i'm terrified of balloons. i blame the lutherans. sort of. when i was a mere six or seven, my dear mother enrolled me in vacation bible school at a local lutheran church. for our activity, they thought it'd be good clean fun to have relay races that went like this: run to the chair with the balloon on it. sit on it. pop it. and repeat to the other side.
longest - week - of - my - life. also. i'm probably a southern baptist for this reason. that and the potlucks.
yesterday's first zoo school lesson focused on thunder and lightning. in order to demonstrate thunder, the kids blew up balloons. and then they popped them. i cried and shuddered in the corner.
for the lightning experiment, we attempted to produce static electricity. however. because we live in florida, the humidity didn't allow us any success. praise jesus. because i have a story from my childhood about that, too. yada yada yada. i blame clint and steven. but just in case you want to give it a shot, you'll need to gather:
- foil pie pan
- styrofoam plate
- piece of fleece
- pencil with new eraser
- thumbtack
1. poke the thumbtack through the bottom middle of the foil pan so that it points up.
2. stick the eraser on the tack.
3. place the styrofoam plate upside down next to the foil pan.
4. rub the fleece on the plate several times then quickly drop the fleece into the foil pan.
5. pick the pencil up (without touching the foil pan).
6. touch the foil pan with your other hand. you should feel the shock.
if this is done in a really dark room, you should actually be able to see the static electricity.
ps. some happy things we learned were: you know how sometimes there's a double rainbow? well in the primary rainbow, the colors start with red at the top. and in the other arc, the colors are reversed. and. to even see a rainbow at all depends on your position. you have to be in between the rain and the sun. once you're there, look towards the rain. and. the lower the sun, the bigger the arc.
