. In the Sink or Swim experiment, you’ll learn how adding one variable to water will change the amount of surface tension the water has. You’ll see that anything you add to water can quickly affect whether something sinks or swims.
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/leak-proof-bag
Who would have ever thought that a plastic bag, some water, and a few pencils would frighten the thunder out of Mom? Learn how to poke a hole in a plastic bag filled with water and reseal it like magic. The secret has to do with a better understanding of the chemistry of polymers.
Check out the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/balancing-nails-trick
The object of the challenge is to balance all of the nails on the head of a single nail. All of the nails have to be balanced at the same time and cannot touch anything but the top of the nail that is stuck in the base. If you’re really ambitious, you can try your luck at our large-scale version using landscape nails and a friend as the base. Enough of this idle chatter… get balancing!
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/flame-light-relight
There’s a lot of chemistry behind the simple lighting or extinguishing of a flame. Would you believe us if we told you that you could extinguish a flame just by placing it partway into a graduated cylinder? What if we told you that you could relight the fire without a match or lighter? Both propositions seem unlikely, if not downright impossible. With the Flame Light Relight experiment, however, you’ll see how a few household items can mix together and create a fire-based experience you have to see to believe.
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/egg-drop-inertia-trick
The challenge sounds so simple… just get the egg into the glass of water, but there are a few obstacles. The egg is perched high above the water on a cardboard tube, and a pie plate sits between the tube and the water. Still think it’s easy? Sir Isaac Newton does.
You’ve probably learned or heard about DNA, but have you ever seen it? With the Strawberry DNA experiment, you’ll extract, isolate, and observe the DNA of a strawberry in a matter of minutes. It sounds impossible, but thanks to special characteristics of strawberries, it’s actually very possible… and simple. You don’t have to be a geneticist. You don’t need a microscope. It’s easy, fun, and all you need are some household materials.
Want more experiments like this? Check out http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/product/naked-eggs-and-flying-potatoes
Sick Science™ is a trademark of Steve Spangler, inc.
With Halloween right around the corner, all you need to be the hit of the party is a little bit of dry ice, a touch of dish soap, and a bunch of time! Once you make these smoking bubbles, you won’t want them to stop… or maybe its that you can’t make them stop!
If you’re a fan of Spangler Science, you know that we love exploding pumpkins… but we’ve also found that glowing pumpkins can be just as fun! Just add Glow Powder to your Halloween pumpkins and you’ll get a spooky Halloween display without all the mess of carving.
Halloween is a big deal around Steve Spangler Science and, needless to say, we’re excited. So, here’s a sneak peak at what we have cooked up for October. What are your Halloween plans? Any cool costume ideas or haunted house schemes? We look forward to hearing what you have going on.
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/magic-with-physics-pendulum
While many magicians rely on the arts of deception or slight of hand to baffle their audience, we like to use principles of science to achieve the same effect. With the Pendulum Stop trick, you’ll use the sympathetic motion of two pendulums to make your friends think they’ve developed telekinetic powers… or are a Jedi… we’ll leave that part up to them. All you need are some household items and you’ll be fooling people in no time at all!
Graffiti is an oft discussed topic of debate in the modern world. While some consider graffiti a nuisance, others consider it street art. With that debate still raging, we suggest performing the Moss Graffiti experiment on a wall or piece of particle board that you have permission to use. Once you’ve received that permission, you’ll create a beautiful growing, green work of art.
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:
There’s something magical about a bubble. It’s just a little puff of air trapped in a thin film of soap and water, but its precise spherical shape and beautiful swirling colors make it a true wonder of science. A bubble’s life expectancy is usually measured in seconds unless you know how to make a SUPER BUBBLE!
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:
Read the full experiment at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/puff-pop-how-to-make-a-co2-sandwich Mom always warned us never to play with our food… but no one said that the wrappers were off limits. Here’s a fun activity that uses some common items you’ll find around the house and a little creativity to explore the “pop” factor of vinegar and baking soda.
