| Hey kids, have you ever watched lightning in the sky at | | | | to your hair. |
| night, or gotten zapped when you touched a metal | | | | 4. Touch the balloon to a smooth surface, like a wall, |
| door? Those are two shocking examples of electricity! | | | | and let go. If you rubbed enough, it should stick! |
| Elementary science teaches us that everything in the | | | | What's Happening: |
| world is made up of tiny particles called atoms. An | | | | Have you ever heard the saying "opposites attract"? |
| atom is made up of a hard core, called a nucleus, and | | | | Well, that's true of electric charges, too. Electrons have |
| a cloud of fast whizzing particles called electrons that | | | | a negative charge, and the protons that make up the |
| move around the nucleus. Sometimes electrons can | | | | nucleus of an atom have a positive charge. Electrons |
| even jump from one place to another. When electrons | | | | push away from other electrons, but are strongly |
| move, this creates a current of electricity. | | | | attracted to things with a positive charge. There are |
| When you see lightning up in the sky, you're actually | | | | usually the same number of protons and electrons in |
| seeing billions of electrons jumping all at once from one | | | | an atom, so most of the time, they cancel each other |
| place to another. Moving electrons tend to release a | | | | out. |
| lot of energy, and we can use this electricity to do all | | | | When you rub the balloon over your hair, the balloon |
| kinds of things, from powering a computer to splitting | | | | grabs electrons from the atoms in your hair. Now |
| an atom apart. | | | | there are more electrons than protons in the balloon, |
| Our bodies also use electricity. Every thought that you | | | | and fewer electrons than protons in your hair. This |
| have is the result of tiny electrical signals jumping | | | | leaves the balloon with a negative charge and your |
| between the cells in your brain. Everything that you | | | | hair with a positive charge. Since opposites attract, the |
| feel is an electrical message passed down long | | | | negatively charged balloon sticks to your positively |
| pathways called nerves that run from your body to | | | | charged hair! |
| your brain. Even your heart is controlled by electrical | | | | When you touch the balloon to the wall, the electrons |
| signals that tell each cell in your heart when to beat. | | | | in the atoms of the wall are repelled by the balloon and |
| A heart attack happens when this electrical signal gets | | | | move away from it, but the protons in the wall are |
| mixed up and every cell in your heart tries to beat at a | | | | attracted to the electrons in the balloon and move |
| different time. That's why doctors can use a machine | | | | slightly toward it. The negative charge in the balloon is |
| called a defibrillator to deliver a powerful electric shock | | | | attracted to the positive charge in the wall, and zap! It |
| to your heart - it resets all the heart cells and gets | | | | sticks just like a magnet. |
| them beating in time again! | | | | Now that is shocking science! |
| Here's a fun and easy elementary science experiment | | | | Discover more kids science articles, look up amazing |
| you can do to see electricity at home: | | | | fun facts, do animated science quizzes with talking |
| A Hair-Raising Experiment | | | | characters, meet friends in virtual worlds, play games |
| 1. Blow up a balloon and tie a knot in the end to keep | | | | and do fun science activities at Science Score - the |
| the air from escaping. | | | | world's most fun online elearning product for kids. Join |
| 2. Rub the balloon quickly back and forth over your | | | | the thousands of kids to play with Science Score and |
| head for ten seconds. | | | | do well in Science. |
| 3. Slowly pull the balloon away. Watch what happens | | | | |