Fayetteville : Bubble Magic enthralls middle schoolers
Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Spring Hill Middle School sixth-grader Jacob Gierke never knew you could blow a square bubble until Monday.
Jacob, 12, was one of about 1, 200 pupils treated to a show by Tom Noddy, better known as “The Bubble Guy,” at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Noddy blows bubbles in all shapes and sizes: spheres, squares, pyramids and tetrahedrons.
He used smoke from a small machine to fill a bubble to make a “nuclear bubble,” and spun another smoke-filled bubble to make the tornado, or “Land of Oz Bubble.” “The tornado was my favorite,” Jacob said. “It was cool.” Noddy, 57, who has performed worldwide and appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, is in Fayetteville for the first time as part of the Arkansas Discovery Network.
The network is a consortium of seven Arkansas museums and education centers funded by a five-year $ 7. 4 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, said network coordinator Diane LaFollette.
The goal is to strengthen the partners by bringing high-quality exhibits and educational programs to sites around the state, thereby making them accessible to more pupils, she said.
“The idea is to get museumquality exhibits out into the state,” said Lynne Hehr, director of UA’s Center for Math and Science.
At least 4, 200 are expected to see Noddy’s Bubble Magic show this week, Hehr said. He is doing two performances daily for registered groups today and Wednesday in the Arkansas Union Ballroom. He will do one show at 7 p.m. today that is open to the public.
Rick Manes, history teacher at Spring Hill Middle School, said the school brought about 280 pupils to UA to view the show Monday. The hope is to pique their interest in mathematics and science.
“It’s something hands-on that can keep their attention,” Manes said. “It’s something that they hadn’t seen before.” As he performs, Noddy gives pupils short lessons in physics, such as that like charges repel, that air always moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure, and “water molecules love other water molecules.” He’s not trying to teach them specifics, he’s just trying to get them interested, he said.
“If some kids decides that science could be fun, the next science teacher has a shot at that kid,” Noddy said.
Sixth-grader Bryce Gilbert, 12, said he thought the show was “pretty cool.” In one trick, Noddy blows a bubble, twists his wrist and blows a second adjoining bubble, and then another and another. Before long the string of bubbles was about 4 feet long, resembling a caterpillar.
“I thought the caterpillar was pretty cool,” Bryce said.
Noddy’s been traveling around the world doing his show for more than 30 years.
He started playing with bubbles when he was about 21.
“I became obsessed,” Noddy said. “I started seeing them everywhere, the atmosphere and the earth... the atomic structure of metals.” He began blowing bubbles in public as the intro for a political satire puppet show he did on the streets of New York City. “The bubbles just slowly took over the show,” he said. Producers from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson tracked him down because he was living in his van at the time. He appeared on the show in 1982 and things have never been the same since. “I started getting calls from all over the place, and all they wanted was the bubbles,” Noddy said. He’s performed in countries worldwide, including Germany, England, Australia and Japan. He recently returned from his first trip to Singapore and is scheduled to go to Indonesia in August. “It’s an easy job, but somebody’s got to do it,” Noddy said. Noddy travels next to the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs, where he will be June 1-3.
To contact this reporter: cpark@arkansasonline. com
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