# Mad scientist party ideas??



## nixie

My son is turning 6 next month and he would like to have a mad scientist party. I have a few ideas, but I would love to hear what you guys can come up with. I have a sneaking suspicion there are some mad scientists among us here!

I am planning to set up different "lab" areas with various experiments and activities. I'm open to any ideas for any of these areas, or any areas I haven't thought of. Here's what I have so far:
Electricity- Plasma ball, 2 static electricity experiments
Chemistry- Liquid/solid glacier goop, and bouncy slime concoctions 
Weather/Natural Disasters- baking soda and vinegar volcano, pop bottle tornado
Bubbles- UV reactive bubble solution w/ blacklight.
Magnets- We have tons of cool magnets and magnet toys, I thought I'd just set them all out on a table
Anatomy/Biology- my son is insistant on this one, but I can't come up with much for this area. I was thinking about setting up a blucky (have no buckies) and setting up my creepy X-ray dvd illusion, but I can't think of any activities. We wouldn't want to dissect anything.

-Hubby has some leftover tubes, hose, flexible duct stuff, etc that I thought I could use for decor. Any other ideas? 
-I also don't know what to do for a cake/cupcakes (I prefer cupcakes...)
-Does anyone know where to find REALLY cheap, maybe disposable lab coats and goggles? I would need to outfit about 10 kids, so I mean cheap!
-Any other snack ideas?

Sorry, that was a lot to read... I look forward to any suggestions you guys may have!
Thanks!!


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## DarkLore

I'm not sure I understand whether this is for display, education, or what? Are these areas going to be "useable"?

For a Frankenstein type look....I'd search Home Depot or Walmart for toilet plungers. Not the traditional kind with a rubber end and wooden handle. The plastic type that has a bunch of rings on it. Using c7 Christmas lights and a little creativity, you can set up lab type props that look like Dr. Frankenstein's lab. The plungers can be cut up for displays and lighting. I'm sure if you search google images for "toilet plunger light", you'll get an idea of what I'm referring to.

For anatomy, how about using a 9 volt battery, a light bulb, coat hanger, and some wire frames....to make "Operation"? You could make a big operation table with pink foam. Cut out your shapes and paint it like the board game. A bit of simple wiring...and you have an operation game...life size.

Chemistry....ooowwwh. I'd definitely look for experiments on expanding soap/foam. Not the great stuff kind...but the kind they have on shows like Jay Leno. Where the school chemist comes out with some stuff he mixes and the damn room fills up with soap bubbles. Or....for the cheaper and easier version....expanding snow. The stuff you see them show at malls. Add water to a powder and it expands and becomes snow.

Natural disasters. Bring them over to my house to see the garage. Holy smoke, talk about a disaster.


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## DarkLore

Chemistry.....there's always the ever faithful - mentos fountain.


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## nixie

DL, these are some cool ideas!!! You got my creative juices flowing. I'm not familiar with the mentos fountain, sounds interesting. 
I'm planning to set up separate lab areas, each with different themed activities/experiments for the kids to do. Each area would be decorated to suit the theme of that particular "lab".
Thanks!!



DarkLore said:


> Natural disasters. Bring them over to my house to see the garage. Holy smoke, talk about a disaster.


LMAO!!


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## fritz42_male

There's always the 'volcano' type of thing - red food colouring, bicarb of soda and vinegar. Do it in a tall glass container and it looks really good as it expands upwards.

2 Part foam is good as well as it hardens quickly and is then inert - this would have to be an adult one.

You could also do the Instant Ice trick - link here

http://www.illuminatingscience.org/sodium-acetate-instant-ice/

Supplies for all kind of stuff here:

http://www.unitednuclear.com/


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## fick209

Nixie - site below has lots of very cool easy experiements to do at home including the mentos fountain which I found out hard way should only be done outdoors. I was washing diet coke off garage walls and rafters FOREVER.

http://www.reekoscience.com/

I have a whole bunch of scientist party recipies somewhere but can't find anywhere. They might be on my work computer, I'll check there later today.


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## fick209

damn, not on work computer either....maybe I printed them off and put in one of my recipie books. I know there was something about cupcakes in that list. I'm actually a fairly organized person so this is driving me nuts right now. I'll find it at some point this weekend.


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## DarkLore

fick209 said:


> Nixie - site below has lots of very cool easy experiements to do at home including the mentos fountain which I found out hard way should only be done outdoors. I was washing diet coke off garage walls and rafters FOREVER.
> 
> http://www.reekoscience.com/
> 
> I have a whole bunch of scientist party recipies somewhere but can't find anywhere. They might be on my work computer, I'll check there later today.


Owww.....that sucks. Ya...the mentos thing, definitely shouldn't be done inside.


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## nixie

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.


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## Toktorill

fritz42_male said:


> Supplies for all kind of stuff here:
> http://www.unitednuclear.com/


OMG they sell CAFFEINATED SOAP!!! YES!








Er, just thought I should point that out.  Carry on.

For the cheap lab coats: I would buy some white plastic tablecloths and either melt/glue/pseudosew some coats together, or just cut holes for sleeves and hope they don't notice or care.

Some rit whitener (sold w/ the cloth dyes at W-M) mixed into fluids will be black-light responsive for decoration- or just put a light underneath a glass container.

One of our favorite decoration methods is Scene Setters- for a couple dozen bucks you can make a wall look like almost anything! I'm not sure about stores in your area, but we find these things at almost any dollar store around here. Example:
http://www.partycheap.com/Dungeon_Insta_Theme_s/478.htm

You may also want to search online for spooky sound effects for labratories- sometimes just a dim room with sounds of laughing, bubbling, etc, is all you need.

Game idea: Build a monster!
Make parts: Cut the arms/legs off old clothes, get some full-head masks, and stuff everything with newspaper. Number them. Also make a few torso's with shirts and shorts.
Play: Split the kids into groups and give them a torso and some clothespins. Then in turn get them to draw numbers, and get them to "attach" the part they win. Allow them to trade parts, if wanted. Provide nametags and get the teams to name their creation.


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## Toktorill

Lol... I hope the kid had a great birthday... 4 months ago...


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## scarymovie

You have some great props already! If you had the life size Dr. Shivers he will be cool there is one on ebay right now! He is pretty cool he is animated!


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## MistressWitch

nvm


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## chartreuse chaos

OOPS! JUST SAW THE DATE ON THE ORIGINAL POST. Hope the party was a success.

Hey nixie, 
I got cheap tyvek suits last year from American Science and Surplus, sciplus.com. They have lots of weird stuff that works great for mad scientist. I found beakers that were labeled in Polish and safety goggles last year, too. Weird and fun experiments, too. Super glow in the dark slime recipe on about.com > education > chemistry. Search Anne Marie Helmenstine on about.com, she's a PhD chemist who details the recipe.


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## nixie

Thanks again for all the ideas, everyone. I'm sorry I didn't update sooner. His party was a great success! I actually got really lucky with the labcoats, I called a few places looking for the disposable ones, and someone had a box of hospital labcoats in the basement of their store that were embroidered incorrectly. He sold them to me for about 3.00 a piece. We did lots of messy chemistry, including the mentos fountain (very cool), made molecules with gumdrops and toothpicks, used a few skeleton props and an X-ray illusion dvd to make a biology lab, had a few other experiments set up, and my dad put on a mad scientist show for the kids. It was a lot of fun! I'm hopeless with posting photos and links, so here goes nothing...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132169&id=559663069&l=4765c76cfa


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## Luigi Bored

Really creative ideas! I love your mad scientist lab, the kids will go wild!


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