Imagine an engaging science program featuring a dynamic cooking component, hosted by a relatable young man with amazingly varied experience and the flair of Indiana Jones. We are pleased to introduce the New Jersey-based Thor’s Outdoor Science Academy.

The show’s namesake and host, Thor (Thornton Giese), not only accessorizes himself with the iconic fedora, but has immersed himself in the requisite research and education. After earning a degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Thor worked as an archaeologist on numerous digs and excavation sites around the world, and served as a resident educator at Dinosaur Ridge, where he guided over 200,000 museum guests. It was there that Thor developed his own personal teaching method to help make learning about science exciting for viewers of all ages. “We really need science communicators that can present this infinite information in a way that competes with all the nonsense that’s already out there,” explains Thor.

However, creating his own show wasn’t always the plan. “I had been hired to work at the Pequest Fish Hatchery as an outdoor educator in March of 2020. I really would have loved that job too, but Covid-19 hit. Given my history, though, I really was made to have a show like this. It only took moving back to my home in New Jersey, and the first worldwide pandemic in a century, for that to happen,” Thor muses.

It was then that Thor and his video-producing mother, Anne Thornton, got to work on putting a program together that would showcase his knowledge and talents. The two made quite the collaborative team as Thor would write the shows and Anne would assemble the production elements. “I’ve often had this idea that ’all roads lead to Jersey’ and through my research into the elements I was just as blown away by how often stories come back to New Jersey,” explains Thor. “It’s got to be a statistical anomaly. I mean the first near complete dinosaur skeleton found in the United States was in Jersey (which is also our official state fossil, Hadrosaurus folkii). Beyond that, the numerous scientific achievements that have been made in New Jersey are among the greatest in world history, and I am truly proud of that.”

The first episodes of Thor’s Outdoor Science Academy tackled the elements earth, air, water and fire. The show won awards and the episodes were picked up by PBS. The duo knew they were onto something, but what would be their next move?

Thor recollects with a warm smile: “I’ve always been a bit of a Periodic Table of Elements nerd. I did have a Periodic Table shower curtain for, like, 10 years. When that first Periodic Table was laid out, we as a species had created something that we could never come back from. There had been a profound change in how we saw our planet and our Universe. Then I was talking about this stuff with my godmother, Suzy, who is a wonderful science teacher out in California. She was complaining about how there were very few engaging resources for teachers in regard to the Periodic Table, and nothing about how the elements related to foods. With that in mind, the idea for Table for 92: Cooking Through the Periodic Table™, was born.”

The show concept is brilliant. While there are 118 elements in all, only 92 occur naturally. Thor walks the audience through all 92, one at a time. We learn about the element, its history, how it fits into our history and, in some cases, how it relates to our dinner plate. “Many elements are found in the foods we eat every day, while others are found in the way food is processed and preserved. Table for 92: Cooking Through the Periodic Table of Elements™ is an interactive way to understand these elements while having a great time – and making a lot of fire,” explains Thor.

New Jersey plays a vital role in the show’s production. For starters, Thor and his team built a rustic outdoor kitchen studio (complete with fire pit, grill, rock oven, and an Argentinian Asado grill) on the family property in Annandale, directly in front of a gorgeous greenbelt. Furthermore, when Thor needs very specific foods for his show, which he often does, he can always find them. When he sought blood sausage for his episode on iron, he visited the Irish butcher shop in town. When he required crawfish for an episode on Yttrium, he found a seafood market in the Ironbound section of Newark. When he needed eggplant for the episode about Technetium, he went straight to his garden and picked one (and why not? His eggplants won 3rd place in the Hunterdon County Fair). “Overall, Jersey is just the best,” Thor exclaims.

In a typical episode, viewers learn – or relearn – background information about a particular element like Boron. Thor provides sufficient molecular and background information and explains why the element is essential to the harvesting of apples. At the same time Thor is sharing a long-held family recipe for Apple Crisp, which is bubbling in a pot on the grill on his outdoor set. For the viewer, it is almost impossible to walk away without a deeper perspective, and a hankering for Apple Crisp. Just in case you’re tempted, the recipe can be found below.

Thor presents himself as a teacher and storyteller genuinely concerned with connecting to his audience and informing them, without coming across preachy or pretentious. “This is information that any curious person should know about, but when I think about the content I’ve created, I really wish my 16-year-old self would have had access to this. The periodic table of elements is literally what everything is made of here on Earth, and the more you understand that the more you care about our Earth.”

As the people at PBS have already discovered, Thor is merging entertainment and educational content in much the same way that Carl Sagan brought audiences to the stars with Cosmos. Possibly with a few more teaspoons of humor and a pinch of Dr. Jones.

Watch Thor on his YouTube channel for dining at Table for 92 and discover how neon, cobalt, and argon can be interesting and appetizing! And keep a lookout for the show’s accompanying cookbook, Table For 92, that features history, science, culture and recipes based on the elements.

Learn more about Thor’s Outdoor Science Academy™ at www.thorsoutdoorscienceacademy.com or follow-on social media at:

www.facebook.com/thorsoutdoor
www.twitter.com/outdoorthors
www.instagram.com/thorsoutdoorscience
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9VNKvvFHZ-qJ9WYymyaCWA
www.tiktok.com/@thorsoutdoorscience

 

SAMPLE ELEMENT/EPISODE LIST WITH CHOSEN FOOD

Element Number	Name	Food
5	Boron	Campfire apple crisp
6	Carbon	Sparkling water, venison/chicken/peppers to grill
7	Nitrogen	Grilled oysters, venison backstrap
8	Oxygen	Oxygenated Autumn Soup
9	Fluorine	Mussels, shoestring potatoes & French bread
10	Neon	Wings, chickens & dinosaurs
11	Sodium	Rock salt slab (venison and scallops)
12	Magnesium	Avocado dip with pumpkin seeds
13	Aluminum	Potatoes O’Brien in aluminum foil
14	Silicon	Rice, corn and bean salad with mineral water

Campfire Apple Crisp (from the cookbook of Thor’s grandma)
1 qt. sliced apples
½ cup water
¾ cup sugar
1 cup flour
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ cup brown sugar
1 stick butter

Put cut apples on bottom of pan. Add water and mixed sugar, flour, etc., and pour over apples. Cook 375° for 45 min.