Byline: CHRIS STURGIS Staff writer
Discovery '93 at Draper Middle School was so electrifying, participants' hair stood up.
At least it did around the Van De Graaf generator supplied by the New York Power Pool.
Spokesman Jack Valentine explained that as the machine creates static electricity, it collects electrons off the body in an attempt to neutralize itself.
The process leaves each hair with a positive charge that pushes away from the others, causing them to stand up a bit.
'So in other words, her hair becomes positively repulsive,' he said, as a woman demonstrated.
Ironically, the exhibit attracted lots of boys, whose crew cuts wouldn't lift and separate.
Darryl Bush, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Draper, held his hand two inches from the generator, allowing blue sparks to jump between its surface and his palm. 'It surprises you,' he said.
One theme of the fair was linking education with occupations, but Bush said he didn't need the exhibit, titled BZZZT, to generate his interest in science.
For that, he has his dad, Tim Bush, manager of operations for the New York Power Pool, an association of the state's largest electricity producers. The younger Bush said he hopes for a career in computer science.
Exploring foreign lands through culture, travel or language was another theme.
Tufuee Sualevai, 12, a sixth grader, tried on a Spanish veil, or mantilla, at the Artifacts from Spain table.
Exhibitor Cornelia Thayer, of the Teatro de Biale Espanol in New York City, said she taught two dozen children to tap out Latin rhythmns with castanets. She also danced flamenco-style with her partner, Constancia.
Foreign study brought history home to students May Anderson, Anna Cusano, Christina Natale, Tyrone Foster and Dawn Dagostino, who displayed their model of the attic where Anne Frank's family hid from the Nazis.
'The Diary of Anne Frank helped us understand better about the German occupation,' said Anderson.
'And about prejudice,' added Dagostino.
Other exhibits showed the dangers of smoking, the promise of super conductors, the habits of snails, the wonders of recycling, the capabilities of radio-controlled race cars, the health effects of electromagnetic fields and the future of lasers.
CAPTION(S):
PHOTO - TIMES UNION/JAMES GOOLSBY
PAULA BOWMAN, 13, cuddles Iggie the Iguana, during a science fair at the Draper Middle School in Rotterdam Saturday.
