Thunder and lightning?

Question

I have to teach about thunder and lightnings on Thursday - How do I explain positive/negative energy to 9 year olds?

Answer 1

Use little faces from paper or else. One kind smiling and one sad or ugly...
The smiling ones you may use as positive and the other ones... well, dunno if this is gonna work, but I reached great results with my tutoring kids - and they were eleven to thirteen.
Tell them a nice story about an old friendship between the two sorts of "Smilies", the will to reanimate this broken friendship etc.
This is quite easy to imagine and to remember...
Hope this'll work with you...

Answer 2

I dont know if you have time to make the static machine before thursday, see:http://www.alaska.net/~natnkell/staticgen.htm

What can you do with this thing? Here are some ideas:
Make small lightning. Charge a Leyden jar. Power an electrostatic motor. Light a fluorescent bulb. Learn first hand why lightning rods are pointed. Make a human discharge chain (adults only- not for the faint of heart). Hear the snap of a big spark. Pretend you are Ben Franklin. Shock and amaze your friends (ha ha). Learn about electrostatic levitation. Turn out all of the lights and see corona. Turn out the lights and see all the sparks you hear. Turn out the lights and show your date. Explore the force that holds the universe together (no kidding). I'm only scratching the surface here !!!

Answer 3

You could use magnets as an example that there exist invisible lines of force and energy. Have them try pushing together the negative or positive poles of two magnets to feel the attraction or that like poles repel each other. The magnets will give the 9 year olds some hand-on experience with the electromagnetic force, which includes light, and lightning.

Answer 4

Just tell them it is god farting, you will be sainted if you are in Kansas.
But Really the suggestions of magnets are good, but only to show that opposites attract like boys and girls (at age 8 expect a lot of giggles and eeewww mushy type comments) and then a static spark from a synthetic cloth or more reliably one of those push button pilot igniters for barbeque's.
The spark is lightening, those positive and negatives meeting. It should be bright enough to see. The fact that it is hot enough to light fuels should help convince them that a spark like that big as a bolt of lightening would make air hot enough to explode. they know from TV that things that explode go boom.( thunder explained).Your schools sciences guy might be able to help or the janitor. an empty piezoelectric lighter or a self lighting propane torch without the bottle would also show an electric spark well enough to see. Your non static guarded sweater if you pull curtains and dim lights might make enough sparks to be visible and they would understand it as static instead of technological magic.

Answer 5

Lightning makes friction the friction exploding is the thunder.
go to, Sience and Mathematics and click on zoology then on the one about wolves

Answer 6

Read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning

Answer 7

Tell them thunder is a sign the gods are angry with them and they must work harder at school or the thunder gods will come for them!!!

Answer 8

Lightning always comes from the ground upwards, although it dosent seem that way

Answer 9

Sound effects
Photographs
Interesting facts and fiction

Some mythology on the subject of lightening.
About Benjamin Franklin , whom invented the lightening rod, as well as proved that lightning was actually electricity through his flying-a-kite-during-a-thunderstorm experiment .
Safe places to be during a thunderstorm.
Humorous stories from people that have been struck by lightening.
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infoplease.com%2Fspot%2Flightning1.html

Some weather maps that show lightening activity.
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weather.com%2Fmaps%2Factivity%2Fgolf%2Fuslightningstrikes_large.html

Some interesting facts about lightening.
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fthunder.msfc.nasa.gov%2Fprimer%2F

How lightening and thunder works.
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howstuffworks.com%2Flightning.htm

Exploding Air.
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howstuffworks.com%2Flightning.htm

Answer 10

use magnets and show them the magnetic field with iron filings to start with. then tell them about the earths magnetic field then you can go on to positive and negative and how negative charged particles are attracted to positiveley charged particles its all about attraction.