Learning about levers with Bowie

For our second Simple Machines class, we explored levers. We played with a balance, made individual mini-catapults (that flung mung beans hither and thither), and, for a grand finale, we flang water balloons with a nice big water balloon catapult that I built. I need to get some video of that, it was pretty fun. The super sweet Autumn, Bowie's mom, took this video of me finishing up the catapult with Bowie. I'm amazed I was being so educational! I guess it just pops out, sometimes.

For those of you who are following along at home, if you do actually want to learn something about levers, I found two really fun youtube clips: Eureka! and Bill Nye. Eureka! has this great Schoolhouse Rock look, and as for Bill Nye, I just have to say, I knew him when. And when I say 'knew', I mean, I used to watch him on Almost Live!, this really great Seattle-based program that used to precede SNL when I was a youngster. Good stuff.