ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Pete ice cream business Sub Zero is keeping kids cool over the summer and teaching them a scientifically sweet lesson. They will also be going for top prize in this weekend’s Tampa Bay Ice Cream Festival.

What You Need To Know

  •  Sub Zero offers educational programs to kids while serving up liquid nitrogen ice cream

  •  The franchise business is participating in Sunday's Tampa Bay Ice Cream Festival

  •  R'Club Child Care's summer program hosted a Sub Zero STEM presentation this week

A Pinellas County summer program recently got a visit from the ice cream man and woman.

“They saw it being made and then they got to taste it,” said Amy Shore, Community Development and Marketing director for R’Club Child Care, Inc. “So it was, from beginning to end, like a real science experiment. And as you can tell, the kids are really smart they were answering a lot of science questions and at the end they got to enjoy a scientific treat.”

The R’Club summer program recently hosted Sub Zero Ice Cream at High Point Elementary.

They started their STEM presentation with a blast … of liquid nitrogen that is.

Doug and Jill Shenk, who are the franchise owners of the Sub Zero in Sarasota, did the demonstration and are not your typical ice cream makers.

Their sweet treat comes with a lesson.

“Now Doug’s going to put something in a cup over here,” said Jill Shenk as she demonstrated liquid nitrogen going into a glass pitcher. “Do we want to touch that? Correct answer is no, however, now this is going to blow your minds a little bit.”

Doug Shenk then explained how humans’ internal temperature is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

“When you get your temperature taken, you are looking at about 98.6. So, my temperature on my skin is about 420 degrees hotter than this is boiling,” said Doug. “So, think of my hand like a hot pan or a hot skillet. As soon as it gets close to me, it floats right off my skin.”

The science is how liquid nitrogen can make ice cream.

“So very, very, very cold that it turns into ice cream in less than 15 seconds,” said Doug Shenk.

Over the summer and during the school year, Sub Zero Ice Cream does STEM presentations to young audiences.

“He is going to pour the nitrogen gas into the flame. So, it put the fire out. Why? Because it pushed all the oxygen out of the way,” said Jill Shenk.

The kids learned physics and chemistry such as the properties of brittleness by showing a rose soaked in liquid nitrogen.

After Jill Shenk held it up in the air, the rose crumbled with a bit of a squeeze thanks to the nitrogen.

Doug Shenk also talked about the properties of nitrogen.

“Liquid nitrogen expands 700 times, so what does that mean? That means that if you had a little green dinner pea amount of nitrogen, it turns into a softball-size-amount of gas,” he said.

After 30 minutes of talking science, the kids got to enjoy the ice cream.

“It’s kind of my favorite,” said one camper.

Others shared what they learned from the Sub Zero presentation.

“Nitrogen is 321 degrees under zero,” said another camper.

Not bad for a day at summer camp.

Sub Zero will be handing out samples this Sunday at the Tampa Bay Ice Cream Festival at the St. Pete Pier from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.