12 Days of Halloween: Spooky Science Ideas (& we're giving away FREE admission to Maryland Science Center's Spooky Halloween Celebration!)

Halloween doesn't have to be all treats - - especially when you have some educational tricks up your sleeve. Here are some fun ideas:

• Make Green Slime: What is more fun than ooey goeey slime? eHow has a great tutorial for making your own, all with ingredients you have lying around or can snag at your local grocery store: Elmer's glue, food coloring, Borax and water.
• Alien Monster Eggs: Not for the wee ones (or weak ones!), but Alien Monster Eggs from The Kitchen Pantry Scientist are a fun way to observe how vinegar affects eggs.
• Screaming Cup: Steve Spangler Science has a great experiment for making a-run-of-the-mill plastic cup screeeeeechhhhhh...
• Pumpkin Seed Scavenging: Your preschooler will love going pumpkin seed scavenging! Cut a pumpkin in half and give him or her spoons, tweezers, rubber gloves and cup to collect seeds.
• Halloween Shadows: PreSchoolRocks.com has a fun activity that will teach your little guy or gal about shadows - - friendly ghoulish ones, of course.

Want more spooky science adventure in your life? Then plan to walk the plank to the Inner Harbor for a spooktacular good time at the Maryland Science Center’ s annual family Halloween costume party -- Spooky Science-- on Saturday October 30, 2010 from 12 – 4 p.m.

Inspired by the Maryland Science Center’ s new exhibition, SHIPWRECK! Pirates & Treasure, Spooky Science offers a bounty of freaky family fun including: pirates for sail, swashbuckling swordplay (interactive and entertaining lesson in sword-fighting), creepy crafts and erie experiments. Mad scientists will take over the Demonstration Stage for some hair-raising science!

We've got FOUR FREE tickets for a lucky (cool) progeny family to attend Spooky Science! To win, all you need to do is leave a comment with your email address and why you want to go to Spooky Science! Want an extra entry? "Like" (cool) progeny on facebook and leave a comment telling us you did. A second extra entry? Follow us on Twitter. In order to get multiple entries, you need to leave a separate comment for each one. You have until Thursday, October 28 at noon to enter! Good luck, mateys!