Here we are, and it’s almost April school vacation week. Hopefully some people have information about what they are doing with their children next week, but for those of us who are of the more ‘scrambling at the last minute’ kinds of parents, what is there to do? Well first of all, you may be wondering if it is ever going to get warm around here. I am wondering this too. My best advice as a scientist is to tell you to consult a weather app. I can tell you that because of clim

Here is another cool experiment that actually works as well in real life as it does on YouTube videos: kinetic popsicle sticks. What does that even mean, you might ask? It is an experiment that uses a lot of popsicle sticks, and interweaves them in such a way that it creates a lot of strain and builds up a lot of potential energy. If you do it in the right way, then after you are done weaving a lot of popsicle sticks (the more you weave, the higher the potential energy gets),

Continuing along in the categories of other things I have seen on youtube that I tried to reproduce in real life, I saw a video on youtube of a guy using lead from a pencil to create a gas lightbulb (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wucmSj7Z-dA). In the video it looked pretty cool, and so we decided to test this out. First of all, you need to figure out a good power source. We used eight D batteries all taped together with electrical tape, but it is not clear that the connecti

Have I mentioned lately how much I like bubbles? And also how much kids like bubbles? I didn’t think so. It turns out that it is relatively easy to make a super strong bubble solution, by using Dawn dish soap and warm-ish water and adding either sugar, glycerol, or lubricant to the bubble solution. All of these additives work by forming hydrogen bonds with the water, that reduces the surface tension and makes the bubbles less fragile. Once they are less fragile, what can you

One of my friends forwarded me a video she found online, which I am sure many of you have also seen. It involved taking a piece of coal, heating it up, and then covering it in peanut butter before freezing the entire mixture for a few days. Apparently if you then scrape away the peanut butter, carefully, you can create a crystal that looks like a diamond. “Is this true?” she wanted to know. “And if so, how does it work?” It turns out that it is pretty easy to test this experi

OK I decided it would be a good opportunity over the weekend to play with orbeez. Orbeez, for those people who may not be familiar, are also called ‘water beads,’ and refer to these tiny little beads that absorb several hundred times their weight in water and swell to the size of marbles. What is the orbeez, you might ask? Well it is a superabsorbent polymer, of course! It is related to the polymer that is found in disposable diapers, and allows the diapers to absorb lots and

Another fun activity to do as a demonstration in class (although not at home) (also it may require a fume hood) is to take a Coke can and put it in concentrated sulfuric acid. This acid dissolves the aluminum can fairly rapidly (and creates a lot of heat and smoke in the process). Interestingly, though, it does not dissolve the plastic liner, which is the only thing that remains after the acid digestion has been completed. This is interesting because the soda itself is usuall

I decided to learn to code using Python. Now, this may not be a big deal in the life of people who actually know how to code, or in the lives of people whose computer knowledge extends beyond shutting the computer down and starting it up again in the face of any challenges. HOWEVER, since I have never taken a computer science class in my life AND since I tend to resort to a forced shutdown of the computer whenever it makes me cranky enough, I decided it was time to learn. Als

Did you know there is a Thomas the Train exhibit currently underway at the Boston Museum of Science? 2/5 of the science family is planning to be there, because the other 3/5s of us are heading off to Florida for the National Scholastic Chess Tournament. Why go to Florida to play chess? I am not really sure, to be honest, but I am not the one playing chess. I am merely the chaperone for two highly competitive, fully engaged elementary school aged boys who are going to play che

So I got in the mood today to electrocute a pickle, and figured it would work as an exciting demonstration for some of my students. After much optimization in terms of the electricity necessary to do this, I am proud to say that we were successful and did in fact electrocute a pickle. We also tasted the pickle afterwards, and it turns out, it just tasted like a warm pickle. But for real, why would I electrocute a pickle? And more importantly, how can you do the same thing in