Photos from the Super Family Science Night Outreach Activity--November 3, 2006:

We set up a booth at Super Science Family Night at the OU Natural History Museum, to help teach children age 4 - 12 about tornadoes. The blue glow in the lower-left corner is from our tornado-in-a-box, featured in another photo below.

Our courageous volunteers, shown behind the booth, about to be descended upon by a sea of children eager to build tornadoes in a bottle.

Laura helps one of the kids apply duct tape to her tornado bottle -- a finished product can be seen in the center, too.

So... many... children!

Corey and Alex, trying frantically to keep up with the kids overwhelming our booth. Even though we brought enough supplies to build tornadoes for almost 100 kids, we still ran out before the evening was over! Here you can see a close up of the booth itself, with bottles, connectors, tape, and the instructions and science explanations sheets that we gave out to each visitor.

One of our tornado bottles in action! It's an f5 wedge!

...And here's our tornado in a box! It's not as exciting as the big tornado machine we're planning on building over winter break, but it was still a hit with the kids. We used it to explain how tornadoes needed swirling air, stretching, and condensation to form a visible funnel. Thanks to Laura for coming up with the design! P.S. -- Don't ask about the cow. Just... don't.