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ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
By scaling up from toothpicks to barbecue skewers, dry spaghetti (food
again!) or even bamboo garden canes, it becomes possible to use smallish
elastic bands (is that what you call them in the USA?) to join the ends
together.
It's actually much easier than it sounds. You just wrap an elastic band
repeatedly round the ends of several sticks until it becomes tight, then you
can twist out the sticks to any angle you want. Strong, excitingly large
structures can be built in this way: huge tetrahedrons, towers, geodesic
domes etc.
Again, it seems a better idea to use materials that can easily be obtained
at home, to encourage further experimentation.
Regarding 'playing with food', a South African science communicator once
told me how a small, thin, Zulu child had angrily, indignantly shamed him
for using spaghetti-sticks for an outreach event of this kind.
[log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
*
Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
*
Ian Russell
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
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