by David A. Rossignol

Twenty pairs of eyes followed the man in the white lab coat as he energetically moved around the room. “Do you want to see how cold this stuff really is?” he asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a quarter. “Yeahhh!” came the enthusiastic replies. He placed the coin on top of the object he was holding in his other gloved hand. “See how cold it is?” he asked them. “Brrrrrrrr,” he added, a quiver in his voice for effect. “Wooowwww!“ exclaimed a young boy. “Why is it shaking?” asked another. “It’s so cold that the coin is shivering,” he explained as the transfer of heat between the ice and the coin made the coin visibly tremble. “You see,” he continued, “The dry ice sublimates upon contact with the coin, changing from a solid directly into a gaseous state.  The escaping gases cause the coin to quiver.” “Oooohhhhh!” they replied incredulously, rapt in fascination. “Let me touch,” shouted one boy. “Yeah, me too,” exclaimed a young girl standing beside him, awestruck by what she was seeing. “Come on now, think about it,” replied the man, challenging the kids to make the connection themselves. “If I’m wearing gloves,” he posed, “don’t you think it would be a good idea if you did too?” “Yeah,” they answered in unison, their eyes never straying from the vibrating coin in his hand. The man in the long white lab coat is Richard Maringione (pronounced Mare-in-joe-nee). The children know him as Mad Rich. His occupation? Mad Scientist!

     Rich, and his wife Ellen, are both Mad Scientists. This past April they opened the first Maine franchise of Mad Science, the world’s leading provider of fun science. Fun science? Seems like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? But science can be fun, and the Mad Science organization delivers it just that way. Mad Science has kindled the imaginations of millions of children around the globe by offering them fun, enjoyable activities that inspire a lucid understanding of what science is and how it affects the world around them. “The goal is to enhance the kids imaginative learning by showing them that science can be silly, that it can be fun,” smiles Ellen. “We spark the kid’s interest so that they can go home and say, ‘Wow, maybe science isn’t what I thought!’” 

     Mad Science originated in Montreal, Canada in 1985. It was the brainchild of brothers Ariel and Ron Shlien. As children, the brothers loved performing crazy science experiments for friends in their neighborhood. In 1986, Ariel was asked to perform the grand finale for a Science & Technology course at a local Montreal YMCA. The performance amazed and electrified the audience, and spawned the idea for Mad Science. Within a short span of years, Mad Science performances were reaching thousands of children throughout the city, and the popularity of the program was spreading like wildfire.

     In the early 1990's, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines contracted the Mad Science organization to perform their spectacular shows as an integral part of the Cruise Line’s Adventure Ocean Program. This literally exposed the Mad Science concept to the world, precipitating the demand for performances across the country and the globe. In 1994, Mad Science began selling franchises, and today reaches millions of children annually through its global network.

     A native of The Bronx, New York, Rich is an accountant by profession, with a degree in business. “I have always been a children’s entertainer, children’s magician and clown,” he smiles passionately, sitting on the edge of his seat. “I love working with kids and getting them silly. It’s a lot of fun.” Ellen is from Baltimore, Maryland. She is an educator with a degree in teaching. “When we were looking into opening up a business,” she explained, “We wanted to try our entrepreneurial spirits and this fit us both.” “Ellen loves teaching it, talking about it and selling it,” Rich added, “And I love doing it and getting in front of the kids. It fits our mold.”

     The Maringione’s used the Internet extensively in their search to discover what was available for business opportunities. “We did some research because we knew that we wanted to start something that would aid children…in an entertaining way,” said Rich. “We looked up children, we looked up education, we looked up entertainer,” Ellen recollected. “We went on to Entrepreneur & Success Magazines, and every time in our searches, Mad Science kept popping up. It really sparked our interest.” “It sounded intriguing to us,” Rich added with enthusiasm, “Like it was a lot of fun.” Indeed, the more they researched, the more they found out that the Mad Science Organization was ranked number one as a children’s educational-entertainment company for the last three years. “So, we checked into it. It all looked really positive to us,” smiled Ellen.

     Mad Science has several different venues in which they deliver their message of fun and exciting science to children around the world. One such venue is a science party. Parents hire Mad Science to captivate and enthrall children with high-energy presentations that make a child's birthday party an unforgettable event. In fact, Mad Science performs more than 18,000 of these parties annually. “The children love the bubbling potions, slimy-goo and spectacular chemical magic they get to create first-hand. Birthday parties and special events are more of a show, and take the form of entertainment," said Rich. “In that venue, it’s all about entertaining the kids.”

     Another type of Mad Science presentation is in the form of the after school programs. The Portland Parks and Recreation Department is currently running two such programs. One is at the Longfellow Elementary School and the other at the Jack Elementary School. “These programs are running as part of a special curriculum at the schools called Enrichment Programming,” noted Ellen. “These presentations are 60% entertainment and 40% education,” she explained. “The kids don’t want to spend time after school being lectured to,” Rich added, “So we need to make it fun!” This is in contrast to a third type of format that they offer, the more structured workshops held in a classroom during the school day.

     “In the classroom,” Rich describes, “The presentation is 20-30% entertainment and 70-80% education.” “When we go into a classroom and do one of our workshops, for instance,” Ellen elaborated, “We come in as a special in-school field trip, and our focus is going to be much more educational. We provide the teacher with vocabulary words, books and handouts that the children can read in order to learn about the subject we’ll be presenting, prior to our visit.” The Mad Science lesson plans are pre-organized and written by the National Organization. They meet all national and state requirements, and have been honed and edited for their effectiveness in classrooms throughout the world.

     “For the kids, it’s an educational piece, learning about science and how things work,” says Sally DeLuca, Program Coordinator for Portland Parks & Recreation. “It’s fun for them, because they actually get to do it.” The space presentation is the perfect illustration of this. The children learn how to build a rocket, build it, and then they actually get to shoot the rocket off, watching their creation soar into the heavens. This type of exercise is very tangible and tactile for the kids. “There are so few things that kids get to do,” she added, “Especially in education, where they get to see it and do it from the beginning all the way through to the end.” DeLuca also noted that they have already received 200% more inquiries from parents at the Longfellow school trying to register their kids for the 2^nd and 3^rd sessions of this academic year. “We haven’t even sent out the notices yet!” she laughed. “I think that the kids are having a blast, and for us, that’s how we judge a program. I think that the experiments that they do…are not necessarily all that complicated, but I do think that they are very interesting,” she continued. “They can take something very simple that you don’t know quite how it works, and show you. I think that’s fascinating for both children and adults,” she articulated. “It’s not the complexity of the subjects that they present,” she went on, “but the well constructed and entertaining explanations that make the Mad Science presentations both enjoyable and memorable. It’s the unique, simplistic approach that makes people stop and say, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know that!’”

     Deb Small, an Ed Tech at the Longfellow School has been helping in the classroom for several weeks now. She agrees with DeLuca’s assessment. “The kids really enjoy the involvement and hands-on activities, and really look forward to the program.” Deb sees the program as a very positive and enjoyable way to embellish the curriculum that the students are learning in the classroom.

     I visited the after-school program at Longfellow Elementary last Friday and was encouraged by what I saw. It was very easy to see why the Mad Science program is so successful.  Kids were learning. They were eagerly involved. Rich’s energy and enthusiasm for presenting and working with the kids is infectious. He draws their attention like a magnet with his flair for the dramatic, embellishing even the slightest details of his presentation, igniting their curiosity and making the quest for knowledge more alluring. He unquestionably has a gift for working with children. Friday’s presentation was about space, replete with engaging activities that held the children spellbound. They built their own soapy solar system, using a bubble solution to create and arrange the planets. It was a truly imaginative exercise. They talked about comets and meteors, and Mad Rich actually built a comet, for real! It was made of dry ice, ammonia, and other various common household materials, including Worcestershire sauce! Everyone in the room was intrigued, including myself. We watched, riveted to the frozen core as its misty vapors cascaded over the table’s edge. It was fascinating!

     The success of the Mad Science program and its ubiquitous presence can be attributed to its innovative format, successful performances and dependable reputation. In plain words, it works, consistently. “Word of mouth amongst the students, parents and teachers is proving to be our best method of advertising,” acknowledges Ellen, nodding her head. Sally DeLuca of Parks & Recreation summed it up this way. “Overall, it’s a really fun program, and it really holds the kids' interest. They’re learning while they’re having fun, and that’s all you can ask, really.” 

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