We use soap and water to introduce children, parents, and grandparents to the science of the everyday world around them.
In hands-on demonstrations, the students float paper clips over water by the power of surface tension, flip test tubes of water upside down without spilling a drop, propel miniature paper surfboards with a squirt of isopropanol, count how many drops of pure versus soapy water fit on the head of a penny, and create a cloud in a bottle. Throughout these activities, we engage the students to hypothesize what will happen in their experiments, and we encourage them to propose explanations based on their observations from previous demonstrations. Our most popular demonstration engulfs participants in a gigantic soap bubble using our new wheelchair-accessible bubble chamber.
Testing out the wheel-chair accessible bubble chamber with a friendly robot at the Wisconsin Science Festival.
Experience Surface Circus: The Incredible Surface of Water at these events:
Science Expeditions
Wisconsin Science Festival
Super Science Saturday
Marvelous Math Morning
Learn how to make your own soap boat at home!
Check out an animated gif of our human bubble,
as featured in Best of the Wisconsin 2014 Science Festival!
Wen-Tsung Huang encloses a student in a giant soap bubble at the 2014 Wisconsin Science Festival.
Nearby, Gil is looking on. Chris is in charge of the “bubble wall” on the right.
Gil puts JR and little JR in the big bubble. 2015 Wisconsin Science Festival @ WID