Soda and science: Students try to break record for simultaneous Mentos fountains

Mentos fountains launched Wednesday for Science Day at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau. Roughly 1,000 people, mainly children, came out to take part in the event. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge]

Despite some misfires, Cape Girardeau may have broken the world record for the most Mentos fountains launched at one time.

To commemorate Missouri's Science Day, which was Wednesday, KFVS12 science reporter Jason Lindsey attempted to break the previous record of 850 Mentos fountains launched simultaneously last month in the Netherlands.

By 4:15 p.m., supplies were running low of the 1,000 diet soda bottles, Mentos and tubes donated for the experiment. When the mint Mentos is added to soda, a chemical reaction occurs that creates a geyser up to 30 feet high.

"It 'spewts,'" said Tatum McCollough of Brownie Troop 100.

When it came time to launch at 5:15 p.m., there was some misunderstanding when Lindsey told the crowd to open their two-liter bottles. Some people continued ahead and dropped the Mentos into the soda before Lindsey counted down for the official launch. To break the record, the fountains must be simultaneous.

Ron Henderson filled up a launcher with Mentos as his daughter Ronya, 7, inspected her launching string Wednesday during Science Day at Arena Park. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge]

"Stop everyone! Do not launch your soda! Stop!" Lindsey yelled into a microphone at Arena Park. He estimates between 25 and 50 people set off their geysers prematurely.

When the actual launch did occur, there was a massive spraying of soda as children screamed, parents moved for cover and bystanders giggled. Some people in the crowd were prepared with umbrellas and ponchos.

Officials were on hand to judge the event, and Lindsey said a video and signed participation forms will be sent to the Guinness World Records, which will determine in the next week whether the record was broken.

"It could be interesting. We'll see," Lindsey said.

Earlier in the day, schools across the area marked Science Day with hands-on experiments.

Tatum Dodd, left, Lily Parker, Riley Dodd and Becky Schneider watched a smoker's lungs inflate at a Saint Francis Medical Center exhibit Wednesday during Science Day at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau. (Kit Doyle) [Click to enlarge]

At Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau, fifth-graders spent the day studying Oreos, incorporating a science activity into other subjects.

In science, they used balance scales to see whether customers really get the advertised double icing in a double-stuffed Oreo as compared to a regular Oreo. In English, students rewrote the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." In math, they completed word problems involving the cost of Oreos.

At Russell Hawkins Junior High in Jackson, eighth- and ninth-graders rotated through science activity stations. At one, students decided how far objects are from Earth with the help of staff from the NASA Resource Center. They also mined for minerals, discussed how wildlife populations have changed historically, developed water bottle rockets and set off Mentos and soda explosions.

Across the board, teachers said that hands-on, or investigatory, science is the best way for students to not only learn but to remember the information.

"The more students are actively engaged in a subject, the more they are going to remember it," said Christina Dodd, a fifth-grade teacher at Central Middle School in Cape Girardeau.

Getting more teachers to use investigatory science is at the heart of Lindsey's mission. "Kids like to get dirty. They don't like to sit in a classroom and read a textbook all day," he said.

He points to studies that show Americans are falling further and further behind in math and science compared to students from other countries. A study that recently appeared in the Journal of Elementary Science Education said that on average U.S. students in kindergarten through fifth grade spend 25 minutes a day in science instruction. This is "compared to 114 minutes in reading/language arts, 53 minutes in mathematics and 23 minutes in social studies."

This limited amount of science instruction, coupled with "limited content knowledge held by elementary teachers" and limited training on how to present hands-on science, has led to a crisis, say the study's authors.

Fourth-grade Jefferson Elementary School science teacher Russell Grammer acknowledges the challenges science teachers can face. Among those are the time spent planning interesting lessons and the cost and energy involved in purchasing, setting up and cleaning up materials.

"It's time-consuming. Sometimes that has prevented me from doing a project that could be so wonderful," he said.

But he sees the importance of science in sparking students' curiosity, making them ask questions, motivating them to explore and instilling in them a sense of wonder.

He recently brought in a broken toaster from home that he plans to have students dismantle to discover how it works. Every December he brings in broken Christmas lights, cuts them apart and has students make electrical circuits. He does not have a science budget, so he has to be resourceful or buy materials with his own money.

Science previously was voluntary as a test for the Missouri Assessment Program, or MAP. Now, under the federal No Child Left Behind law, science will be a mandated test for grades five, eight and 11. With the new testing standards, teachers expect more of an emphasis to be placed on the subject.

"It has been stressed that science has to be taught from K all the way through. We don't want a K-4 setting to think 'I don't have to assess it, so it doesn't matter' because when students get to fifth grade, by golly, they have to know their stuff," said Becky Hicks, a second-grade teacher at Blanchard Elementary School and a Presidential Award Winner in science.

In the second grade, students use vinegar and baking soda to make volcanoes, use race cars to study friction and "create" soil by selecting garden components, adding sand and water, and tucking it away for three months to let the items decompose.

"Second-graders are easy to wow," Hicks said.

In a recent lesson taught by Hicks, students did everything but drool when a Hershey's Krackel bar and plain bar were put in front of them. They studied the objects, eventually determining that the Krackel bar was like a rock because it had two substances in it, while the plain bar was like a mineral, pure.

Satisfied the class has mastered the lesson, Hicks told them what they wanted to hear: "And now you may eat your rock and mineral."

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123