View transcript
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(upbeat music)

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- Hi and welcome to Storytime
Science at the Exploratorium.

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My name is Viv, and this
is the Halloween episode,

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but it's also the sound
and vibration episode.

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We're gonna be reading a book, "Skulls"

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by Blair Thornburg
illustrated by Scott Campbell.

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And we're gonna be doing three
kind of spooky activities.

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We're gonna be doing head
harp, the creaking door,

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and the haunted rice.

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So let's get reading.

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(upbeat music)

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"Skulls".

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You probably don't
think much about skulls.

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But every head of every
person you've ever seen

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has a skull inside.

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And that's a good thing.

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Skulls take a while to
grow strong and hard,

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but it's time well spent.

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Skulls are safe and snug like
a car seat for your brain.

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Skulls give your face a good shape.

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Skulls let your jaws snap.

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Skulls hold your teeth in
place until they don't.

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Skulls have holes in them.

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So, a hole, a hole, eyes.

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Hole and the hole, ears.

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Hole, nose. Hole, mouth.

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For sounds, for light, for air,

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for grilled cheese sandwiches.

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Skulls don't have noses, but
skulls don't really need noses.

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They're more of a cartilage thing.

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But most of all, skulls
are not trying to be scary.

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They can't help the way they look.

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They just do their job,
and no one says thank you.

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And some people are even afraid of them.

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But not you, not you at all.

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You love having a safe
place to keep your brain.

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You snap your jaws with gusto

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and you love having teeth in your mouth

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until of course you lose them.

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They'll grow back.

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You love having holes for
hearing, for seeing, for smelling,

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and breathing, and for eating
grilled cheese sandwiches.

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So tell your friends,

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"Nice skull, it gives
your face a good shape."

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Tell your family,

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"Thanks for helping my skull
grow strong and the hard."

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Shout to the world, "I love my skull."

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Take care of your skull
because you only get one.

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And think of how amazing it is

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to have such good bones in your body.

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(upbeat music)

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Okay, time for our spooky
Halloween science activities.

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We have three activities.

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And I'd also like to
introduce my assistant, Jack.

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He will be here with us.

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He'll maybe be able to help
out, but I'm not so sure.

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Our first activity is called head harp.

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And all you need for this
is a piece of string.

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And you probably want to use

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slightly thicker string like twine,

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and you also need an assistant.

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If there's a grownup around your house,

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they make particularly good assistance.

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So try that.

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I'm gonna pretend like
I'm two different people,

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'cause I'm just one person.

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What you need to do is,

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you're gonna put the string
around the back of your head

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and you are going to
cover both of your ears.

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So put your hands over your ears.

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The assistant will hold
the string in place.

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And while you have your
hands over your ears,

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the assistant will pluck this
like it was a guitar string.

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This is your skull at work.

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What might you hear inside your head

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if you have something
that's vibrating your skull

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like this string?

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This is called head harp.

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It's a good activity for your skull,

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for you and your skull.

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(upbeat music)

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This is a sound effect science activity.

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So, first thing you want to
do is you want a plastic cup.

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You could also use a paper clip.

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And a ballpoint pen is good for this

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because you want to very, very carefully

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poke a hole in the bottom of the cup.

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I put my hand all the way in the cup

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so I can sort of hold the
bottom of the cup in place.

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This would be easier if
you're using a paper cup.

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And you just want to make a small hole

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just about the size of the
tip of the ballpoint pen.

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And this might be a good time

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to also ask your grownup
assistant to help you out

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'cause they might be
better at poking the hole

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with the ballpoint pen
into the bottom of the cup.

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I already poked the hole in this cup,

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but you would just put it right there

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and just poke it through so
that you get a small hole.

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So I already poked a hole
in the bottom of this cup.

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Both plastic. This was a
blue one, this is a red one.

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And the next thing you want to do

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is you want to take a paper
clip and the piece of string.

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You actually want this thinner

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than that piece of twine
you used for a head harp.

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And not quite as thin as
thread, but pretty thin string.

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And you want to tie it very, very securely

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to the middle of the paperclip.

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And maybe a tie a double
knot so it's nice and secure.

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So, now, this is securely tied

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onto the middle of the paper clip.

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I'm gonna take the other
end, the non-paper clip end,

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and I am going to thread
it through that hole

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in the top of the cup.

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I'm gonna reach in.

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So there it is at the end of the cup.

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And the string is nice and secure

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because the paperclip is not
letting it go through the hole.

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And you might want to even add
a little piece of scotch tape

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just to make extra extra sure

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that that paperclip is held in place.

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So I just added a little
piece of tape on the top.

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All right, now you need
a little cup of water

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because you're gonna be dipping
your fingers into the water

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and you want to make sure that
the string is nice and wet.

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So I'm actually gonna
wet the string. Okay.

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And are we ready for the creaking door?

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It was a dark and stormy night.

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I heard footsteps outside the door.

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Suddenly...

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(string creaking)

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(gasps) The door started to open.

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(creaking continues)

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(gasps) It opened a little bit more.

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Who could be on the
other side of the door?

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(creaking continues)

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(gasps) Was it a ghost?

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But a ghost wouldn't need to use the door.

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The ghost would just kind of
go right through the door.

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(creaking continues)

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Oh! It was just my dad
with some Halloween candy.

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(string creaking)

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The creaking door happens
because your fingers,

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your wet fingers,

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are sort of stopping and starting

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and stopping and starting on the string.

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The string isn't oily,
your fingers aren't oily...

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(string creaking)

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And you just get that nice
kind of creaking sound.

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And because it's in the cup,

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the sound of the friction from your finger

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(creaking continues)

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pulling on the string
echoes inside of the cup.

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The cup acts as a little echo chamber.

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And probably, the cup itself
vibrates a little bit too.

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Sound is a vibration.

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You're kind of vibrating the string

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by stopping and starting as
you pull your finger down.

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And if the cup itself,

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in addition to the string is vibrating,

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that's called sympathetic vibration.

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If I just pulled on the string,

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you don't get any creaking sound.

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You really need that cup
to act as an echo chamber.

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So you can do a whole sound effects thing,

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tell a story and...

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(string creaking)

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(upbeat music)

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This third Halloween
science activity is called,

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the haunted rice.

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So I have just some plain rice.

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It could be brown rice,
it could be white rice.

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The rice is a little bit starchy,
which is why we use rice.

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But it's not cooked, it's raw.

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And you need a wine glass.

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Again, you may have to consult
with a grown-up assistant

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for this as well.

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So, I put some grains of rice into the cup

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with a little bit of water.

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I already did this.

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And then I have a spoon.

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So, see now the rice kernels
are a little bit wet.

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But because rice is kind of starchy,

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when they get a little
bit wet, not cooked,

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but a little bit wet, they
get a little bit sticky.

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And I'm using the spoon

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to sort of just smash them up

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against the sides of the glass.

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You don't want to use too much rice

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'cause you don't want to make

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the whole glass and rice thing too heavy.

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But you don't want too
few grains of rice either.

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So, there we have the grains of rice

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stuck against the side of the wineglass.

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And you need a glass
with a stem like this.

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Now, because you already
have a little cup of water,

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you poured some into the glass

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to just wet the raw kernels of rice.

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Now you're gonna do that old thing

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of playing the wine glass,

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kind of like it's a musical instrument,

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but let's see what happens
to the rice when I do that.

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Is the rice haunted?

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Maybe it is.

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I'm gonna wet my finger.

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First of all, I'm gonna wash my hands,

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which you should be doing a lot anyway.

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I'm gonna wash my hands

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to make sure that there aren't
any natural oils on my hand.

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And this may take a while to get going,

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but you're gonna hear
that nice high bell sound,

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which, again, is gonna be friction.

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(wine glass chiming)

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And the rice seems to be
haunted because it's chiming.

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That sound you hear is vibration,

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and that vibration is making
the whole glass vibrate.

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(chiming continues)

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And I don't know if the kernels of rice

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are trying to run away.

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(chiming continues)

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So there you have it.

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Head harp using your
skull, the creaking door,

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and the haunted rice.

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Happy scientific Halloween.

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Thank you, Jack.

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(upbeat music)

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Halloween poetry corner.

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This is a very, very short poem called,

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"Flutter, Flutter Little
Bat" by Leanne Guenther.

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Flutter, flutter little bat,
how I wonder where you're at.

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Swooping through the darkest night,

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you find your way without a light.

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Flutter, flutter little bat,

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how I wonder where you're at.

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Now, this is really interesting

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because bats don't see when
they fly around in the night.

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They use something called echo location.

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This whole episode has
been about Halloween, yes,

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but also about sound.

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Bats use sound to see in the dark.

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(upbeat music)