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I teach in a school that was originally designed to be an “open air” school. The school was built with support walls all on the outside of the building. The building, built in the 1970’s, was built with “classrooms without walls”.

A new event called "The Mole"was unveiled at BCCE 2018. I told the story of how one of my students discovered how to make marshmallows spark in the microwave oven.

Based upon reader comments on previously published, Chemical Mystery #12, I experimented and found that this demonstration is easy to pull off with relatively inexpensive and easy to find materials.

Check out the solution to Chemical Mystery #12: Baffling Balloons

Can you explain what is happening in Chemical Mystery #12? 

I’ve always been fascinated by advanced polymeric materials; it’s amazing how materials that are generally considered “plastics” have such stunning properties. I recently watched a couple of movies about Batman and it came out that some of his devices and protections are made of advanced polymers. In particular, the suit is almost entirely made of Kevlar.

Students broke up into teams with the question, "Do bowling balls sink or float in water?".