There’s only one problem with these “best of” video lists… someone has to actually sort through all of the videos and come up with a list! Props to our genius video editor, Bradley Mayhew, for all of his editing magic in 2008. When the year starts out with 4,500 pounds of cornstarch and water and a cement truck on The Ellen Degeneres Show… you know it’s going to be quite a year! Our video and experiment library has grown to almost 400, with 70 new science videos added to our science video library just this year. Selecting our Top 10 Videos for the year was tough, but here are our personal favorites. Let us know what you think…

Spangler Science Video Compilation - Here’s a quick look at some of our television highlights from 2008.

Fun Fly Stick - Who said static electricity was boring when you can make objects fly?

Liquid Nitrogen Explosion - What do you get when you mix a tub of liquid nitrogen with some really hot water?

Science on the Ellen Show - April 2008 - Featured experiments included dancing fire in the Whoosh Bottle, the Vanishing Water, and fun with Potato Guns.

Science on the Ellen Show - February 2008 - Featured experiments included the Cornstarch Walk on Water stunt using 2,500 boxes of cornstarch and a cement mixer, fun with 50,000 volts of electricity, Think Ink! chemical reaction and exploding hydrogen and oxygen bubbles.

Spangler Family Science - Reporter Kim Christiansen introduces you to Bruce and Kitty Spangler and shares the story of one family’s desire to make learning fun.

Science in the Rockies - Where do science teachers go to get messy and learn new ways to make science fun? Each year Steve Spangler hosts teachers from around the country who join him for a three-day training called Science in the Rockies.

Science on the Ellen Show - September 2008 - Featured experiments included the Electric Pickle, making Instant Snow, Fire Extinguisher Science and making a giant cloud using the Liquid Nitrogen Explosion.

Mentos Diet Coke Explosion - The “boy in a plastic box” give thousands of teachers an close-up view of the famous Mentos Geyser Tube experiment.

Fire Dragon - Teaching the science of special effects fire using lycopodium to create a giant fire ball - how it works!

The Liquid Nitrogen Explosion - Behind the scenes video showing Steve Spangler and his demo team preparing for an upcoming segment on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The growing bacteria from the 9News experiment

BJ and Howie are familiar voices to morning listeners of Alice 105.9. Whenever their conversation veers off on a science tangent, I know that my phone might ring. Several months ago, Howie was so certain that the studio was infected with mold spores that he paid to have his workplace tested. Any guesses? That’s right… no mold of any significance. Today’s issue is one of bacteria and germs.

Listen to the Interview on Alice 105.9

Early last week, Mikey the morning show producer called our office and order a Growing Bacteria Kit. Like good little science soldiers, they cooked up the nutrient agar and prepared the Petri dishes. The next day, Howie followed the growing bacteria instructions and swabbed areas of the studio where he thought the germs and bacteria were running wild. After letting the “stuff” grow for a few days, BJ and Howie invited me down to the studios for a quick look at their science project.

Here’s the important point… unless you have the samples professional tested by a qualified biologist in a lab, there’s really no way of knowing exactly what is growing on those dishes. I’ve been told by microbiologists at the University of Colorado at Boulder that while the “hairy” stuff looks bad, it’s probably nothing more than common mold. On the other hands, those  brightly colored dots (red, orange and yellow) are probably something much more serious… but that’s as much as anyone will say until a “real” test is performed.

So, to console BJ and Howie, I took them some cuddly Giant Microbes (Flesh Eating Disease, Mad Cow, Salmonella) and also invited them to touch 50,000 volts of electricity in hopes of killing off any lingering bacteria.

Listen to the interview…

We just found out this week that we won the 2008 EduBlog award for Best Educational Video and it’s all because of amazing followers like all of you. When we got the word out that we were nominated for this award, the congratulations came pouring in… and so did the votes. After the dust had cleared, we learned that over 900 supporters voted for our educational videos.

Our Video Wizard, Bradley Mayhew, has been hard at work getting videos shot and edited and recapturing some of our classic moments. He has put together a huge video library on YouTube and has selected some of our best moments from 2008 to feature in our big end of year Experiment of the Week that will be coming to an email box near year next week.

Welcome to the 202nd Carnival of Education! There are, scientifically speaking, only 12 days of Christmas - beginning with Christmas Day and extending on into January, ending with Epiphany - but, scientifically speaking, there are MORE than 12 excellent educators and teachers right here who have all kinds of valuable and invaluable hints.  Let’s all put on our lab coats, step away from the mistletoe for a few minutes,  and start making some DISCOVERIES!

Mathew Needleman presents What To Do With Student Data posted at Creating Lifelong Learners.

ANDREA presents Education Examiner: Why are kids cheating in school posted at Education Examiner at Examiner.com

Gedaly presents Plot Structure and Macbeth’s Climax posted at The Bard Blog.

Nancy Flanagan presents Let’s Go Camping posted at Teacher in a Strange Land.

Travis A. Wittwer presents WASHINGTONIOUSLY Awesome: NBCTs fill the classrooms! posted at Stories from School: Practice meets Policy.

Kelly presents Task Force’s Final Draft posted at Stories from School: Practice meets Policy.

Joe Manausa presents What Is A RSS Subscription posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

Shen-Li presents Tailor-Made Flash Cards for Your Child posted at Babylicious.

Larry Ferlazzo presents Check The Pollution Level At Your School and Smash Lab | posted at Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day.

Bellringers (Carol Richtsmeier) presents High Fives, Hand Shakes & Gloves posted at Bellringers.

KauaiMark presents Dual Bag posted at Just a Substitute Teacher.

Thomas J. West presents Music Education Practice Tips posted at Thomas J. West Music.

Kelly Hines presents Preparing for Yesterday posted at Kelly Hines : Keeping Kids First.

Michaele Sommerville presents Kindergarten’s 3 R’s: Respect, Resources and Rants: Appropriate Kindergarten Intervention posted at Kindergarten’s 3 R’s: Respect, Resources and Rants.

Strausser presents the power of peer teaching posted at a voice from the middle.

Jena presents An Interview posted at The Life Without School Community Blog.

J.M. Holland presents Malcolm Gladwell the Airmchair Quarterback posted at Lead from the Start.

Peter Kimmich presents Is Cheating Easier in an Online Class? posted at Ace Online Schools.

Clix presents What Is Our Duty? posted at Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable.

Hall Monitor presents Nut Bans in Schools May Be Spurring Hysteria posted at DetentionSlip.org.

Heather Johnson presents 100 Best Web tools to Teach Yourself a New Language posted at Find Schools Online.com.

Diana Senechal presents The Spillage of Muddy Language posted at The Core Knowledge Blog.

Bogusia Gierus presents Understanding Projectile Motion posted at Nucleus Learning.

Elementaryhistoryteacher presents A Christmas Fire at the White House posted at History Is Elementary.

Joanne Jacobs presents Finding the Best Teachers posted at Joanne Jacobs.

Jim McGuire presents Do We Really Need Books? posted at The Reading Workshop.

Dave Saba presents WSJ Nails it! posted at DoE- Dave on Ed.

Dave Johnston presents Improving Teacher Education Programs posted at Friends of Dave.

rightwingprof presents Groupthink: Killing Academia posted at Right Wing Nation.

nyc educator presents Christmas Won’t Be Christmas posted at NYC Educator.

Lorri presents Is Teach for America attempting to ‘colonize’ minority children? posted at New York City Education Examiner.

avoiceinthewilderness presents Dear Sarah posted at The Chancellor’s New Clothes.

Steve Spangler invites you all to his Hands-On Science Boot Camp.  Pick your city!  Steve will give you more than just “cute ideas.”  Steve will give you SOLUTIONS!  And hey, if you sign up for Steve’s Experiment of the Week, you’ll not only get a free experiment in your email every week; you’ll also get a chance to win a $100.00 gift certificate for SteveSpanglerScience.com, AND, you’ll get 5% off your next order!  Take a look at all the science fair information, and check out his video collection (both growing bigger every day!)

Any time you need a good quotation, just check Scheiss Weekly! Jane Goodwin (Mamacita) posts fifty fantastic quotes, every Saturday!

Steve Spangler has been nominated for Best Educational Use of Video/Visual 2008 over on the Edublog Awards, and your vote would be genuinely appreciated!  While you’re there, check out the other fine educational blogs and websites that have been nominated for other educational awards, and vote for them, too!

Polski3 tells us about his Tiered Lessons.

Pastor Jeff is talking about Advent.

Ms. Cornelius, over at A Shrewdness of Apes, has written a timely poem that is actually pretty good literature!

Over at Walk In Brain, Wes has something to say about Beethoven’s birthday.

You can submit your posts for the 203rd edition of the Carnival of Education right here.

Thank you all for participating in the 202nd Carnival of Education. Everyone at Steve Spangler.com hopes that all of your days are merry and bright, that all of your hopes are fulfillled, that all of your dreams come true, and that all of your science fair projects get a big blue ribbon.

Pa rum pa pum pum!

As we wrap up 2008, I’m excited to report that we’ve added more than a hundred new videos to our ever-growing library of cool science videos and science fair project ideas. We are told that this science video library represents the most complete collection of science activities, experiment ideas and science demonstrations online to date. Thanks to everyone for your feedback and suggestions for future segments. I liked the e-mail that said, “Spangler videos are like Pringles… you can’t stop at just one.” Pour yourself another cup of coffee and dig in.

Visit the Complete Science Video Library

Bradley Mayhew is an amazing photographer and video editor who joined our creative team earlier this year. When he visited our video storage area on his first day on the job, he started to understand the true scope of managing this video archive. There are over 240 science segments dating back to 1990-1997 when I hosted the weekly Wonder Why? science segment on NBC’s News for Kids. Many of these segments can be seen on the Steve Spangler Science YouTube Channel under the classics category. Bradley also uncovered countless hours of video from teacher workshops, summer institutes, summer science camps, keynotes and other live presentations.

We know that many teachers cannot watch our videos at school because the 9News.com play and YouTube.com are both blocked the the school firewalls. However, most teachers have open access to the content provided at TeacherTube.com We are excited to announce that Steve Spangler Science is working closely with the creators of TeacherTube.com to launch a special science experiment content channel in 2009. You can see a small part of our content on the Steve Spangler Science TeacherTube Channel.

The best part for us is that our selection of videos are updated weekly thanks to all of the segments from 9News.com This year marks my tenth anniversary as the Science Education Specialist with the NBC affiliate KUSA 9News in Denver. During that time, Mark Koebrich, Kim Christiansen, Kirk Montgomery, Kathy Sabine, Nick Carter and Becky Ditchfield experienced every variation of science experiment that fizzes, pops, smokes, explodes or occasionally catches on fire. My appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show are directly tied to the Ellen Show producers watching our science demos on 9News and inviting me on their show to make them even bigger.

I hope you enjoy our ever-growing library of cool science video. Any suggestions for future segments?

Don’t be surprised if you start seeing your favorite toy catalogs and educational toy websites (hopefully www.SteveSpanglerScience.com is in your list) sporting new product warning labels. It’s not gesture of good will - it’s the law - and retailers who fail to comply face serious fines.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was the toy safety legislation recently passed increase consumer protection and to require toy manufacturers to provide very specific product testing and warning labels on all products that target children as the end users. I bring this to your attention because you’ll now see the required warning labels on all products on our website that contain small parts that could pose a choking hazard, products that contain a marble, small ball or a balloon. Each area of concern has it’s own product warning label. Products that contain small parts (small enough to fit through a standard toilet paper tube) are required to carry this warning…

Our web development team, product buyers and vendors continue to spend considerable time and effort to make sure that SteveSpanglerScience.com is in full compliance with the new toy product testing laws. So, don’t be surprised if you see multiple warning labels on products on our website – it’s now the law.

But fancy warning labels don’t make products safer…

Supervising adults who engage with the children and play with their children help to create a safe environment for children. Warning labels are a positive step forward in providing adults with the information they need to make smart buy choices when purchasing for children. But nothing beats strong parental involvement.

We are honored to be nominated for the 2008 EduBlog Awards (Eddies as they’re called) in the category of Best Use of Video / Visual. This is the fifth year of the EduBlog Awards and the list of categories and nominees is the largest ever.

Voting is now open for the 2008 awards

If you have a second, it would be great if you would look over the list of nominees and cast your vote. Chances are pretty good that you’ll discover a new blog and latch onto a new idea that will be great for the coming year.

Hats off to our workshop team for finalizing all of the cities and dates for our 2009 Hands-on Science Boot Camp tour. During this year’s tour, teachers asked how we decided on the cities and the answer is simple… we just loaded a blow gun with pins and shot them at the wall map. It was decided for us that we needed a more strategic approach. The upcoming tour dates and cities are all based on teacher requests for workshops. The one-day science workshop was designed for teachers ranging from Pre-K through 5th grade, but past registrations tell us that the content is appropriate for upper grades as well as home school parents, informal science teachers, museum science demonstrators, before and after school care providers and the occasional, highly-motivated parent who is trying to make a difference on their own. It’s a full day of cool hands-on science activities integrated with proven teaching strategies and best practices to help teachers get students engaged in their own learning. That’s our secret… engagement with a purpose leads to life-long learning.

More than just cute ideas… we need solutions!

When I asked primary teachers what would be the best way to teach science, teachers responded with a no nonsense approach. “Give us easy science activities that help our students build critical thinking skills… use the scientific method… and make them so engaging that kids want to learn more on their own.” Anyone with even a small amount of teaching experience knows that science is already fun, but it also has to be relevant to the curriculum and to the real world. And teachers need science lessons that can be easily integrated into all areas of the curriculum. “The days of trying to squeeze science in at the last minute are over… we need something that is easy and really gets kids excited about using the scientific method.” I’ll promise you that this science teacher training is different than any other workshop you have ever experienced.

If you can’t make it to one of these cities are you really want to come to Denver in the summer, join us for Science in the Rockies - July 8-10, 2009.

Ladies and gentlemen… please welcome our magicians for this evening… the amazing Bruce and Kitty Spangler.
As a very young child, I can remember sitting backstage and hearing these words as the orchestra began to play and my parents took center stage. I’ve often talked about my love for the art of magic, but few people know that I grew up in a family of professional magicians. When you live in a family of magicians, seeing your Mom float or get sawed in half is really nothing out of the ordinary. I remember taking my Dad to show-and-tell when I was in kindergarten. What did he do? My Dad pulled a torch out of his bag of tricks and ate fire for my entire class. Let’s just say that when your Dad eats fire for show-and-tell, it’s kind of a show stopper.

I recently introduced 9News reporter Kim Christiansen and photo journalist Eric Kehe to my parents, Bruce and Kitty Spangler, for a behind the scenes look at a special art that is being passed down through three generations.

Watch the video

KUSA - So often we hear the story of a young man or woman taking over the family-owned business. Childhood experience is preparation for that move.

It would be safe to say few people have grown up with parents like Bruce and Kitty. They are ordinary in many ways, and yet strange in wonderful ways.

When their three children were young Bruce worked for US WEST in the knowledge/engineering division. Kitty did home day care and taught piano lessons.

The weekends and evenings were devoted to performance. Bruce and Kitty are magicians. For more than three decades they have performed magic and science (we’ll get to that in a moment) programs throughout the United States and around the world.

Their “magic” occupations impressed all children, including their own. When their oldest son was in elementary school a teacher called home to talk about his “overactive” imagination. It seems the class was talking about their parents’ occupations and Steve told everyone, “My dad eats fire, makes people float and cuts my mom into three pieces.”

Steve says he knew in kindergarten his parents’ hobby was very special, because he always had the best “Show and Tell.” Steve used to perform a magic trick for his classmates, a trick taught to him by his parents.

At home Bruce and Kitty did much more than magic tricks. Kitty used to make “fake blood” that was used in films and television productions. Their home is also where their collection began. Their basement is a magic museum.

“We wanted our kids to grow up in an environment that would trigger their imaginations, so this is one of those things we did to do that,” Bruce said.

They have magic collections that once belonged to some of the greatest magicians. These are people Bruce and Kitty have met while performing and attending magic shows. Bruce even taught David Copperfield a few tricks many years ago.

The magic is just one part to their show and their lifestyle. The other part is pure science. When he looks at his magic collection Bruce says, “Every magic trick you see down here has a scientific explanation, we don’t really believe in spells and ghosts and all of that.”

In order to be a good magician, Bruce and Kitty believe you need to be a good scientist first. That’s a lesson their children learned early on. Steve adds, “Being in a family of magicians you always started with the impossible and worked backwards. There was never a, ‘No you can’t do that.’ It was always, ‘OK, let’s just figure out how we’re going to do that.’”

It should come as no surprise that Steve grew up to become a very popular scientist. He’s Steve Spangler the Science Guy. He’s “performed” his science in classrooms around the country, on 9News and the Ellen Degeneres Show.

Steve has passed on his love of science on to his three sons. They are eager to perform their magical science at every opportunity.

This is one booming “family business.” While Steve is famous for his television science, his parents are famous to students throughout the state. They teach students about science through magic, with their business FutureQuest Academy of Magic.

- Kim Christiansen, 9News

Houston teachers and science trainers came out in force as we wrapped up our 2008 Hands-on Science Boot Camp tour. It’s not the first time that weather preempted a teacher training, but the severity of hurricane Ike impressed upon us the impact this storm had on the Houston area. It was amazing to see how quickly the businesses and people of Houston rebounded. Just two months earlier, the Sheraton North Houston had a foot of water running through the front lobby and today you’d never know that anything happened. Workshop participants arrived early and were ready to roll up their sleeves and do some science. The audience consisted of primarily K-5 teachers, but we also had a strong showing of early childhood professionals, some middle school teachers and a handful of informal science educators (presenters at museums and science outreach professionals). When asked what brought them to the workshop, many participants told us that they were looking for ways to spice-up their curriculum with more hands-on activities. Getting the students engaged in their own learning was at the top of the list for almost everyone.

Instead of filling out workshop evaluations at the end of the day (I refer to these as “smile sheets”), I asked the participants to hold off until they got a chance to actually try out some of the ideas, to show their students a few of the activities and to put some of the teaching strategies into practice before they shared their comments. I asked the workshop participants to share some of their experiences and suggestions as a comment to this blog post. Please give them a few days to post comment about what happened when they took these ideas back to their students.

The dates and locations for the 2009 Hands-on Science Boot Camp Tour are finalized and registration is open.

It looks like our Insta-Snow® or (Instant Snow as many people call it) is showing up on lots and lots of “Top Gift Ideas” lists that are prevalent on so many blogs. Just add water and the powder instantly erupts into amazing artificial snow that looks and feels like the real thing. Technically, it’s a superabsorbent polymer (if you really want to know), but it looks and feels like the real thing. It’s so realistic that it’s being used in indoor snowboarding parks and by special effects artists in movies. Once you start playing with the stuff, you just can’t put it down.

Purchase the Real Insta-Snow Powder Here

Here’s how it works… Just mix a cup of water with a scoop of Insta-Snow polymer and within seconds, the liquid turns into a solid and then erupts into a fluffy white, snow-like material (no mixing required). Watch in amazement as it instantly expands up to 100 times its original volume. It’s not sticky like the Insta-Snow imitations. UnIike real snow, Insta-Snow doesn’t melt, which makes it perfect for holiday decorating. It’s even re-usable after it dries out.

How does it work? Insta-Snow® is actually derived from the superabsorbent polymer found in baby diapers. The only difference (and it’s a big one) is that the Insta-Snow polymer not only absorbs water but the long chains of molecules swell to an enormous size. The polymer chains have an elastic quality, but they can stretch only so far and hold just so much water.

The Insta-Snow reaction is a great example of a physical reaction - a reaction where the substance itself does not change. If you think of the Insta-Snow powder as millions of tiny sponges, it’s easy to see that neither the Insta-Snow powder or the water was changed. If you allow the water to evaporate, the Insta-Snow powder dries out and returns to it’s previous state, ready to be used again.

There’s Only One Insta-Snow - Don’t Be Fooled by the Fake Snow Knock-Offs and Imitation Products

With all of this popularity comes the huge wave of Insta-Snow knock-offs… imitation products where the powder doesn’t exactly erupt like the real Insta-Snow but just turns into a clump of white goo that has to be stirred to eventually look like clumpy slush. It’s amazing to see how blatant some people or companies are when it comes to knocking off a product or an idea. Insta-Snow® Powder is a registered trademark, which means that the name is protected under federal copyright law.

But this didn’t stop a few guys in Minnesota from “borrowing” the name Insta-Snow and developing a line of products that literally copied every Insta-Snow product we had on the market. They copied the graphic design, cleverly named their product Insta-Snow and even went so far as to lift the text from our instructions. But if that wasn’t bad enough, they launched a website called www.instasnow.com and “repurposed” a video of me doing a television segment about Insta-Snow from 9News.com and posted it on the site. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that it was one of our websites.

It’s comforting to know that really good intellectual property attorneys know how to fight this kind of copyright infringement and were able to regain control of the trademark and the domain. If you visit www.InstaSnow.com now, it goes to the right place, but that hasn’t stopped the Minnesota-based company from marketing their own version of snow polymer under the name of Snow in Seconds (after our intellectual property attorneys forced the shut down of their use of the trademark “Insta-Snow.”

It’s also amazing to get phone calls from people who purchased the bad snow and they want to know why it doesn’t work like the snow they saw in the video. Our customer service people have to explain that their Snow in Seconds is actually slush forever. When they eventually receive the real Insta-Snow® from SteveSpanglerScience.com, they understand why it pays to buy the original Insta-Snow.

‘Tis the season for spending time in the kitchen making those holiday feasts. So, when we were choosing a timely experiment to send in our Experiment of the Week email, we figured that Exploding Water in the Microwave was a great choice to make sure everyone had a safe and happy holiday.  Our choice was affirmed when a reader took the time to let us know about the value of this experiment…

Now watch the video…

I was very interested to receive the email about water from the microwave exploding. Let me tell you my story. I make a pot of c

offee in the a.m. and then just reheat it in a mug throughout the day. I have done this for many years. Several months ago, without any thought, I went through my usual routine coffee heating, same mug, same power, same time as always. When completed, I set the mug on the counter and, as always, added a spoonful of powdered coffee creamer. The reaction was unbelievable and so fast that, initially, I could not comprehend what had happened. There was literally coffee everywhere in my kitchen and all over me. Fortunately, I was not burned. My face just felt a little warm and rosy for 24 hrs. I have included photos of the coffee “hanging” from my 8-ft kitchen ceiling. All the cupboards including those 4 ft away were covered with coffee splatters. The 10 oz mug had about 1/2 in or less of coffee left in it. Several months later, I am still finding a spot of coffee in obscure places here and there in the kitchen.  So - thank you for putting out the warning. I have sent it on to many family and friends.

– Lucie from Ohio

It is really an honor when our customers let us know that what we are doing has made a difference to them.  Thanks Lucie for your email and for the lesson learned!

One of my favorite science demos leading up to the holidays is the Vanishing Styrofoam Peanuts. As you’ll see in the video below, the better choice is the more eco-friendly starch-based packaging material. As you shop online this season, some retailers even give the customer the choice of Styrofoam or starch packaging material, but the truth is that most people don’t understand the difference. Hopefully this helps…

Doc Gizmo performs Bob Becker's Methane Mamba

It was easy to spot Doc Gizmo as you wandered through the exhibit hall at the Colorado Science Convention. He was the only person dressed in a tie-dyed lab coat with multi-colored socks and a smile that beamed from ear to ear. Even before watching his program, there was no question that this guy had found his calling.

Doc Gizmo, whose real name is Phil Arnold, has been traveling around the Midwest for several years doing his science assembly program for a wide variety of audiences. Phil told the audience that his wife teaches chemistry and physics in Bucklin, Kansas, and he was recruited to build a few science demonstrations for her to use in the classroom. One thing led to the next and Doc Gizmo is traveling the Midwest with his science show speaking to anyone and everyone who wants to learn why science is fun.

During the hour long program for an audience of science teachers at the Colorado Science Convention, Doc Gizmo skillfully weaved a handful of classic science demos into a presentation that showcased the accomplishments of his wife and his core theme that science is fun. At the age of 75, Doc Gizmo’s character is that of a wacky science guy who isn’t afraid to dip his hand in some liquid nitrogen or even light his hand on fire while holding bubbles filled with methane gas. He offered a book of his science demonstrations for sale and even reprimanded online retailer Educational Innovations for trying to make too much profit by selling one of the science demonstrations he manufactures himself. The message hit home as a large crowd of people gathered at the edge of the stage to purchase his Newton’s Beads demonstration for a fraction of the price charged by the online retailer.

The best take away for me was his twist on the classic Egg in the Bottle demonstration. Instead of light paper on first and jamming it into the bottle, Doc gently places a small candle into the top of the hardboiled egg and covers the candle with the inverted milk bottle. After a few seconds, the flame goes out and the egg is pushed up into the bottle. It’s a beautiful twist.

Phil was kind to include several demonstrations from my 1999 Reg Friesen Lecture at ChemEd as he closed his presentation. The Growing & Shrinking Head was a big hit and his presentation of the Afghan Bands was a great way to wrap up the show.

Hats off to the planning committee at the Colorado Science Convention for sharing Phil Arnold and his Doc Gizmo science show.

Today’s customer service call-of-the-day focused on a product that we don’t even sell. The product in question is actually an imitation or knock-off of our popular Insta-Snow ® product, but no matter how much we tried to explain that she purchased an imitation of the real instant snow powder, she just didn’t understand. She continued to yell, “This is not snow… it’s goo… it’s slush… but it’s not snow!” After lending a listening ear, Lisa asked, “Does it say ‘Insta-Snow®‘ or licensed by Steve Spangler Science on the package?” “No,” she replied. “Well, let me send you a jar of the real stuff.”

The unfortunate thing is that this call is not an isolated incident. As Insta-Snow® (the original Instant Snow) grows in popularity, so does the number of companies who try to produce imitations that fall short in so many ways.

Is there more than one Insta-Snow® on the market?

Answer: NO, but there are a number of knock-offs and the calls we get are from angry people who were expecting the same snow they’ve seen us demonstrate on television. There is only one Insta-Snow® as indicated by that “circle R” thing. We don’t use the ® everywhere because it becomes somewhat annoying, but the name Insta-Snow is a federally registered trademark of Steve Spangler Inc. (Federal Trademark Registration #2928946). The terms Insta-Snow and Instant Snow are synonymous and are protected under federal trademark law. That’s why you see that we use them interchangeably.

But this didn’t stop a few guys in Minnesota from “borrowing” the name InstaSnow and developing a line of products that literally copied every Insta-Snow product we had on the market. Brands like Snow in Seconds are not licensed by Be Amazing Toys, Inc. or Steve Spangler Science, but they claim to be InstaSnow (or some off-spelling of the trademark). They copied the graphic design, cleverly named their product InstaSnow and even went so far as to lift the text from our instructions. If that wasn’t bad enough, they launched a website called www.InstaSnow.com and “repurposed” a copyrighted video of me doing a television segment about Insta-Snow. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that it was one of our websites. Luckily, our intellectual property attorneys understand the difference and took action.

Our favorite knock-offs are the companies who believe that Insta-Snow is the same superabsorbent polymer found in a baby’s diaper. If this were true, every time the baby went potty, the diaper would erupt to an enormous size and explode! Might be a great way to potty train the kid, but it’s not true. Insta-Snow® is the only polymer that instantly ERUPTS when it comes in contact with water. The knock-off “snow” companies tell their customers to “…add water and stir the mixture for 20-30 seconds to make snow.” All you have after 30 seconds is a tired hand and a cup of baby diaper goo. Just stick with the original Insta-Snow® and you’ll be safe, happy and amazed!

Why are we so concerned about protecting our Instant Snow?

Insta-Snow is a product that didn’t exist anywhere in the world until we launched it in 2002. An entire industry of fake snow polymer was born with the creation of our line of Instant Snow products. It’s the flagship product for our wholesale division - Be Amazing Toys - and Insta-Snow is a staple for thousands and thousand of educators around the world who use the product in their classrooms for a variety of applications. When one of those teachers or a parent or any disappointed person calls our office with another knock-off horror story, we take the time to explain the problem and do everything possible to get a jar of the real Insta-Snow in their hands. By educating our customers (or potential customers), we hope to introduce them to our entire line of innovative products that make learning science fun.

Steve Spangler’s Insta-Snow Video

This video has found a home on fake snow sites all over the Internet. This video features Steve Spangler and Kim Christiansen from December 2003. This was the first time Insta-Snow appeared on television as a product. Later the same month, Steve worked with Jeff Brooks and our college interns to fill the back of a moving truck with nearly 6,000 gallons of fluffy Instant Snow. At the time Denver was experiencing a very light winter with no snow fall yet in December. So, Steve set out to deliver a white Christmas to one lucky viewer… who was very surprised.

It’s tough to really demonstrate the Mentos Geyser Tube in an exhibit hall filled with teahcers… until we created the Mentos Geyser Chamber. It’s a plastic box that measures 4 feet square and 7 feet tall. It’s the perfect enclosure to launch off a few hundred Mentos Diet Coke geysers. The only other thing you need is someone to stand inside the box for a few hours. Most of the time, Drew Vriesman is an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying marketing. But when he puts on his intern hat at Steve Spangler Science, he’s never quite sure what to expect. Drew Vriesman and Taylor Marsh took turns launching geysers at the NAEYC 2008 conference in Dallas. Combined they launched 700 erupting Diet Coke geysers using over 4,000 MENTOS® Chewy Mints. The interns spent about 20 hours in the Geyser Box over three days and entertained (or amused) about 15,000 teachers who stopped by the Steve Spangler Science booth.

Watch the video of the vanishing Styrofoam

Sure, you can talk about recycling projects, but what can you do to get kids exciting about taking action and changing their behavior when it comes to recycling? That’s the goal put in place by student council members at Wilder Elementary in Littleton, Colorado. On the top of this morning’s agenda was the school-wide recycling project… but with a little twist. President Scott Rob discussed his idea of purchasing recycling bins for the school and increasing everyone’s awareness between now and the end of school. But there’s more…

The student council sponsors and I brainstormed another way to get kids talking about recycling using the Vanishing Styrofoam Peanuts Demo.

Watch the Video

The kids raced to see how many handfuls of Styrofoam peanuts it would take to fill a small container. Everyone guessed two or three… but everyone was wrong. No sooner did the Styrofoam peanuts enter the container they seemed to vanish… literally dissolving away. The secret was a layer of acetone solvent in the bottom of the bowl. Acetone breaks down polystyrene turning it into a puddle of liquid goo. The demo is a great way to show how Styrofoam packing material is mostly puffed air, and these pockets of air fill landfills around the world with no possibility of biodegrading. The lesson here is to understand the importance of reducing our use of Styrofoam packaging material and finding a way to reuse what we already have.

The student council members agreed that everyone should start a bag in the garage to collect Styrofoam packing peanuts that arrive over the holidays and promise to reuse the packing material in the future. This simple action helps to answer the question, “What can I do to help the environment?”

One alternative is to replace Styrofoam packing material with the more eco-friendly, starch-based packing peanuts. The environmental benefits definitely outweigh the slightly higher cost of the packing material.

Using cool science demonstrations to teach principles of leadership has always been a passion of mine, dating back to the mid 1990’s when I worked closely with Dr. Earl Reum to create a program called the Science of Leadership. I had the great fortune to work with the National Association of Student Councils and the National Association of Workshop Directors to pilot the program and to travel to state association meetings throughout the country with a trunk filled with science demonstrations.