COLUMBIA - An instructional entertainer taught kids about chemical and physical changes Thursday afternoon.

Dressed in his white lab coat, Joseph "Nitro Joe" Higgs did several experiments that resulted in the kids shrieking in amazement. One chemical change experiment involved mixing water, dry ice and baby shampoo.

"It made bubbles that weren't clear. It made bubbles that were white and who's ever heard of white bubbles before?" said Benjamin Henke, a third grader.

The program became serious when Nitro Joe explained the dangers of dry ice. When he jokingly asked for a volunteer to freeze his nose, the kids pulled away in fear. But Nitro Joe ended up putting a quarter in the dry ice, freezing George Washington's nose instead!

Another experiment demonstrated physical changes. He made a ping pong ball float using a hair dryer and then made a playground ball float with a leaf blower. The kids kept laughing even with the hair dryer and leaf blower were turned on them to demonstrate the difference of strength.

"When you get a young mind that's open, fresh, ready and receptive to learning new things and new ideas, then it's easy when they sit down with a textbook and they go 'Oh yeah! I saw something like this!," said Nitro Joe.

The program was part of Daniel Boone Regional Library's Summer Reading Program.

By Kevin Ryden
Thu Jun 18, 2009, 04:32 PM CDT

Olney, Ill. -
At the beginning of a science show Wednesday afternoon at Olney Public Library, Joseph "Nitro Joe" Higgs told the many children in the audience he has three strict "golden rules" of science and included: "No talking when I'm talking," "Don't touch my stuff" and "Have fun!"

Have fun they did during Nitro Joe's show, which mixed entertainment and educational lessons. On his business card, Nitro Joe, who is from St. Louis, dubs himself as an "Edu-tainer."

He began by explaining that he does not perform magic tricks, but shows the science behind tricks, such as paper going up in flames and then seemingly disappearing. However, the "paper" was actually something magicians call "flash paper," which emits light and heat but not smoke and ashes. Those four properties are present during a chemical change, he said.

Nitro Joe spoke in a booming, authoritative and sometimes silly voice to get his point across. He also used some cool props.

Literally.

The power of dry ice, which has a temperature of -109.3 degrees and can freeze fingers in 2 seconds, was shown. Nitro Joe asked the curious crowd who wanted their nose to be put on the ice. As he jokingly moved with the ice toward the audience, many of the children scooted back.

Instead, he used a quarter, and said George Washington would use his nose. The quarter shook in the dry ice and it froze to its surface.

Nitro Joe also discussed the effects of sublimation and carbonation and used a bottle of baby shampoo and carbon-dioxide gas to make bubbles. Children reached out their hands as he walked around the room, passing bubbles through a tube.

"A bubble is nothing more than soap stretched around air," he said.

He also demonstrated the power of air by blowing a leaf blower at children, who squealed and laughed for several minutes.

"All of this is just old-fashioned, basic science," said Nitro Joe at the end of the hour-long program. "We're just looking at in a different way."

Kevin Ryden can be reached at kryden@olneydailymail.com

It was a great experience for everyone who had an opportunity to experience the kind of fun science can engender.

(Photo by Mike Patton)

Marissa Vickers photo Joseph “Nitro Joe” Higgs demonstrates science experiments at Nelson Elementary School.

 The entire presentation kept the children captivated, and they seemed to especially enjoy the experiment Higgs calls “water into juice.” He used three clear chemicals – sodium hydroxide, phenolphthalein and vinegar.  Higgs said the phenolphthalein is a base indicator that turns purple in the presence of a base, which is the sodium hydroxide. After he mixes the two together he adds the vinegar, a strong acid that neutralizes the base, to make the liquid turn clear again.

Higgs, who actually studied theater and graduated with a degree in communications, has been doing the science assemblies for school-aged children since 2002.

“I’ve been doing (science) since before I could drive and what I really wanted to do is speak, like motivational type speaking,” Higgs said.

He began doing scientific presentations when he was just 13 years old and even worked at the St. Louis Science Center.

Higgs works for Mad Science, a company that offers school assemblies, summer camps and after-school programs based on science. He started with the company after seeing an advertisement and thinking it was a phenomenal idea, he said.

“I’ve been doing something like this for quite some time,” Higgs said. “What I do is I do a science assembly on any number of topics. I have three main shows with three different topics.”

The students at Nelson Elementary School attended “It’s Not Magic,” in which he conducts experiments that deal with physical and chemical changes.

The other two shows are “Fire and Ice” and “Up, Up and Away.” Higgs said he uses dry ice as one of the main elements in the former presentation, as well as different experiments with fire. The latter deals with “air, air pressure, wind flows and things of that nature,” he said.

The various assemblies are offered to kindergartners through 12th-graders.

“I don’t change the topic for the grade, I change the vocabulary,” Higgs said. “You can teach mathematics to a kindergartner or to a 12th-grader -- you still have to add, subtract, multiply and divide -- but I use more vocabulary and I explain more” to the older kids.

Higgs said another reason why he loves doing the assemblies is because it raises awareness about subjects that aren’t as popular as they once were.

“Things like engineering, research, basic physics aren’t talked about that much, but science is on a big push. In the ’50s and ’60s it was big – everyone wanted to be an engineer, everyone wanted to be an astronaut. The mindset and the concepts are different now,” Higgs said.

“I didn’t stop taking science classes” in college, Higgs said. “I still took advanced physics, advanced biology, advanced chemistry. Calculus isn’t an elective for most people, but it was for me.”

E-mail: mvickers@yourjournal.com