It is almost Halloween, readers, and even though my family doesn’t celebrate this holiday, over the years we have accumulated a wide variety of spooky science activities that are suitable for all kinds of Halloween-related celebrations and events. Here is a brief run-down of some of my favorite: 1. Puking pumpkins. Carve out a pumpkin and set up an elephant toothpaste experiment inside the pumpkin (yeast, concentrated bleach, soap, and water, for a scientific explosion that w

In case you missed last weekend’s National Chemistry celebration at the Museum of Science, do not despair! The week ends with a similarly exciting celebration at the Boston Children’s Museum on Saturday (http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/calendar/national-chemistry-week-celebration-chemistry-out-world), with a show and hands-on activities that are geared to slightly younger audiences. On Sunday, in case you need even more science from this fantastic museum, they are doing

Sometimes, I think to myself that I need to spend more time playing with dry ice. I imagine that this thought is not universally shared, but nonetheless, let’s talk about all the things we can do with dry ice. First, a note of caution: Handling dry ice can be dangerous because it is very cold. Frostbite is a real possibility. Dry ice should be handled carefully, and preferably by a responsible (or semi-responsible) adult. Also keeping dry ice in an enclosed space without adeq

This is a wonderful weekend to be a chemist in Boston, because we are starting National Chemistry Week on Sunday with an enormous chemistry celebration at the Boston Science Museum. Check out this link: https://www.mos.org/public-events/national-chemistry-week-celebration and plan to be there to celebrate! But what is National Chemistry Week, you might ask? Well, it started as National Chemistry Day in 1987, and was expanded to a full week of chemistry celebrations a few year

Let’s say you wanted to build a robot, and you wanted to do it on a relatively low budget and accessible to young children. This was my challenge one weekend over the summer, when I decided to robot building at a camp I was working at, with children as young as 4, and with over 500 children (not all at once!) over the course of the week. How should we do it? I wondered, and turned to the wonderful internet for resources. First of all, robots need motors. You can buy real moto

What are you up to this weekend, scientists? If you haven’t checked out King Richard’s Faire, in Carver, MA, this would be a great time to try it! Check out the official website here: https://kingrichardsfaire.net/. Basically this is a Rennaisance fair, where you can travel back in time effectively and experience lots of Rennasaice-era entertainment, games, and performaers. Why is it a good idea? First of all, because it’s fun. Second, the research on eduation is pretty clear

So you are thinking you want to make a rocket…. or maybe not you, but you have an elementary-school aged child who has made rockets, or seen rockets, or dreamed about rockets….and you have no idea where to start. This was the story of my life about a month ago, when my almost 9-year-old child decided he needed to have rockets for his birthday party. He had done rockets at College Gate summer camp. I had seen rockets, and even been part of programs where rockets were made, but