What happens to a salty pickle when you apply 110 Volts to it? Chief Scientist, Carl Nelson, talks about why the pickle lights up and sparks.

An amazing example of the heart and lung system!

Liquid nitrogen is probably the coldest substance most people will ever see in person.

The Chemistry of combustion and the Physics of acoustics combine in the flame tube.

Materials: Uncooked eggs Knife Potting soil Small spoon Seeds Markers Egg carton or cardboard ring Procedure: 1. Crack the egg around the top. To do this, take a knife and tap around the egg to break the shell in half. You should be able to crack only the top part of the shell, leaving the [...]

use an old garbage can and a shower curtain to make a giant vortex canon.

It looks like leprechaun science, a copper penny turns silver then gold.

What happens to peeps when you remove all the air inside them?

Build electrical circuits using play-doh and batteries.

It’s all about pressure and force

Check out this fun video about the Electrostatic Generator

Time to crush some cans with Air Pressure!

Want to learn a new trick? Check out this video to learn more about the Tablecloth Pull trick!

Water, Oil and some fizzing tablets are all you need to make a cool lava lamp at home.

Movie set snow – just add water!

Time to learn some chemistry!

What do wine glasses and wedding rings have to do with Physics?

This is what happens when you put to much quickly expanding foam inside a pumpkin!

Paper Windmills   Vocabulary: (6-10) Gravitational Potential Energy Elastic Potential Energy Law of Conservation of Energy   Vocabulary: (3-5) Potential Energy – Stored Energy Kinetic Energy – Energy of Motion Energy Transformation   Materials: Windmill templates available through the following link: Windmill Templates Pencil or single hole punch Rubber bands Scissors Straws Paper cups String [...]

Use of Imagination Station’s energy resources helps teachers to meet the following Ohio Academic Content Standards for Grades 3 and 7   Earth’s Resources Grade 3 Earth’s resources can be used for energy. Some of Earth’s resources are limited.   Matter and Forms of Energy Grade 3 Heat, electricity, light and sound are forms of [...]

Use seaweed extract (sodium alginate) to make instant and edible worms.

How to make edible blood with kitchen supplies.

Peroxide really does nothing for smal cuts and scrapes!

Lifesavers plus cola equals huge mess!

Will a light bulb filament light up inside liquid nitrogen?

As the region’s leading provider of informal science education, Imagination Station’s educational resources are an invaluable tool for teaching STEM studies to the students of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. The 2013 Field Trip & Program Guide is a comprehensive snapshot of all of Imagination Station’s educational programs available to assist teacher’s on the classroom’s [...]

Camp-In is an overnight program designed to inspire boys and girls in grades 2nd-7th and their accompanying adults to discover science in an entertaining, educational and interactive overnight adventure.

Liquid Nitrogen is literally super-cool. It boils at -320 F.

Create super bubbles at home with this simple bubble juice recipe.

Making a cloud in a bottle is easy if you have the right equipment.

Depending on how much oxygen is around, hydrogen gas can combust in a few interesting ways.

Magnesium combusts in a dramatic way inside a block of solid carbon dioxide.

A mixture of cornstarch and water displays some interesting properties. Sometimes it’s a liquid, sometimes it’s a solid.

Multiple chemical reactions occurring at the same time keeps this solution clear, for a while, then it suddenly changes to a deep dark blue.

With a bit of science you can push something right through a balloon without it popping!

    The school year is ending but plan ahead and book your fall field trip to see out two new exhibitions that have joined Imagination Station’s vast array of inspiring exhibits!   Eat Smart. Play Hard. Have Fun! The choice is yours! Eat It Up! has been open now for just over a month. [...]

This demonstration has been done for over 2,000 years! Non-the-less there are still incorrect explanations of the science being published and distributed today.

Combine some iron oxide (rust) with a little aluminum and you get some really nice sparks as well as some microscale chemistry.

Combine whole milk, some food coloring and dish detergent to create some cool color mixing patterns.

How can you get an egg inside a jar that has an opening smaller than the diameter of the egg? Find out in this weeks Imagine It! video.

Using simple items you have in your bathroom and kitchen, you can extract DNA from fruits like bananas, kiwi or strawberries.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day we’re making green snow, and blue snow, and pink snow ….

What better way to determine the caloric content of food than to burn it with liquid oxygen? There are more exacting ways of course, but the flames (and smells) created this way are pretty impressive. Check it out!

Slime is one of those easy-to-do, fun activities that never gets old. There is something that everyone loves about making a substance that is gooey and gross.

Using just air pressure, 14.7 pounds per square inch, we watch a steel drum collapse in on itself. Amazing example of the power of air pressure.

Want to take your class to Imagination Station? Your field trip could be FREE – Apply Now! Imagination Station has introduced our Adopt-a-School program, an exciting new initiative that will help provide access to the science center for 2nd-6th grade classrooms in need of financial assistance in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. We believe that [...]

Before watching the video answer this question, “does a soda can placed in water float or sink?” A clue might be that this is all about density, or the mass per volume of a substance.

Check this out to find out how an antacid works.

A cow eye is very similar to a human eye. What better way to understand how your eye works than to take apart a cow eye? Check this out!

Our Extreme Scientist, Jesse, talks about the chemistry of disappearing inks. She has a little surprise for Chris near the end.

Correlation to Educational Standards  Mindbender Mansion provides connections to science, technology and mathematics content. The primary focus of the exhibition is problem solving, often with a mathematical emphasis. Through exhibit activities, visitors will practice the problem-solving skills that are used to explore the world through scientific inquiry and mathematics. Research has shown that students learn [...]

If you fill a plastic bottle with a small amount of liquid nitrogen, seal the bottle, then let the gas expand, you get an explosion. If you pour 30 gallons or so of plastic balls on top of the bottle before it explodes, you get a Ballplostion! Check it out!

How does an antacid ease the pain of an upset stomach?

With a head of red cabbage you can have lots of fun doing some kitchen chemistry. Red cabbage has a natural acid/base indicator that you can extract and test all sort of things to see if they are an acid or base.

Hot air makes these metal pipes howl with noise.

A rocket powered by the combustion of ethyl alcohol. In the end it’s all about action and reaction and rocket nozzle design.

What happens when you torch a towel soaked in a flammable liquid? This result may surprise you.

Using liquid nitrogen, which boils at -320 degrees, we make a batch of tasty ice cream in less than 2 minutes.

Get an upclose look at a set of lungs and the heart from a pig. The inflated lungs are amazing!

A steel pipe filled with propane gas can demonstrate some interesting properties of sound.

A hovercraft is pretty simple in construction. A circle of plywood, at plastic tarp, a coffee can lid and a leaf blower. Check out the video for more information.

A tremendous amount of energy is released when you allow hydrogen and oxygen gas to combine to form water. Check out this demonstration.

We are celebrating Chemistry Week with all sorts of activities you need to check out!

The self carving pumpkin is featured in our special Spooky Science demonstration this weekend as we get geared up for Halloween.

Halloween is just around the corner and making a batch of edible blood is a great way to spend the day in your kitchen with the kids. If you’re gearing up for Halloween and are in need of some fake blood, there is no reason to go out and pay a lot of money for [...]

Using the seaweed extract, sodium alginate, and a solution of salty water you can create something that looks like worms in seconds. Normally alginate is used as a food thickener for things like jellies, jams and pie fillings. That doesn’t mean you can’t play with it to make noodle-like “worms”  and tiny spheres that look like [...]

During the month of October visitors will be able to dissect an actual cow eye in the science studio at Imagination Station. This is an amazing experience that you have to check out. Learn more in the video below or in this recent Toledo Blade article about our Spooky Science event.

Camp-In is an overnight program designed to inspire boys and girls in grades 2nd-7th and their accompanying adults to discover science in an entertaining, educational and interactive overnight adventure.  Imagination Station invites you to enter the wonderfully puzzling world of Mindbender Mansion, an eclectic place full of puzzles, brainteasers and interactive challenges guaranteed to test [...]

Thursday, September 29 3:30-5:00pm Come to the Educator’s Open House and see first-hand why Imagination Station, filled with over 250 interactive experiences, is a useful tool to help teach much needed science concepts and 21st century skills. Explore BODIES REVEALED. Free for teachers at the Open House!* Find out how Imagination Station can bring exciting, engaging [...]

January 10-15, 2012 Attention Parents and Preschool & Kindergarten Teachers! Mark your calendars for Little Scientists Week!  This special “Sid the Science Kid” themed week is dedicated to our littlest scientists, kindergarten age and younger! Watch your students come to life as they journal their way into discovering the scientist inside with special hands-on inquiry-based [...]

Magnesium metal is used in some fireworks to create brilliant white sparks. Those sparks are created as the metal reacts with oxygen in the air. While carbon dioxide is generally used to put out fires, it turns out that magnesium can also react with carbon dioxide to produce a brilliant flame.

It’s the classic summer experiment – mentos candies dropped into a 2 liter bottle of cola.

Oobleck is a suspension of cornstarch and water that can behave like a solid or a liquid depending on how much pressure you apply. It’s very easy to make at home or in a classroom – it can be a bit messy.

How do they get the colors in fireworks? They add various metals to the combustible materials.

Not only do get WTVG meteorologist Jay Berschback to lay on a bed of nails, we also smash a cinder block on top of him. Check it out.

Using just air pressure – not compressed air – you can accelerate a ping pong ball to amazing speeds. Fast enough to rip through a soda can.

What would it feel like to put your body (not your head!) inside a big bag and then remove all the air?

How do you get disappearing ink to fade as fast as possible? You saturate it with carbon dioxide from a fire extinguisher…

Soap bubbles filled with an explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen are ignited in Jay’s bare hands!

Is there a better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to freeze some flowers in liquid nitrogen? Probably, but flash freezing flowers and then watching them break like glass is pretty cool.

Making an Air Cannon is super easy and you probably have everything you need at home or in the garage right now. Learn how it’s done.

Naked Egg – An egg that has had it’s outer hard shell removed but yet remains intact.

Fill an egg with hydrogen gas, bring a match near-by and see what happens.

When you combine a steel tube filled with a flammable gas and sound waves you can create a pretty cool display of the sound pressure inside the tube.

Ripping a pop can in half with your bare hands is not all that hard if you know a bit of chemistry and a little about how soda cans are fabricated. Watch as ABC13′s Christina Williams rips pop cans apart in this Imagine It! Segment.

It’s March Madness and we are getting crazy ourselves by dunking a basketball in super cold liquid nitrogen. What happens when you cool a basketball down to 320 degrees below zero? Watch the video to find out.

A Science Celebration! TPS 5th grade students and their families that participated in the Taylor Automotive Adopt-a-School program were invited to a special event at Imagination Station. Check out the video!   Taylor Automotive Family “adopted” roughly 2000 TPS students and teachers. Each 5th grade student in Toledo Public Schools received a field trip to [...]

Can you balance an egg only on the vernal equinox? Of course not! you can balance an egg on its end any day of the year. Check out what else you can do with a few eggs at home.

Amazing Milk is a fun “play with your food” moment. Milk is full of tiny clumps of fat. If you add a dash of dish detergent and some food coloring to a plate of milk something interesting starts to happen.

What would grow in a petri dish if we swabbed a sample from your phone or computer keyboard? Watch to find out and learn a simple at home experiment you can do as well.

As part of Engineering Week 2011, we challenge local meteorologist Jay Berschback to build a stable tower on our Earthquake Platform exhibit using only foam noodles and a handful of cross-bracing. Find out if he can do it.

  Acid-base indicators provide a great platform for a variety of at home chemistry experiments that anyone can do. One of the simplest indicators that is readily available is red cabbage. It turns out that the colored pigment that gives the cabbage it color is a natural acid-base indicator. The red color of cabbage comes [...]

Find out what kinds of glass auto engineers use for the windshield and side windows of your car – and how they break.

What happens if you take away all the air pressure from the outside of a marshmallow by placing in inside a vacuum chamber? Watch the video to find out.

We use our eyes to view our world. A thermal imaging camera can show us things our eyes cannot see. There is so much more to what we call “light”, every thing from gamma rays to radio waves.

There are tiny iron fillings in your iron fortified cereal? Yep, many cereal manufacturers add elemental iron, the kind you would find in a nail, train or car, in your breakfast cereal. It turns out that this form of iron is ideal for a cereal additive.

2011 Pedometer Challenge Attention Teachers: We’re asking your class to participate in a pedometer challenge, by walking to Cape Canaveral, Florida. That’s just 1,112 miles (or for a classroom of 25 students, that’s only 44.5 miles each.) Please have your students track how far they walk each day using the pedometer provided to them and [...]