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Halloween is in STEM Spark's top 100 holidays (give or take 100; is that not the most engineering thing to say? ha), and we love doing STEM and STEAM related activities for Halloween (I mean, STEM is in the blog's name). So image how happy we were to find Geek& Co's Glow Stick Lab-- we could make our own glow sticks for tricking or treating on Halloween night! Science meets Halloween, swoon! Read below for our review on the lab and then a little further (further, yep right

Let's fall for STEM! We're celebrating fall with this apple related science experiment [insert groan at our earlier pun], so grab that perfect fall accessory, the apple, and let's make it erupt! You'll Need Apple Baking Soda Vinegar Pan/Plate/Bowl Knife and Spoon Food coloring (optional) Instructions 1) Cut a hole on top of the apple using a knife (note: adults this is your queue to cut, and we hold no responsibility for your cutting technique), and then scoop out the rest

Hello STEM Sparkers! Welcome back to the Back to School Book Reviews; this one is the last one which means this post contains the Amazon e-gift card giveaway! The final book STEM Spark is reviewing is Stardust Explores Earth's Wonders . Hope you're ready for this review-- there's a quiz, I mean giveaway, at the end! You can check out the other Back to School Book Reviews here and here . Will your kids like it and/or will you hate it? Jack seemed interest in this book w

Welcome back STEM Sparkers for the next back to school book review! This time STEM Spark is reviewing the fun, STEM chapter book Mia Marcotte and the Robot written by Jeanne Wald and illustrated by Saliha Caliskan. It's definitely a book you want to download to your ROM (see what I did there? made a robot/computer joke)! We did receive an e-copy of Mia Marcotte and the Robot in exchange for our honest opinion of the book. Will your kids like it and/or will you hate it? I

Hello fellow STEM Sparkers! It's back to school time here in Phoenix, so we're loading up on fish. Oh wait, not a school of fish, school that teaches students, K-12. Now that the pun is out of the way, we'll be doing some back to school book reviews of various STEM children books during the whole month of August. Stick us through the end of the month because we plan to raffle of an Amazon gift card so that one lucky STEM Sparker can buy one of these cool STEM books that

Shark Week is coming up soon, and STEM Spark has some very good friends who love Shark Week. So to help our friends celebrate their love of Shark Week, STEM Spark came up with a Frozen Shark Dig STEAM Activity! You'll Need Tiny Plastic Shark Figures Water Bowl Plate/Tray Spoon Salt Instructions 1) Place tiny plastic shark figures in bowl. 2) Pour water in bowl over the sharks. 3) Freeze the water/sharks for 3-4 hours. 4) Remove frozen water/sharks from bowl onto a plate or t

Jack loves rainbows! I love rainbows! Scientists loves rainbows! I mean there are so many science websites out there explaining the science of rainbows (here's one from How Stuff Works ), which is totally great for explaining rainbow science to children. But what is even better than explaining the science of rainbows is making an edible rainbow out of candies! You'll Need Skittles Water A light colored plate (best for full rainbow color) Instructions 1) Arrange the Skittles

I'm so excited! I'm on a panel for Phoenix FanFusion called "Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy! Fun DIY Science Projects." I'm on the panel with a biologist and two astronomers, and I can't wait to represent STEM Spark by sharing different science experiments with the public. And to tie into the "Fun DIY Science Projects," STEM Spark is going to review the Lauri Fun with Magnets kits and one lucky STEM Spark reader will win a kit (see the Rafflecopter below)! Will yo

We're keeping with the theme of Earth Day and reuse on STEM Spark this week, and happily present this Plastic Egg Rocket experiment! Jack and I were excited to take some of his leftover plastic eggs and try out this science experiment we saw on Pinterest . You could even say we were egg-static! You'll Need Plastic Egg (No holes and breaks in half are requirements) Alka-Seltzer Tablets Water Instructions 1) Set the bottom part of the plastic egg on the grounds. We lucked ou

Happy Earth Day fellow STEM Sparkers! There are so many great ways to celebrate our wonderful Earth, and here on STEM Spark we can't think of a better way to celebrate than by reviewing and giving away this awesome Melissa and Solar System Floor Puzzle! Will your kids like it and/or will you hate it? Jack not only likes this puzzle, he loves it. He kinds of loves all puzzles, but since he's been learning about the solar system recently, he was really excited to open this p

Our STEM Spark friend Stephanie B. (hi Stephanie!) suggested that we do the edible science experiment rain cloud in a jar, and although we've done this one a few times before, we couldn't think of a better month to finally share the experiment with the rest of our STEM Spark friends! Because April brings April showers; or in our case, rain clouds in jars! You'll Need Clear jar Water Canned Whipped Cream (like Reddi Whip) Blue Food Coloring Instructions 1. Fill the clear jar

Alright, we're wrapping up Women's History Month here at STEM Spark with a free, downloadable poster of Sally Ride! I have a special tie to Sally Ride, as it was with a Sally Ride Grant and Lab at my elementary school that furthered my interest in STEM. Per NASA's website , " Sally Ride is best known as the first American woman in space. Following her death on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61, she also is being remembered as a soft-spoken physicist who wanted to inspire young

STEM Spark loves Women in STEM. STEM Spark loves NASA. STEM Spark loves Lego. So put them all together, and STEM Spark loves the Women of NASA Lego set! We're going to review this product a little different this month. Since it's Women's History Month here in the States, we're going to share a little bit of history about each woman featured in the Women of NASA Lego set! Photo Credit Lego Margaret Hamilton Margaret Hamilton is a computer scientist, systems engineer, and bu

Happy Women's History Month here in the US! To celebrate, STEM Spark is going to do special posts centered around women in STEM. First up is STEM Champion Annie Easley. Annie Easley was a mathematician, computer programmer, and rocket scientist. Annie Easley worked at NASA, where she worked on one of the first-ever computer programs to enable space navigation. This computer program was used on the Centaur project, which is still considered one of NASA’s most important resea

Dr. Seuss Day, aka Read Across America Day, is on March 2nd this year! And I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by making some Non-Newtonian Fluid, aka Oobleck ! The Oobleck can also be dyed green, making it a great St. Patrick Day's science experiment as well! You'll Need Box of Corn Starch Water Measuring cups A Bowl or Pie Tin Spoon Food coloring (optional) Paper towels, paper ads, paper table cloth, or newspaper to cover your working surface to make clean up e

Hello STEM Sparkers! It's actually been below freezing at STEM Spark headquarters, and may I dare say almost like a real winter? Okay, it's probably more like a real fall. And I can only image our Mid-West friends laughing and shaking their heads at us Phoenicians and our desire to play with snow, even if that snow is human-made from the Frozen Science kit! Will your kids like it and/or will you hate it? I saw the Frozen Science kit on sale at Target, and I thought since

Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a science experiment, right? Okay, maybe not so much. But what are you going to do with all those left over cinnamon candy hearts that didn't go into a Valentine's card? Science experiment of course (see first sentence for reference)! STEM Spark presents "Dissolving Candy Hearts" for your Valentine's Day STEM fun! You'll Need: Candy Hearts (preferably the red hard kind) Water Plate, bowl or tray Instructions: 1) Place candy hearts

Time for my second review for Multicultural Children's Book Day ( MCBD ), which is on January 25 this year-- Aliana Reaches for the Moon by Laura Roettiger. I'm so thrilled that STEM Spark received another picture book featuring a girl enjoying STEM activities to review for MCBD ! And as a reminder, here's a little bit about MCBD . Multicultural Children’s Book Day in its 6th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom .

Happy 2019 STEM Spark-ers! When you live in a warm weather place like Phoenix, you rarely receive snowfall ( it has happened though) . So if you don't get snow, then why not make some? That's exactly what STEM Spark did over winter break! Let it snow, let it STEM, let it STEM, let it snow! You'll Need: 3 cups of baking soda 1/2 cup of hair conditioner (suggest white in color so that it looks like snow) glitter (optional) large plastic container or large pan "snow" tools: b

Wow, 2019 is right around the 90 degrees (get it? 90 degrees is a corner, haha)! I sincerely hope everyone had a few highs and good times in 2018, and as you ring in the New Year, may you enjoy this STEM/STEAM inspired activity! Happy Holidays and a Very Merry Happy New Year to all the STEM Spark readers. You'll Need: Balloons Toilet Paper Tubes or Paper Towel Tubes Scissors Tape Colored paper (optional for decorating outside of tubes) Stickers (optional for decorating out