View transcript
[00:00:00.00]
(gentle music)

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- That's wow. (laughs)
- Oh, boy.

[00:00:05.01]
- [Elderly man] That's beautiful.

[00:00:06.05]
(gentle music continues)

[00:00:13.08]
- [Teacher] Take, place a card.

[00:00:15.04]
- Yeah.

[00:00:16.02]
- [Teacher] Now, take another.
- Sure.

[00:00:17.04]
(gentle music continues)

[00:00:31.00]
(upbeat music)

[00:00:35.07]
- Hi, and welcome to Storytime
Science at the Exploratorium.

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Today's episode is Glow.

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And the book that I'm gonna read

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is "The Golden Glow" by Benjamin Flouw,

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written and illustrated by him.

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(upbeat music)

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So, this is a story about
a fox who loves plants,

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and he's going to go in
search of a very rare plant

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called the Golden Glow.

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Every evening, sitting in his armchair,

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Fox likes to leaf through old botany books

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looking for the next new plant
to add to his collection.

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What's this?

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A page with no picture!

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The Golden Glow is a plant
from the Wellhidden family.

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It is very rare and only
grows high in the mountains.

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No specimen has ever been described.

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"This sounds like a
fabulously fascinating flower,

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tomorrow I'm off to the
mountain in search of it."

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Before bedtime, Fox
gets his backpack ready,

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making sure not to forget a map,

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a snack, grape pate
sandwiches, his favorite.

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I guess he's a vegan.

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A notebook, a pencil,

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a waterproof jacket, a warm sleeping bag,

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a hat with two little holes for his ears,

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a full water bottle, a
flashlight, a compass,

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and a small tent.

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The sun isn't even up
yet, but Fox is ready.

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He has a long day's walk ahead of him.

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With his trusty compass and map in hand,

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there's no danger that he'll get lost.

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The forest is quiet and peaceful
first thing in the morning.

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Only a few birds are awake and chirping.

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Fox studies the plants and
trees that line the path.

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They're all ones he's seen before.

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He knows the name of
each tree he walks under.

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Here's a fir tree.

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There's an oak.

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This one's a beech tree,
and that one's a spruce.

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Next is the ash tree,
then the famous maple,

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and last is the sturdy larch.

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As he nears a riverbank,
Fox catches sight of Bear

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leisurely fishing for salmon.

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"Good morning, Bear.

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Maybe you can help me.

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I'm on the hunt for the Golden Glow,

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a fabulously fascinating flower.

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I don't know what it looks like,

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but I do know it's very rare."

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"Every day I come to the river to fish,

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and every day I see the same flowers.

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Most of them are beautiful,
but none of them are rare.

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You should talk to Marmot,

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she knows all the mountain's plants,

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but she isn't easy to find."

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Fox looks under slabs of rock,

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inside hollow stumps,

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and then old earthen
burrows, but no Marmot.

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Where can she be hiding?

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It's almost noon and Fox is hungry.

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He sits on the fallen log

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and pulls one of his grape pate sandwiches

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out of his backpack.

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A snout pokes out from
the bush across the way,

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followed by two pointy ears.

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Its nostrils sniff the air

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for a width of the
irresistible grape pate.

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Fox recognizes his cousin Wolf right away,

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and invites him over to share his snack.

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"I have never seen the Golden Glow, Fox,

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but I do know where to find Marmot.

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As soon as I'm done with
this delicious sandwich,

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I'll take you to her.

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I'm as hungry as a wolf."

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After a long trek through the forest,

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Fox and Wolf finally reach
a large steep clearing

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dotted with flowers of every color.

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No need for an encyclopedia here!

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Fox can name all of them:

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anemones, purple saxifrage,

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violets, moss campion,

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veronica, mountain sorrel,

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forget-me-not, butterwort,

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and mountain avens.

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Placing a long blade of grass

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split down the middle onto his lips,

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Wolf sounds a shrill whistle.

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He's made a split whistle
from a blade of grass,

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and Marmot pops out from behind a rock.

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"The Golden Glow!

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Yes, I have seen it!

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Beautiful, unforgettable, but rare!

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You have to climb right to the top!

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To the summit!"

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Fox sets off again, leaving
Wolf and Marmot behind.

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He walks quickly,

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excited to be so close
to his goal at last.

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Little by little, billowing
clouds fill the sky.

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Fox climbs so high

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that he finds himself
stumbling through a dense fog.

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Suddenly, a strange shape looms into view.

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It's Mountain Goat, balanced
on a boulder reading a book.

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"There is no point going any further, Fox.

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Nothing grows at that altitude!

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But if you're bound and determined,

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take this walking stick to help."

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Fox has already climbed a
good portion of the mountain,

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but the hardest part is yet to come.

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First, there's foothill zone,

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then 3,300 feet, montane zone,

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then 6,200 feet, subalpine zone,

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8,200 feet, alpine zone,

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and 9,800 feet, snow zone

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Even so, Fox doesn't get discouraged,

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and soon he's made his
way out of the clouds

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to be greeted by the sun.

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But he finds not a single
flower on the summit,

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nothing but rocks and snow.

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The day is fast drawing to a close,

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Fox has to hurry to set
up camp before nightfall.

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Once he's pitched his tent and
rolled out his sleeping bag,

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Fox sits himself down to watch the sunset.

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As he lays his walking
stick on the ground,

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he feels something brush against his paw.

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(gasps) Ah, hidden under the snow

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is a fabulously fascinating flower,

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it must be the Golden Glow.

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Just as he reaches over
to pick the flower,

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Fox changes his mind.

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This Golden Glow

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is more beautiful here on the mountaintop

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than it ever would be in
a vase in his living room.

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He opens his backpack,

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and pulls out his notebook and pencil.

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Then studying the plant from
every angle, he begins to draw.

[00:09:07.01]
His pencil takes note of every detail:

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the stamen, the stem, the pistil,

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the petals, the sepals, the leaf.

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Back home the next day,

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he'll put all of his drawings
into his botany book,

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so that in the evening
sitting in his arm chair,

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he will never forget just
how fabulously fascinating

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his Golden Glow is high
up on the mountain top

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right where it's supposed to be.

[00:09:44.05]
(upbeat music)

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Now, it's time for our activity.

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And today, we're going to
be making a glowcopter.

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Okay, so the materials that you need,

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you might not have around
the house, like I said,

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but they're pretty easy
and they're pretty cheap.

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The first thing that you're gonna need

[00:10:04.01]
is this stuff called
conductive fabric tape.

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All right, this is 8th-inch wide,

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and it's really inexpensive.

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Every time I bought it,

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it's a roll of 65 feet for under $10.

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And this stuff works just
like electrical wire,

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it will conduct the electricity

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so that our little light bulbs light up.

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The other thing that
we're gonna need are LEDs,

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or light emitting diodes.

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They come in these big bins like this.

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And again, like a thousand of
them cost less than 20 bucks.

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And they're very small,

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these are three millimeter LED lights,

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so that they won't weigh
down your gyrocopter.

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Then you're also going
to need a watch battery.

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These you can just get
at your hardware store

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or you can get them online.

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This particular size is called a CR2032,

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but I think if you just
ask for a watch battery

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and get one of these.

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They're little flat discs,

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and the top is positive
and the bottom is negative.

[00:11:18.02]
And you will also need
a small binder clip.

[00:11:24.03]
You don't want the really big binder clips

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and you don't want the little
super-micro binder clips,

[00:11:31.01]
but a small or a mini, that's a good size.

[00:11:36.01]
And obviously, you're
gonna need some paper.

[00:11:38.01]
Some card stock is really good,

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that's a little bit thicker
than just regular paper.

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And I think that's the paper we use

[00:11:47.04]
because we made gyrocopters

[00:11:50.03]
in the Flying Things episode
of Storytime Science.

[00:11:55.01]
So, we're just gonna do a
gyrocopter or a rotocopter.

[00:11:59.04]
You can also find the rotocopter

[00:12:01.04]
on the Exploratorium website.

[00:12:04.00]
We're just gonna add some
electrical circuitry to it

[00:12:08.04]
to give it little lights

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so that when it spins it'll light up.

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This is an activity that was taught to me

[00:12:17.01]
by a woman, Professor Jie Qi,

[00:12:20.09]
and she's come and she's
worked at the Exploratorium

[00:12:23.05]
from time to time with
our Tinkering Studio.

[00:12:26.00]
And she also has this really cool company

[00:12:28.06]
called Chibitronics.

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And she does all these kinds
of paper circuitry activities.

[00:12:36.02]
So, here is my rotocopter
or gyrocopter pattern

[00:12:41.08]
that I've drawn on a piece of card stock

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that is eight and a half inches long,

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so just the size of a sheet of paper

[00:12:50.07]
or a piece of cardstock paper.

[00:12:53.06]
And it's a little bit over
two inches across, like here.

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And you can see,

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I have drawn where the two
propellors are going to be,

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I'm gonna cut in the middle,

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not cut anything off,

[00:13:07.00]
just cut in the middle
for the two propellers.

[00:13:09.06]
And then I've also drawn these
little things on the side.

[00:13:13.07]
I am gonna cut those two pieces off

[00:13:16.04]
so that it's skinnier on the bottom.

[00:13:19.09]
And I'm gonna go ahead and cut.

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I'm cutting between the two propellers,

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not cutting anything off,

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but I've just got the
two propellors like that.

[00:13:37.03]
Now, I'm gonna cut this
part off and that part off.

[00:13:42.03]
So, this way it's gonna
be skinnier at the bottom.

[00:13:47.01]
When I made the gyrocopter

[00:13:51.02]
or rotocopter during the
Flying Things episode,

[00:13:54.08]
I'm not sure if we just folded the bottom

[00:13:58.03]
or if we actually cut parts off.

[00:14:02.02]
You wanna cut the parts off

[00:14:03.06]
'cause it just helps with the
design of making a glowcopter.

[00:14:11.07]
So, this is what your
potential glowcopter looks like

[00:14:15.07]
before we put the electrical circuitry on.

[00:14:18.04]
Now, what I'm going to
do is I'm going to draw

[00:14:21.08]
each of the two parts of
the electrical circuit.

[00:14:29.02]
First, by the way,

[00:14:30.04]
I'm gonna make a little
fold at the bottom.

[00:14:34.00]
That little fold at the bottom

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is gonna be where your
battery finally goes.

[00:14:48.02]
And I'm gonna draw the
two halves of the circuit

[00:14:51.03]
in two different colors, so
that you don't get confused.

[00:14:54.01]
So, this part of the circuit,

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I'm gonna do it in green.

[00:15:02.06]
And I drew a little, whoops,
circle at the bottom there.

[00:15:07.02]
Right, it's kind of just
above the fold on the paper.

[00:15:14.00]
And now, I'm going to draw
with this green marker

[00:15:18.08]
where this half of the circuit will be,

[00:15:23.06]
and that's where we're going to lay

[00:15:25.04]
our conductive fabric tape.

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So, let's look at this really closely.

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I drew a line, again in green
for this half of the circuit,

[00:15:36.09]
from the bottom of that circle

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and I went up that middle skinny part,

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and then I scooted over

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and the whole circuit is
gonna be on the bottom

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and on only one propeller.

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So, part of it is gonna go there.

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Part of the circuit is gonna go there,

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that's where we're gonna
lay the electrical tape.

[00:15:55.08]
Now, I'm going to draw

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the other part of the electrical circuit,

[00:16:00.02]
and I'm going to do this in
magenta to match my hair.

[00:16:03.09]
Why not?

[00:16:07.05]
And again, I draw a little circle

[00:16:15.09]
just underneath the first
circle that I drew in green.

[00:16:21.04]
All right, now I'm going
to do this one in magenta.

[00:16:24.04]
And because I don't want

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the two halves of the circuit to overlap

[00:16:32.06]
and short circuit each other out,

[00:16:35.05]
I'm gonna go around to the back.

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I will show you once
I've finished drawing.

[00:16:41.00]
So, I go around to the
back and then up the back,

[00:16:45.01]
but then I wanna scoot it
back over to the front,

[00:16:48.03]
so I'm gonna go around to the front.

[00:16:50.00]
And I'll show you this again
once I've finished drawing

[00:16:53.05]
where this half of the
circuit is going to be.

[00:16:56.03]
Okay, putting my top back on my pen.

[00:16:59.05]
So now, we have this other half

[00:17:03.09]
or other part of the circuit.

[00:17:05.08]
And you can see the green went up.

[00:17:08.05]
With this one, I don't want it to overlap

[00:17:11.02]
or get in the way of the
other half of the circuit

[00:17:13.03]
so I drew it off to the side.

[00:17:16.02]
You're gonna see

[00:17:17.00]
when I put that conductive
fabric tape on there,

[00:17:20.07]
I am going to fold it around to the back.

[00:17:25.04]
I'm gonna go up the
skinny part of the back,

[00:17:29.09]
and then I wanna scoot it up to the front.

[00:17:34.03]
Whoops.

[00:17:38.05]
And now it'll be folded
over to the front again.

[00:17:41.03]
Let me get my finger out of
the way so you can see it.

[00:17:44.01]
And then it goes up

[00:17:45.02]
right next to parallel
with the green line.

[00:17:52.07]
Okay, now we're gonna start adding

[00:17:55.03]
the conductive fabric tape.

[00:18:00.03]
So, the conductive fabric tape,

[00:18:02.00]
what's really cool about this
is this conducts electricity

[00:18:05.08]
on both the front and the back.

[00:18:07.07]
Only the back is sticky,

[00:18:09.09]
but it conducts electricity
on the sticky side

[00:18:13.00]
and on the non sticky side.

[00:18:15.01]
You don't wanna pull the
backing off all at once

[00:18:19.02]
because then the tape's
gonna get all raveled up

[00:18:21.08]
and tangled up, and you
won't be able to use it.

[00:18:24.01]
So, as I lay it down on
the lines that I've drawn,

[00:18:28.00]
I'm going to slowly pull
the backing off of it.

[00:18:31.07]
And I'm going to go on the
green line that I drew first.

[00:18:35.08]
And I'll show you the very,
very beginning of it again

[00:18:38.07]
before I lay the whole thing out

[00:18:42.00]
because I wanna make sure
I go exactly on that line.

[00:18:46.02]
And can you see that I started
the conductive fabric tape,

[00:18:50.02]
that's gonna be your electrical wire,

[00:18:52.09]
right there all the way
at this edge of the circle

[00:18:57.01]
it's gonna cross the whole circle.

[00:18:59.06]
We're doing this because we
want it to make good contact

[00:19:02.07]
with the battery.

[00:19:04.03]
Now, I'm going to finish

[00:19:06.01]
laying out the conductive fabric tape

[00:19:08.09]
all the way to the top of the green line,

[00:19:14.01]
this half of the circuit.

[00:19:16.07]
And what's really cool about this tape

[00:19:18.08]
because it's conductive on both sides,

[00:19:23.00]
you don't have to be
absolutely perfect with it.

[00:19:26.00]
I am going to curve
around just a little bit

[00:19:30.00]
and then curve it again to go
all the way up the green line.

[00:19:34.09]
And once again, I'll
show you once I'm done,

[00:19:37.06]
I'm gonna get to the top,

[00:19:40.05]
and then cut that off.

[00:19:45.01]
Okay, there we go,
(scissors snipping)

[00:19:46.01]
little snip of the scissors.

[00:19:49.05]
So, I started here, again
this is my green line,

[00:19:53.05]
this is the green half of my circuit.

[00:19:57.02]
It goes up here and then I
didn't wanna bother cutting it

[00:20:01.05]
or all I did was I just
kind of scooched the tape

[00:20:05.06]
over a little bit.

[00:20:06.07]
And then to go back up,
I scooched it again,

[00:20:09.02]
that does not affect the
conductivity of the tape.

[00:20:12.07]
It still will conduct electricity,

[00:20:14.04]
even though it gets twisted,

[00:20:15.06]
or bent, or turned a little bit.

[00:20:17.09]
Now, I am going to do the same thing

[00:20:20.08]
with the other part of the circuit.

[00:20:22.07]
Let me take a new piece of tape.

[00:20:25.02]
The hardest part of the tape

[00:20:26.06]
is taking the backing off of it.

[00:20:29.05]
So, I've got it started already.

[00:20:31.08]
And again, I'm not gonna
pull this white backing off

[00:20:35.04]
all at once 'cause the tape
will get all tangled up

[00:20:37.09]
and it'll be useless.

[00:20:39.05]
I am going to pull it off
slowly as I lay it down.

[00:20:43.07]
And once again, I will
show you with each step.

[00:20:47.08]
So, there we go.

[00:20:49.04]
I have once again started
it way at the edge

[00:20:54.02]
of the magenta circle.

[00:20:57.02]
I'm not gonna cut it,

[00:20:58.06]
I am gonna fold it over the back.

[00:21:02.03]
So, I just folded over the back.

[00:21:05.02]
Let me hold that up so you can
see it a little bit better.

[00:21:08.02]
I folded it over the back.

[00:21:10.03]
Now, I want the tape to go down or up.

[00:21:15.01]
And I'm not gonna bother cutting it,

[00:21:16.06]
I'm just gonna twist the tape
a little bit as I turn it,

[00:21:20.02]
so it'll go up the back.

[00:21:22.04]
And once again, I will show you,

[00:21:25.06]
and I have to twist it again
to go toward the front again.

[00:21:30.08]
So, there it is.

[00:21:32.09]
We started at the front,

[00:21:36.06]
we folded it over so you
can see it on the back.

[00:21:41.00]
I just twisted it to make
that turn to start to go up.

[00:21:46.01]
And I twisted it again to
start to make that turn.

[00:21:51.04]
And again, I don't tear anything off,

[00:21:54.03]
I am just gonna fold
it around to the front.

[00:21:58.05]
Not cutting it off, that's
one continuous piece.

[00:22:01.09]
And again, I'm gonna set it down

[00:22:03.06]
so I can finish pulling
the backing off the tape

[00:22:06.02]
and finish the electrical tape

[00:22:09.09]
or the wire part of the circuit.

[00:22:15.06]
And you wanna make sure

[00:22:16.06]
that the two halves are
not that close together

[00:22:18.08]
because if one side of the
circuit touches the other side,

[00:22:22.09]
it might make a short circuit,
and your lights won't work.

[00:22:26.09]
So, let me just trim that, okay.

[00:22:32.02]
So, this is what the
whole thing looks like.

[00:22:34.07]
All right, so you have that
one circuit going up one side,

[00:22:38.08]
and the other one part of the circuit,

[00:22:40.08]
and the other part of the circuit

[00:22:42.05]
folding around to the back,

[00:22:45.00]
going up, scooching over,

[00:22:47.09]
and folding back around to the front,

[00:22:50.00]
and then going up parallel.

[00:22:52.00]
Those are the two halves
of your circuit right now.

[00:22:56.07]
Now, these little teeny LED lights,

[00:22:59.08]
they do have a positive
side and a negative side,

[00:23:03.01]
as does the battery.

[00:23:05.01]
But we don't have to worry
about that quite yet,

[00:23:08.01]
we are going to clip the battery in.

[00:23:11.01]
All right, so here I have the battery.

[00:23:14.06]
Let me pop it out,

[00:23:15.07]
or maybe it won't really pop out.

[00:23:17.09]
Oh yes, it will, perfect.

[00:23:21.03]
So, here is my little watch battery.

[00:23:25.02]
It doesn't matter if
the positive side is up

[00:23:28.01]
or the negative side is up.

[00:23:30.00]
It doesn't matter,

[00:23:31.00]
we're just gonna make a battery sandwich

[00:23:33.09]
in between those two little
circles that we drew.

[00:23:39.01]
So, here are the two little circles.

[00:23:44.00]
I am going to the battery
right on that higher circle,

[00:23:49.04]
the green circle.

[00:23:51.02]
And I am going to fold
the magenta circle on top.

[00:23:56.02]
I don't know if you can see,

[00:23:57.05]
but I've made like a
little battery sandwich.

[00:24:00.06]
So, one side of the circuit

[00:24:03.03]
is touching one side of the battery,

[00:24:06.04]
and the other side of the circuit

[00:24:08.03]
is touching the other side of the battery.

[00:24:11.00]
Now, I'm gonna clip it in place.

[00:24:14.06]
All right, let's get a
nice red binder clip.

[00:24:19.04]
I am just gonna clip that into place.

[00:24:22.06]
So, there is the binder clip,

[00:24:24.03]
that's holding the battery in place.

[00:24:27.03]
Now, it's time to place our lights.

[00:24:33.08]
Because you usually, when you
buy light emitting diodes,

[00:24:39.01]
they come in a big box.

[00:24:41.08]
You know, like I said, less than 20 bucks

[00:24:44.08]
for a thousand of these.

[00:24:46.03]
So, imagine all the things you
can make with this many LEDs.

[00:24:51.05]
Because the reds and the
yellows are only two volts,

[00:24:56.00]
and the clears, the blues, and
the greens are three volts,

[00:25:01.04]
the red and the yellow like
to grab the electricity first.

[00:25:05.08]
So, if you have a red and a blue light,

[00:25:09.02]
the electricity will never
get to the blue light.

[00:25:11.08]
Or a yellow and a green light,

[00:25:13.06]
the electricity will never
get to the green light.

[00:25:16.00]
So, you can mix reds and yellows,

[00:25:19.00]
or whites, blues, and greens.

[00:25:22.05]
I'm gonna mix reds and yellows.

[00:25:26.01]
So, I will start with...

[00:25:27.09]
Here's the little chart by the way,

[00:25:29.07]
that often comes with certainly
with the kinds of LEDs

[00:25:33.03]
that I bought.

[00:25:34.02]
It's kind of cool just
as a reference point.

[00:25:39.08]
Now, we're really gonna
need a closeup for this.

[00:25:43.06]
There are two little like pins,

[00:25:47.02]
or well, not pins like
they're really sharp

[00:25:49.02]
they would hurt you,

[00:25:50.01]
but like two little teeny wire legs

[00:25:53.07]
that come out of the LED.

[00:25:57.03]
Here is the light.

[00:26:00.09]
And if you turn it upside down,

[00:26:03.00]
you'll see those two little legs.

[00:26:05.04]
One is positive and one is negative.

[00:26:08.02]
We don't really care which one is which,

[00:26:10.04]
when we place it, the
battery's always there.

[00:26:13.02]
If it lights up, that means it works.

[00:26:15.02]
If it doesn't light up,

[00:26:16.06]
it means we just need to flip it over.

[00:26:19.03]
So, these two little legs,

[00:26:21.07]
I am gonna pull them apart

[00:26:24.03]
into a little bit of a V-shape.

[00:26:26.09]
Let me do this as a human,

[00:26:28.08]
the two little wires are like this,

[00:26:30.07]
and we're gonna make them like that.

[00:26:32.06]
One of those little legs on the lights

[00:26:34.05]
is gonna touch one side of
this conductive fabric tape,

[00:26:39.05]
and the other little leg
will touch the other side.

[00:26:42.08]
Let's see.

[00:26:48.00]
It's not working.

[00:26:51.07]
So, that means we have to switch

[00:26:54.01]
our positive and our negative.

[00:26:55.09]
And all I'm gonna do is
take the little light,

[00:26:59.03]
and I'm gonna flip it this way.

[00:27:02.05]
So, I just now have one leg touching

[00:27:05.01]
the other conductive fabric tape side,

[00:27:08.08]
and the other leg touching the other.

[00:27:12.01]
And let's see if it works now.

[00:27:15.05]
It does.

[00:27:18.02]
All right, so there it is.

[00:27:19.08]
It's glowing.

[00:27:20.06]
I don't know if you can get
that little glow on camera.

[00:27:23.04]
This is the Glow episode after all.

[00:27:25.09]
Now, I'm gonna cut two
more little teeny pieces

[00:27:29.05]
of conductive fabric tape.

[00:27:31.01]
And I am going to tape that
little side, the little leg,

[00:27:36.00]
the little wire coming
out of the little light,

[00:27:39.01]
I'm gonna tape it down on this side

[00:27:41.02]
right over the tape that
we already laid down,

[00:27:45.07]
and then I will do the
same on the other side.

[00:27:48.00]
I'm gonna now take another
little piece of this tape

[00:27:52.00]
and I'm gonna cut some
small little bits of it.

[00:27:56.05]
I can go ahead and just cut this off.

[00:27:58.08]
Whoops, the whole thing
came off on my finger.

[00:28:01.07]
Oh, that's maybe like an inch and a half.

[00:28:04.02]
I'm gonna cut that into two pieces.

[00:28:10.03]
And I am gonna tape down those little legs

[00:28:14.05]
of the LED on top of the tape

[00:28:19.01]
that I already laid down.

[00:28:20.05]
And I'm gonna make sure that
it's super, super tight.

[00:28:25.01]
I wanna make sure that

[00:28:28.09]
this little light bulb

[00:28:32.04]
is making really good contact.

[00:28:35.08]
So, there it is, one.

[00:28:38.07]
I'm gonna add a couple more lights.

[00:28:40.02]
I think three is a good
amount of lights to add.

[00:28:43.01]
So, that one's all lit up.

[00:28:44.08]
We know the batteries
in place, it's working.

[00:28:46.09]
Let's do the same now with
I have two yellow lights.

[00:28:52.07]
I'll do this a little bit more quickly,

[00:28:54.09]
here's one of my yellow lights.

[00:28:56.08]
There it is, again I'm
gonna go from this to this.

[00:29:02.02]
And again, I'm just gonna
add two little pieces of tape

[00:29:06.04]
to make sure that it's really held

[00:29:09.08]
nice and tightly in place,

[00:29:12.00]
and it makes a good connection

[00:29:14.03]
between the little leg of the light

[00:29:19.07]
and the conductive fabric
tape that I already laid down.

[00:29:26.07]
And I'm gonna do this much faster now

[00:29:30.01]
'cause I'm gonna add a third yellow light.

[00:29:32.09]
All right, so there we
have now two lights going.

[00:29:35.08]
I'm going to add a third light,

[00:29:37.00]
and then I'm gonna fold the propellors,

[00:29:38.07]
and we'll make it fly.

[00:29:41.08]
All right, where is my other?

[00:29:43.01]
Oh, there it is, my other
little yellow light.

[00:29:45.05]
I'm just gonna do it super fast.

[00:29:49.02]
Okay, there we go.

[00:29:51.05]
And no, and let's turn the light around

[00:29:55.06]
to make sure it makes contact,

[00:29:57.06]
and it does.

[00:29:59.02]
And a little bit more of this tape.

[00:30:02.05]
Two little pieces.

[00:30:03.08]
The little pieces that
you wanna lay on top

[00:30:07.03]
of the little wire legs that
come off of the LED lights

[00:30:13.04]
should be, oh, not even an inch long.

[00:30:16.07]
It can be an inch long or
three quarters of an inch.

[00:30:28.06]
And there we go.

[00:30:29.08]
I'm pressing down really hard,

[00:30:31.08]
and you can see that those
little connector pieces of tape

[00:30:36.02]
that I lay on top of the little legs

[00:30:39.09]
are not like all over the place,

[00:30:41.08]
they are just staying along the line

[00:30:45.02]
of conductive fabric tape
that I already laid down.

[00:30:48.02]
Again, we don't wanna
short circuit anything.

[00:30:50.09]
So, we can't lay those
little pieces of tape across

[00:30:54.07]
'cause that would short circuit.

[00:30:56.03]
That would mean the electricity

[00:30:57.06]
didn't get all the way to the light bulbs

[00:30:59.06]
and all the way to the battery.

[00:31:01.06]
Now, I'm gonna fold this.

[00:31:03.07]
This propeller with the lights on it

[00:31:06.07]
should be folded this way

[00:31:08.08]
so that the lights are sticking up.

[00:31:14.01]
And the other propeller needs
to go in the other direction

[00:31:19.01]
so that it looks like a proper
gyrocopter or rotocopter.

[00:31:24.01]
Okay, I think we're ready to throw this.

[00:31:26.04]
Again, the little battery
and the little binder clip,

[00:31:29.02]
they act as a nice weight to help gravity

[00:31:33.05]
bring this little glowcopter down.

[00:31:36.02]
Here is your glowcopter.

[00:31:38.00]
You can either make one at home,

[00:31:39.08]
or you can come to the
Exploratorium during the Glow Show

[00:31:44.08]
and make one with me here
at Storytime Science Live,

[00:31:49.09]
that'll be every Saturday and Sunday.

[00:31:52.08]
I will be doing it from
Thanksgiving weekend,

[00:31:55.06]
all the way through the
last weekend in January.

[00:31:59.03]
(upbeat music)

[00:32:03.08]
Time for Poetry Corner.

[00:32:06.01]
this is a poem I wrote myself.

[00:32:08.01]
And if you've seen other
episodes of Storytime,

[00:32:10.09]
you know that I like to write poems.

[00:32:14.02]
This poem is called You Glow.

[00:32:18.06]
You have a certain glow,

[00:32:21.05]
a light within that's bright,

[00:32:24.03]
a glow that shines a strong

[00:32:26.07]
as all the stars you see at night.

[00:32:29.09]
Your glow means that you're clever,

[00:32:32.09]
and that your soul is kind.

[00:32:36.04]
Your glow means that
you're powerful in body

[00:32:39.06]
and in mind.

[00:32:41.07]
Your glow means that you're curious,

[00:32:44.09]
and also that you're smart.

[00:32:47.09]
You love to ask good questions,

[00:32:51.01]
not just learning things by heart.

[00:32:54.04]
You have imagination,

[00:32:56.08]
that also makes you glow.

[00:32:59.09]
You share your happy thoughts and dreams

[00:33:02.09]
with everyone you know.

[00:33:06.01]
A glow can be electric or bioluminescent,

[00:33:11.09]
but people glow when love

[00:33:15.00]
and creativity are present.

[00:33:18.09]
Remember, you're a shining star,

[00:33:22.01]
you have that certain glow,

[00:33:25.05]
your light has all the colors
of a beautiful rainbow.

[00:33:31.02]
(upbeat music)