Like the guy who first started putting peanut butter with his jelly, Andrew Piccirillo figured he had a winning combination.

So Piccirillo became a "scienceteller," and has taken his own act on the road, telling stories to children, while using science experiments to educate as well as entertain his audience. 

"I was like, 'Well I could do science experiments,' but there's already companies and organizations that do that," he said.  "So I thought I'd try to combine experiments and storytelling and see if that would work, so I did." 

Piccirillo said ho owes his love of science to his high school Chemistry teacher, Mr. Mid, who was big on demonstrations in the classroom. 

"One time he did this big experiment and all of a sudden there was this big explosion.  When the smoke cleared someone in the classroom stuck his hand out and said 'Mr. Mid! Your tie is on fire!'"  Piccirillo recalled, screaming for full effect. 

"After that I was like, this could be fun."  And the rest, much like Mr. Mid's tie, is history. 

A psychology and marketing major at Rutgers University, the Montgomery Township resident performs for kids throughout the state.  Last Thursday, he performed for about 30 children and parents at the Municipal Building. 

"I worked with other educational programs and did some substitute teaching, and I decided to take the plunge (and do the show full-time)," he said.  "I figured I might as well do it now while I have less responsibility,...and before someone else gets the same idea and tries to do it." 

Piccirillo told the children the story he wrote called Dragons & Dreams, asking the audience several times for volunteers for his experiments.  Piccirillo used dry ice in many of them to explain elements of sublimation, carbon dioxide and heat.

"I hope the kids yell and scream," Piccirillo said.  "It's about exposing kids to science in a way that's fun, so they'll leave thinking science can be fun and want to do more of it." 

Eight-year-olds Jasmine Welch and Erin Crystall said they really liked Piccirillo's presentation, and didn't realize science could be so funny. 

Welch was especially intrigued with all the experiments Piccirillo conducted using dry ice.

"It was really cool," she said.

So will Jasmine be doing her own experiments with dry ice anytime soon? 

"I'd like to, but I don't know where you get it."