Over the past few weeks, I have discovered some major scientific errors in the guidelines that are used to develop questions for the fifth and eighth grade Science FCAT tests.

The Science FCAT is Florida's high stakes test that assesses all the science concepts and information that students should have learned by the end of fifth grade. Schools and districts are subject to financial incentives or penalties, depending on their students' FCAT scores, so this.....Read more....

What are the different states of matter? It’s not a difficult question, but the answer often depends on how old you are.

When you reached Middle School, you were told that there is actually a fourth state of matter called plasma. .....Read more....

This is something that comes up quite frequently in discussions between scientists and the general public. How much proof does it take for a theory to graduate to being a law? Because the words theory and law have such different meanings in the language of science, it is often a difficult question to answer, so instead, I'll start by giving you a few similar questions to answer.

Read more....

If you have looked at the Recent Pages section (scroll down the page), you have probably notices lots of pages with strange names, such as SC.5.N.1.3. What in the world are they?
They are a sign of many new videos, experiments, and other resources.

Read more....

During the years I was on the road, doing science performances at schools and museums, I could count on being asked that question at least once a week. After all, isn't that the official uniform for all "real" scientists?

To understand why not all scientists wear white lab coats, lets start by thinking about why some scientists WOULD wear one. After all, the standard, white, lab coat is not the most stylish outfit, so there must be other reasons.Read more....

Back when I was in school, atoms were simple. They were made up of three parts: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Our understanding of Physics surely has changed since then. We now think that there are more than 30 different types of elementary particles that fit together to make an atom, and that’s not counting the 25 or more particles that have not been seen, but are predicted by various atomic models. And of course, each of those has an “anti” particle present in anti-matter, so atoms could be made up of more than 100 different particles!

With all of the changes to the website, Facebook, and the Experiment of the Week newsletter, I find myself missing the good old days, when every Experiment of the Week had a few paragraphs sharing my travels, experiences, and views on science. In spite of the fact that I should be doing all the tasks on my "To Do" list, I have decided to add a blog section to the Happy Scientist website.