Happy birthday Dr. Seuss! Everybody has a favorite book-- "The Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas," “Green Eggs and Ham", or others, and he continued to write until his death on September 24, 1991. His legacy lives on as his beloved children’s books continue to sell well and inspire young people to read. In 1997, the National Education Association chose his birthday, March 2, to celebrate reading and the first Read Across America Day was held the next year in 1998.

What do Dr. Seuss and the Quirkles’ Zany Science Zeke have in common? They both tout an amazing substance known as a polymer. Seuss’s “Oobleck” and the Quirkles “Zop” are classic science experiments that start out as a liquid. After being squeezed, the polymer will form into a hard ball (solid). Open your hand, and the substance changes back to liquid.

Now go beyond this tried and true activity to learn more about polymers. This month we offer you Zany Zeke’s Bubble Slime (More Quirkles Experiments) with a twist on the name we think Dr. Seuss would like. Check out our video where we do a variation we call Fliz Floz. Some liquid starch, glue gel, a little food coloring, and a touch of glitter is all you need for some fun science!

So celebrate Dr. Seuss’s March birthday month by reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck, where a gooey green substance falls from the sky and wreaks havoc. Then follow up with Zany Science Zeke/More Quirkles Experiments to learn more about polymers and other lessons about states of matter. Through all the activities you will discover how amazing the world of science can be!

Want even more experiments and videos? Go to the News and Resources tab and then Recent News/Archives. Happy learning!

This month we often say love is in the air. If that’s the case it must be in small quantities because by volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Instead of love, this month we focus on one of those elements: oxygen.

Poor oxygen. How can something so important be so taken for granted? It’s essential for life. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe. Just five elements make up more than 90 percent of the weight in the Earth’s crust. Almost half of the weight of the crust comes from oxygen. (Silicon, aluminum, iron and calcium are the other four main elements in the crust.) There is more oxygen inside your body than any other element, and at least 21% of Earth’s atmosphere is made of oxygen.

But what do you really know about this colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that helps sustain life on this planet? Oxygen is really, really old. It’s been on Earth for at least 2.3-2.4 billion years! But even though oxygen has been around for a very long time, it took until 1608 for people to notice. A Dutch inventor named Cornelius Drebbel was working on an experiment when he noticed a mysterious gas being released. (Some say Leonardo da Vinci first proposed that air was made up of two gases, one for breathing and one for fueling fire earlier.)

By the 1770s, at least three different chemists were trying to solve the mystery of this unknown gas. In 1771, a scientist named Carl Wilhelm Steele discovered oxygen, but he never published his findings. A chemist named Joseph Priestly realized that the flame of a candle burned brighter in the mystery gas in 1774, and he did many other experiments to learn more about the gas. A third chemist, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier finally gave the gas a name: oxygen. Oxygen’s name comes from the Greek oxy and genes, which means “acid-forming.”

Oxygen (O₂) is unstable in our planet’s atmosphere and must be constantly replenished by photosynthesis in green plants. (Read Gilbert Gas.) Without life, our atmosphere would contain almost no O₂. If we discover any other planets with atmospheres rich in oxygen, we will know that life is almost certainly present on these planets; significant quantities of O₂ will only exist on planets when it is released by living things.

We’ve already learned that all living things on Earth use oxygen to breathe, but oxygen has many other uses, too. Oxygen is used to make steel and plastic, and liquid oxygen is one of the main ingredients in rocket fuel. It is also used in cars and airplanes. Fire uses oxygen to burn. Oxygen tanks help people with breathing problems live and breathe. They also help astronauts walk in space and scuba divers swim to explore the depths of the oceans.

This month learn more by reading the Quirkles book, Ollie Oxygen then watch our video to see how oxygen impacts a candle race.

So now you know it’s important to appreciate this incredible element! Oxygen is in more than just the air we breathe: it’s in the oceans, the Sun, dirt, rocks, plastic, cars, airplanes, and more. We need it to live, fire needs it to burn, and oxygen-producing plants make it all possible. Thank goodness for oxygen!

March is the month of Dr. Seuss's birthday! To celebrate we look at polymers. Dr. Seuss had "Ooblek" and we offer "Zop" and "Fliz Floz."

Which candle will burn out first? Try a candle race to see!