A moving magnetic field and an electrical current are somhow connected. This is how nature works. Go figure! Nature has her ways.

Any child can come to understand nature's ways. Just be patient and allow a child to experience the following teepee lesson with a compass and an electrical current.

Electric Teepee

"But, sometimes when the Indian came out of his teepee to say the Thanksgiving Prayer all the other Indians started laughing at him." I watched Serene's face as I spoke in a distressed tone.

"Why?” Chance asked. ”He was going to pray."

"Yes, I know. But he looked kind of funny. His hair was standing up. Something was pulling it up into the air," I lowered my voice to a whisper. "It looked like the spirits had charged him full of energy."

The children broke out again with surprised laughter. "I know. I know," Nissa spoke up. "Sometimes when my mom puts a sweater over my head my hair stands up into the air too. My mom laughs real hard." The children began sharing stories of the times their hair was suddenly pulled up into the air.

"What could be making his hair pull up like that?" I dug into my lessons basket and pulled out a wool sweater and enough balloons for the children to play with. I rubbed the sweater on the top of my head then slowly lifted it into the air. The children pointed at my hair, while laughing wildly. "Does my hair look like the Indian's?" I handed a balloon to each child. "Blow up your balloon. Then rub it on your hair and let’s see how funny you can look."

"Did the Indian rub his hair with something?" Joshua asked his mother as she blew into his balloon.

"Well, children, what do you think? How could the Indian have gotten into such a predicament? How did he get this static electricity energy in his hair?" As the children talked amongst themselves I noticed that Serene was rubbing her balloon on Jill's head while telling Jill she was the funniest looking Indian girl she had ever seen. "Tell me everything you see and hear. Remember, use your science eyes. Oh, and don’t forget to use your science ears as well."

"Are we going to hear something? What are we supposed to hear?" Joshua asked his mother as he rubbed his head with the balloon, all the while listening intently for a new sound with his science ears.

"Raise your balloon up above your head real slowly and listen. Use your science ears and listen." Every child raised the balloon ever so slowly while listening for a new sound. "Hear anything?"

Nissa rushed into her answer with a whisper that mimicked mine. "It sounds like popping. It's a popping sound."

“No. It sounds like crackling or something." Joshua was trying to identify this new sound he had not heard in the forest before. "Maybe it's like —It sounds like a tiny fire sparking —-something’s happening.”

"Something is happening, Joshua. You are hearing a new sound. You didn't hear this sound with your magnets and compasses did you? Or even with your prisms. You are hearing the sound of exploding molecules of air from the electrical energy as it travels through the air from your hair to the balloon.“

"Wow. Electrical energy!" Jill began stroking the surface of her balloon as if it was the skin of a baby.

Joshua wanted to know exactly how to say this. "Is that the energy that is between us now? Ectritical energy?"

"Electrical energy is between us now,” I reminded him.“Your balloon acts just like the animal skins the Indians used to sleep on. Electrical energy traveled from the Indian's hair and onto the animal skin. When the Indian would get up off the skin his hair would be pulled high into the air."

“Sometimes the Indians slept on grizzly bear skins. I knew a veterinarian who slept on the skin of a grizzly bear once. And he wasn’t even scared because the bear was dead,” Chance told us.

"Just what is happening when the children rubbed the balloon on their heads and their hair was pulled up into the air?" Joshua's mother asked. "It looks like the hair is attracted to the balloons. Is it like gravity or something? Gravity attracts things doesn't it? Everything attracts everything else. Right?"

"Yes. With gravity there is only the force of attraction. But gravity is a very weak force. Much weaker than the electrical force you are seeing between the balloon and Joshua’s hair. The electrical force is enormously more powerful than gravity as you can see.

"There are different ways to explain this phenomenon of electricity. I am fond of the way the famous physicist, Richard Feynman, explains it in his book Six Easy Pieces. He asks us to use our imagination for a moment. 'Imagine there are now two kinds of 'things', he says, 'and that this new force, which is the electrical force, has the property that likes repel but unlikes attract. The 'thing' that carries this strong interaction is called charge'.

The childrens' hair has both positive and negative electricity in each of the atoms of the hair before they rubbed their heads with a balloon. And the balloons have both positive and negative electricity in each of their atoms before being rubbed onto the hair. Rubbing the hair with the balloon only separates the negatives from the positives. This is because the surface of the balloon has a greater affinity for electrons, the negative electricity, than does the hair. Negatively charged electrons are transferred by friction from the hair to the balloon. This leaves an imbalance of electric charge between the hair and the balloon. The hair has lost electrons and is deficient of negative charge. and We say the hair is therefore positive. The excess negative charge on the balloon makes it negative. This creates an attractive force between the balloon and the hair. The separated charges store the energy that is expended in the rubbing action. This stored energy is evident when the balloon is brought close to the hair and a spark is produced."

"The spark I hear is from the tiny explosions of the air molecules?" she asked.

"Yes. The electrical energy travels through the air and hits air molecules. These molecules explode from the incoming energy. And you hear a crackling sound."

"We just manifested what was already there on the balloon and the hair?" Joshua's mother was somewhat surprised how easy it was to produce static electricity. She realized for the first time that there were no batteries, light bulbs or wires with static electricity. It was created solely by conditions in nature. The more she thought about this the more she was stunned by nature's vivid message that energy really is between her and nature. It was a stunning realization for her; a moment when she realized science is easy!

"Yes. The electricity was already present. We just created a condition to make it evident." I put the balloons back into my lessons basket. "From this simple production of static electricity we can readily appreciate that electrical energy is everywhere. The entire universe is full of electrical energy. Everything that has matter has both positive and negative energy in it. Remember, ’between us two there is nothing between but energy and information’. Now we can really appreciate that this is the way it is in the physical world.

I walked over to a pine tree nearby. On it I had strung two balloons onto a branch. "Here are two balloons that have been rubbed onto the heads of two children." I told her. "Notice that they are staying away, pushing away from one another."

."Yes. That's repel right?"

"Right. That is the electrical force of repulsion. The electric charge on each balloon is the same. They both have negative electricity on their surface. And since likes repel, the balloons are forced away from one another." I walked over to another tree where I had strung two other balloons onto a branch. "Now, what can you tell me about these two balloons?" I asked her.

"Well, they obviously like one another. They are attracted to one another," she quickly answered.

"Yes. Unlikes attract. The force of electricity is unbalanced here. One balloon has negative electricity on its surface and the other balloon has both positive and negative electricity on its surface. The overwhelming amount of negative electricity on the blue balloon is attracted to whatever positive electricity on the red balloon." I told her. "Remember, the thing that carries this strong interaction between the two balloons, whether they are repelled or attracted to one another, is 'charge'."

I walked over to my teepee and spoke in a loud enough voice so every child could hear, "I wonder what it would look like if we put electrical energy inside our teepees.“

"Electrical energy inside our teepees?" the children asked in disbelief as they left their balloons and picked up their teepees.

"A balloon won't fit inside my teepee." Jill complained.

"We saw that it is easy to get static electrical energy by rubbing a balloon on our hair. Now let's figure out how to put electrical energy in our teepees."The children gathered around as I pulled out the pieces to an electrical circuit from my lessons basket. "What do you think we will need to make a circle of electrical energy?"

“We’re going to light up our teepees,” Chance told Joshua, his voice charged with excitement.

“I know. I know what we need for that. We need lots of things like a ....” Nissa began.

"A light bulb." Chance took the words right out of Nissa’s mouth.

"Yes. What else?" I asked.

"A battery," Joshua wasn't going to be left behind on this point.

"And some wire." Serene watched as I gave her and the other children 2 feet of electrical wire, a battery, a light bulb with its socket, a small screwdriver, a switch and some tape. "My grandpa has electricity in China."

"I'm so happy to hear that, Serene," I answered.

"And we have electricity at our house," Jill spoke up.

"Oh, you have electrical energy inside your house too?" I was delighted to hear Jill's settling in with the rest of us.

"Yes. A whole bunch of it," Jill replied. “My mom loves her chandelier above the dining room table. It cost over a thousand dollars. Dad said he would not like to pay that much ever again for electricity. He says a big light bulb would have been just as good as that chandelier. And a lot cheaper too.”

I began putting arranging the items to the electrical circuit into a circle. "To make a circle of electricity you want to put everything together like this. First, put your battery inside the battery holder so it fits nice and snug. Then connect one end of a wire up to one end of the battery holder." I waited, making sure all the children were watching. "Then take the other end of the wire and connect it up to one side of the light socket with the small screwdriver. "Then take the other wire and hook one end of it to the other side of the light socket. And then take that wire and hook it onto the other side of the light socket." I looked up and saw that Chance was helping Joshua, and Jill had completed Serene's circuit. "You can put a switch in your circle of electricity like this." I removed one wire from the light socket and placed a switch into the circle. Then I closed the circle by connecting the wire from the switch to the socket."

I gave the children an illustration I had made of an electrical circuit and asked them, "What does a battery do? And, what's the switch for?” They looked at the illustration for some time, following the white arrows in the illustration closely with their keen eyes. "Why would we put a battery into our circle of electricity?" I then turned on the switch in my electrical circuit..

"Oh look," several of the children yelled out. "She did it. We have electricity. We are going to have a lighted up teepee." Joshua's squeals of delight spoke for him. "Let's light all the teepees," he demanded, waving his arms out toward the teepees..

“Oh, you want our circle to get larger and larger?" I asked.

"Yeah, make a big circle. As big as this forest." Chance placed his teepee with an electrical circuit resting on its base close to mine and turned the switch on. He gazed at the two teepees, silently wondering if a real Indian boy had ever done this to his big teepee.

“Isn't my teepee lovely?" Serene believed in loveliness just as strongly as she believed she could feel beams of love coming from her great grandfather in China. “This is the prettiest teepee in the whole world. I will keep it forever and ever.” She gazed down at her teepee, somewhat mesmerized by its loveliness. "See what I made? I don't want the light to go out. Ever."

"Lights go out Serene. That's what lights do. They go on and they go off. Or out." Chance reminded her.

"I know but...." Serene looked up at me, her dark eyes bigger than I had ever seen them. "Is it true? Will my light go out someday?"

"Yes. It will go out. The battery will go dead. Someday your pump will run out."

"Why? My pump run out?" she continued pressing for more information.

"Inside your battery are two chemicals that react with one another to create electrical charges, electrons." I took an illustration out of my lesson basket to show her and continued, "These electrons are pumped out of one end of your battery and around the wire then they come back into the other end of the battery. An electrical circuit is a circle of energy. A battery pumps electrical energy out from the negative end of the battery, around through the wire and into the positive end of the battery. The energy goes around and around until the chemicals inside the battery can't release any more electrons."

"The chemical energy that is inside of a battery is what produces the electrical energy in the first place?" Joshua's mother had wondered about this before, especially while searching for flashlights and batteries just before setting sail out of Monterey Bay.

"Yes. When there is no more chemical reaction the flow of electrons stops. You won't have anymore light. Your teepee will look like the Indian teepees looked hundreds of years ago. It will be dark when night comes."

"How did the children read books at night?" This was the most logical question and Nissa had to ask it.

“They didn't read books.” Chance was quick to answer such silly questions. “They had to go to bed with the birds. You can't read at night without light.”

“I read every night. I love to read stories at bedtime,” Nissa told him in the most serious of tones.

“I want to make a circle of electricity to take home with me. I want to read my stories under my covers after my mom puts me to bed.” Nissa told me as if she knew she could tell me anything, anything in the whole world. “She makes me go to bed at eight o’clock every night. I can’t even stay up when company is coming over.”

“What book is your favorite one?” Jill asked Nissa.

“Aminal. It’s about a animal a little boy caught. I like that story a lot. It’s kind of scary at first,” Nissa answered.

"My favorite one is about horses. It's called the American Horse. I love it. I like the thoroughbreds the best. They are strong and go real fast."

Joshua's mother came over to us and looked down at my illustration of an electrical circuit. “So, in this circle you can put houses and things like that?"

“Yes. A circuit is a circle of electrical energy. Now, imagine the light bulb is a town. And the battery is a generating station. The wires carry the electrical energy from the generating station to the homes and the businesses in the town. That electrical energy is converted into light energy in the light bulbs in the homes and businesses.

“That’s how we get our electricity into our homes? From the generating station way far away in the mountains? And then into the wires...? ”Joshua's mother looked over at my illustration then at the group of teepees. "Those teepees look like Christmas trees. Our Indian village is electrified!”

"I love our lighted up teepee village." Serene's squeals of delight spoke for her. "Light all the teepees," she demanded once again.

“Oh, you still want our circle to get larger and larger?" I watched Serene's eyes grow larger as she clapped her hands while demanding I create a larger circle of electrical energy.

"Yeah, make a big circle. As big as this forest," Joshua demanded again in the strongest voice yet.

"The teepees aren't dark like caves anymore." Jill joined us, surprised at finding herself expecting to see a teepee village all lit up for the first time ever. The only Indian village she had seen in pictures was dark. She remembered thinking the teepees looked as dark as caves and not friendly. She was grateful when she thought of her thoroughbred. His paddock was lit up at night when she would hug him goodnight. She liked lights.

"They look civilized." Chance told us as he stared at the teepee village, somewhat stunned by what he saw. “I want to live in my teepee.” Jill dreamed of clean floors and tidy spaces lit up at night. “So do I,” Chance wished out loud. Serene kept pawing at the flap at the doorway of her teepee, hoping to keep the light inside where it should be.

”In our circuits we added a switch,” I told Joshua's mother. “And that switch permits electrical energy to pass through the wire or to be stopped.“ I reached over to my electrical circuit and turned the switch off. “See. It’s like flicking the switch on the wall at home. You can cause the flow of electrical energy to cease.”

“I don’t like that part. My mom puts me to bed too early. I don’t want to go to bed early,” Jill told us. “I’m not a baby, for heaven‘s sake.”

“I’ve never seen a Indian with a battery,” Joshua admitted to Chance.

"And I've never seen a Indian with a switch either." Nissa thought about this for the first time ever.

"And I've never seen a Indian with a light bulb." Chance thought about this for the first time ever too.

“But I know they slept on animal skins. I saw that in a picture once. I even saw a picture of a Indian with a animal skin on his head. He was celebrating something. I think it was his birthday.” Serene told Joshua. “And when he took the skin off his head I’ll bet he looked funny." Her laughter traveled around the children filling the air with happy sounds.

Powwows evolve while preserving tradition

These Indian children participated in a large powwow in Denver, Colorado. It is called the Denver March Powwow.

Click on picture to read article.

As the children told one another about the merits of having electricity, I noticed Chance removing his teepee from the village and carrying it over to the edge of the meadow because he had some fiddling around to do yet. He began turning the switch in his circuit on and off, on and off, on and off. "What are you doing Chance?" I called out to him.

"Look. I see something. I see something happening." He was the most excited I had ever seen him. "Watch the compass needle when I turn the switch on and off. Watch it," he demanded while he switched the switch on and off rapidly with his curious fingers. I stood close to him as he told me, "I just used my science eyes and then I saw it."

"The compass needle is moving. Children look. Chance used his science eyes again and observed something very important." The children gathered around Chance's teepee and watched the tiny compass needle jerk ever so slightly each time Chance turned the switch on and off. I could tell Chance was completely content to stay right here for a hundred years if he had to, turning the switch on and off.

“How is that doing that?“ Nissa was truly perplexed at what she was seeing.

“Well, what is Chance doing to the circle of electricity when he turns the light off with the switch? ” I asked.

“The electrical energy is stopped from moving in the wire,” Nissa answered with much more care than usual.

“Yeah." Joshua added. "And that means the circle of electricity is broken."

"And then when he turns the light on that means he puts the circle together again and there's electrical energy going in a circle again.” Serene was delighted with herself so far. She moved in closer so she could watch the needle more closely. “It looks like the needle is pushed or something. Look at it being pushed a little bit when Chance turns the light on and off.”

“You all have such wonderful ideas. “ I pulled out more wire from my lessons basket and began to wrap it around a very large compass. Then I hooked the wire up to a 9 volt battery and added a switch of my own into the circuit. ”If I make enough turns around this big compass with this wire we can really see the movement of the needle then.“ After I wound the wire around and around the compass I set it onto the table and hooked both ends of the wire to the battery terminals.Then I added a switch into the circuit so the children could turn the circuit on and off at will. "Now Chance, you can turn the switch on and off, on and off, for us.” I instructed him. “Let's imagine the electrical energy flowing then stopping, flowing then stopping as Chance turns the switch on and off. Let’s watch the needle of the compass very carefully and see if we can figure out what is happening."

Chance reached over and began playing with the switch as he had before with his own circuit. He turned the switch on and off rapidly as if it belonged to him and him only while the other children patiently looked on. "The needle moves a little tiny bit. That's all," Nissa told us, clearly disappointed

"Yeah, but it moves. And that means it is important." Chance thought a moment then added, "Something made it move. See?" He continued to switch the circuit on and off so we could watch the compass needle jerk then sway back to where it was before.

Nissa knelt down closest to the compass and began to tell us her thoughts. ”I know. I know what is happening. There is something in this circle of electrical energy that is invisible. A invisible energy maybe. It pushes the compass needle. I know because I can see it moving a little bit.“ She looked up and reminded me, “Like when I was holding the two magnets down by the creek. One magnet pushed the other one away. Remember?”

“Yes, I remember how you looked. You looked like your hands were sliding all over the place.” I looked around at the other children and asked, “What could be in the electrical circle that makes the magnetic needle move? Oh, why do nature’s ways always give us just hints of how she works?”

“Well,” Joshua looked up at his mother as if to tell her he had waited long enough. ”I think it is like this. Energy. Energy and information. The energy of the electi, electrical circuit and the energy of the compass needle somehow touch one another. Maybe they bump into one another, or something like that.“

Serene sat staring at the jerking needle as Chance continued to turn the switch on and off rapidly. She stretched her neck towards the large compass a little more and announced, “It looks like a tiny wind is blowing the needle when Chance does that. It’s a very tiny wind. You can't really see it."

”There must be a magnet somewhere in the circle to make the needle move because the needle is a magnet.” Jill felt this was as good an idea as anything else she had heard so far.

“Wind? There’s no wind.” Chance looked over at Serene with disgust. “This is real science stuff Serene.” He looked up at me for approval then looked back at Serene. “Wind,” he said again, only this time with much more disgust than a moment ago.

“So now we can see that the magnetic needle moves only when Chance causes the flow of electrical energy to stop and go. So, you children are on the right track. There must be a connection between the magnetic needle moving and the flow of electrical energy in the wire,“ I suggested in a whisper. ”So far, this is the information nature has given us."

“Yeah. Maybe nature is saying that electrical energy makes magnetic energy come alive.” Chance interpreted what he was seeing as best he could.

“What’s happening?”Joshua's mother came over and joined us. "Are you making something big? Like a big circuit?” She watched the compass needle as Chance turned the switch on and off. "Why is the needle jerking like that?” she asked

.“I can't tell you why,” I began. “Science is the area of inquiry where you describe the how of things." I reached into my lessons basket and brought out an illustration for her to look at. " See the flow of electricity in this illustration? Notice the magnetic field, the yellow color, wraps around the wire, perpendicular to the flow of electricity. The yellow color depicts the sheath of magnetic energy that the flow of electrical energy creates. When that energy stops flowing the sheath of magnetic energy vanishes."

"That's why the compass needle jerked then returned to its original position and became still." Joshua's mother was following closely. I bought out another drawing for her to examine "Look at this drawing. It's cartoon-ish, I know, but it shows children watching the creation of magnetic energy from electrical energy in their circuit they built."

”I see light from a light bulb near the bottom of the drawing," Serene was looking at the illustration more closely than the other children. "And there are two wires at the bottom of the light bulb."

"And I see a blue compass near the two boys in the picture. And the wire is laying down on top of the compass." Joshua's mother leaned closer in to the cartoon. "Hey, that's what the children just did."

"And there is a battery close to the girl in the picture. I like that hat." Serene spoke softly as if she was speaking directly to the girl in the picture.

"What are these children saying? Jill, What is the boy on the right saying? The one who has his hands in the air?"

"He is asking, 'Which way is this circuit going?’'"

"I know the answer to that one. I know." Nissa had too many words at the tip of her tongue and had to take a quick deep breath before continuing. "The answer is easy. Electrical energy always comes out of the battery at the minus sign and goes through the wire and comes back into the battery at the plus sign." She hit the minus sign and then the plus sign on the drawing of the battery with her forefinger. "Comes out here and goes back in there. This one then that one," she repeated over and over.

"Look at the boy at the back, the one with the hat on. He is asking, ''What is happening to my compass?''" Jill giggled into the picture. "Boy, that circuit is a mess. Everyone has their hands all over the wire."

"And the next boy? Joshua, what is he saying?" I asked.

"He is really mixed up I think. He is saying that he has it figured out. But I don't think he has anything figured out."

"And the girl? Serene, what is she saying?" I asked.

"She is asking all the boys if the electrical energy comes out of the positive end of the battery."

"Yeah. She doesn't even know which direction the electrical energy moves inside the wire," Jill spoke loudly.

"Stop a minute. Where does the electrical energy come from?" I asked the children.

"From the chemical energy inside the battery. There's some juice or something like that inside the battery that makes chemical energy." Nissa’s quick manner always seemed to make it look like she knew what she was talking about. “I wish I could see inside of a battery and see it it is juice or not.”

"The chemical energy somehow turns into electrical energy. And then the electrical energy leaves the battery. The battery is basically a pump though. It pumps electrical energy around and around in the wire," I told them as Chance placed his finger onto the cartoon. "I want to trace the electrical energy going through the wire with my fingers." He placed his finger on the negative end of the battery in the illustration and traced the flow of electrical energy all along the wire until he got to the boy holding a brightly lit light bulb in the forefront of the drawing. He looked up at me and said in all seriousness, " I'll bet his fingers are going to get real real hot. I can't touch a light bulb in our house. My dad says it will burn my fingers." He looked back to the illustration and continued, "Down here the energy goes into the light bulb. And the light bulb lights up." He continued as he moved his finger across the bottom of the light bulb to the other wire and traced the flow of electricity along the other wire to the boy holding the wire high in the air. "He is holding the wire high so everyone can see the wire is not broken I guess." He continued moving his finger along the wire, past the next boy with the hat on, and stopped at the compass.

"Why did you stop, Chance?" Nissa asked him. "There is no switch in the circuit so why did your finger stop at the compass?"

"Well, this is the compass. And you know what happens to the compass when the electrical energy goes over the compass. Remember what our compass did over there on the table?" He looked at Nissa and decided to speak directly to her. "In this picture the compass is not real, Nissa. It's just a picture. But if it was real, the needle of the compass would move then stop, move then stop, if someone was turning the switch on and off, on and off," he told her. "Remember?"

"Yeah," Jill shot a look over to Nissa. "And then the boy in the picture would see that the electrical energy and magnetic energy are connected somehow."

"And all the kids in the picture would see that there's a tiny wind blowing on the compass needle and making it move. They would see that there's a whole bunch of energy between them and nature. There's electrical energy and magnetic energy, all at the same time." Serene added after a quick breath. "And chemical energy inside the battery."

Chance could not see why he couldn’t continue because it was really his story. After all, it was him who made the big discovery of the day. And that meant he was the closest to being a scientist. "The electrical energy keeps flowing past the compass and the girl with the hat on and over to the plus sign of the battery."

"Then it goes into the battery super super fast," Joshua added what he thought was a very important point. Didn’t energy travel. When he was in the lightcave didn’t light go into his jar so fast he couldn’t see it travel through the air?.

"Yeah", Chance agreed. "It makes a circle real, real, fast. Circuit means circle. Remember?" He was speaking to someone. Just me, perhaps, or maybe all of us. It was difficult to be sure.

"Very good. Whenever you get a little confused about the direction of the flow of electrical energy always refer to your 'Circuit Circuit' picture," I told them.

This new electric buzzer is now available on our catalog page. Click on images to see kit.

"Where did that girl in the picture get that hat?I want one of those hats. I just love it." Serene wanted the hat so bad she knew she was going to have to ask her mother to buy one for her. "I'm going to put electricity inside my new hat when I buy one," she told Nissa and Jill. "I'm going to make a circuit inside my new hat so people can see me at night and not run into me."

"Where would you put the light bulb?" Nissa asked her.

"On the front. Above my eyes," Serene replied confidently because it was all figured out.

"And why would you need a compass in your hat circuit?" Chance asked her. "Don't you know where you are going at night?"

"I won't need a compass. I just want to put a electrical circuit together and light up my head. My hat, I mean." Serene was sure she had defended herself successfully.

"You would look really funny. You would look like a firefly to me." Joshua giggled. "Walking in the dark. A firefly walking in the dark." He giggled so much his whole chest rocked back and forth. "Maybe if you put a green light bulb in your circuit or a red light bulb in your circuit you would look like a zebra fish. Or something like that." His chest continued to rock back and forth.

"I think I would look beautiful." Serene defended herself again only in a stronger voice than before.

"My mom said I can make a circuit so I don't have to read under my covers at night with a flashlight," Joshua told Chance in a hushed tone.

"What do zebra fish look like anyway? "Jill asked Chance. "Are they striped or something?"

"Zebra fish are beautiful fish. Some are striped but some are just plain bright colors." Chance remembered seeing some of these fish at a friend's house once.

Click on picture to go to zebra fish article in BBC News

Zebra fish are used by researchers do find out many things. It's a laboratory organism popular because its transparent embryos allow easy observation of living cells as they develop over time.

"An understanding of how, when and where cells dust themselves with sugar may shed light on how stem cells develop into tissues, as well as turn up markers of disease, such as cancer, or strategies for battling infectious organisms," said first author Scott T. Laughlin, who, like Baskin, is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry.

'Electric' Fish Shed Light On How Brain Directs Movement We call this fish the "glass knifefish" because of its almost transparent, blade-shaped body. This type of fish does something remarkable: it emits weak electrical signals which it uses to "see" in the dark.   Rapid, Low-Cost DNA Testing     It's these begiunning activities in science that are so important in preparing your child to understand our technology. This little guy is 4, but already can see the attraction force between his hair and the balloon. StarChild Science builds understanding by starting with the basics very early and gradually adding more and more interesting hands-on activities as the child matures.

Plug me in! Futuristic hybrid car offers radical energy savings   Tiny Magnets Offer Breakthrough In Gene Therapy For Cancer 'armed' human cells to target tumours has been developed.   Cuter Scooter Defined By Electricity, Portability The low cost and foldable design of these electric scooters, as shown in this rendering outside the Duomo in Milan, could provide a convenient and efficient mode of transportation in urban environments.   Bats Use Magnetic "Compass" to Navigate, Study Says Night-flying bats are famous for their use of echolocation—bouncing sound waves off objects at fairly close range. Echolocation helps bats locate insect prey and steer around objects such as trees and buildings. Cheaper Color Printing By Harnessing Ben Franklin's Electrostatic Forces     The language of science is universal.

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All right reserved - Judy Wilken MS - 2008