Colorado Springs CoOL Iron Science Teacher

... at the What IF... Festival on Saturday, September 11th

This year Cool Science will use What If: A Festival of Creativity & Innovation as a springboard to kickoff our own festival week, which of course culminates with the Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival the following Saturday. For our What If experience, we will host Colorado Spring's first CoOL Iron Science Teacher Competition.

You've probably heard of Iron Chef, a Japanese cooking competion that became a cult hit- and spawned an American version- on the Food Network. You may not know however that the Exploratorium, a really cool hands-on science museum in San Francisco, has been doing their own geeked-out version for years, called Iron Science Teacher, which showcases Bay Area science teachers as they devise demonstrations around a particular ingredient—an everyday item such as a plastic bag, a milk carton, or a nail. In a fast-paced atmosphere where showmanship and creativity reign, science teachers are given ten minutes to concoct a science activity that can be used in the classroom. Check out their really cool videos!

We think that there's a lot of scientific creativity in the Pikes Peak Region as well, so it's time we had our own Colorado Springs version, and of course if we do it it must be CoOL, so welcome to our first- and hopefully annual- Colorado Spring's CoOL Iron Science Teacher Competition. We're still ironing-out the details for our special spin on this. We could give our teachers a week or two to prepare, or maybe just a hour or so the day of the event. We could be really cruel and run it like an improv act- with audience members picking the special ingredient out of a big barrel of household items. We could also have our teachers work in teams, maybe with one of their students, or even a volunteer from the audience. We could even have them mentor their student/volunteer who will then perform the activity themselves.

Do you have any thoughts or ideas for us to try? Shoot us a comment below. Better yet, if you're a teacher (or just want to feel like one), and would like to join in the friendly competition, send an email to marc@coolscience.org . If you're a student, ask your coolest science teacher if they're up to the challenge. We could also use help planning and organizing the competition.

Hope to see you there!