Kitchen Science...Try This at Home

One of my favorite podcasts is the Naked Scientists (and its sister podcast, Naked Astronomy). In spite of its name, this is a perfectly safe podcast for almost all audiences (save for an occasional mild double entendre). Both podcasts originate from Cambridge University. A rotating cast of faculty members tackle the science news on a weekly basis (monthly for Naked Astronomy) in a humorous fashion aimed at a general audience.

One of their weekly segments is called Kitchen Science. Kitchen Science focuses on experiments that you can do at home. And since its does not originate in the U.S., they do more fun experiments that a U.S. based broadcaster would dare air for fear of being sued. Recently, they showed how to build a homemade cloud chamber to watch cosmic rays and radioactive particles decay, the science of Pop Rocks, and how to make a fire tornado.

Many of the activities have videos showing how to do them as well as the segments from the radio show. They are great activities to play with at home or for teachers to check out for classroom use. The podcast and all materials on the website are free, so the price is right for the cash strapped (and many of the activities have low cost, using readily available materials).

So it's a fun site to explore, whether you are a teacher looking for ideas or a bored tinkerer looking for something to put together and play with in your spare time.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.