Hoop gliders are pretty cool cause they look like they shouldn’t really be able to fly as well as they do. Two hoops of paper taped to a soda straw actually fly pretty well. This is a pretty simple activity that you have to try just to see how well it really works! Read more →

A balloon flinker is a fun thing to create if you happen to have some birthday party balloons just floating around the house. The idea is to add just enough weight to the balloon to balance out the lifting force of the helium gas in the balloon. Read more →

Oobleck is a suspension of cornstarch and water that can behave like a solid or a liquid depending on how much pressure you apply. Try to grab some in your hand and it will form a solid ball in your palm just until you release the pressure, then it will flow out between your fingers. Materials that behave this way are classified as non-Newtonian liquids because their flow properties are not described by a constant viscosity. The name Oobleck comes from the 1949 children’s book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, by Dr. Seuss. In the story, King Derwin is bored with the four types of weather in his kingdom. So he tells his Royal Magicians that he wants something new to fall from the sky. Bartholomew begs him not to do it because he knows something bad will happen. But King Derwin doesn’t listen.
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This is the now classic “mentos fountain” experiment with a little twist … we use lifesaver candies. Since Lifesavers have a hole in the middle they are just begging to be strung on a paper clip, held in place with a binder clip and then dropped into a 2 liter bottle of soda! Check out the YouTube video at the bottom where we did this with over 360 bottles of Diet Pepsi and nearly 1800 mint lifesavers.

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This stuff is great fun around Halloween, but who says you have to wait till October for some fun with fake wounds and fake blood? Mix up a batch and see how gross you can make it look!

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Flubber is similar to slime in many ways, sort of just a variation on the recipe. The slight change in the amounts of water, borax and glue makes a big difference in the final product. Try for yourself and check this stuff out. Read more →

Elephants Toothpaste is a fun chemical reaction that creates a huge blob of soapy foam that everyone loves. You may have seen us do this experiment as part of our Extreme Science demonstration with super concentrated hydrogen peroxide. Unless you’re a teacher or science museum it’s difficult to obtain the 30% hydrogen peroxide needed to do this experiment. The peroxide you can buy at a drug store is only 3%. We recently have come across a version, from my friend Steve Spangler, that only requires a 6% solution of peroxide that you can buy from a local hair salon.

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