This year, Holly decided she wanted to do a partner project with her best friend, Abigail. Then it was time to pick a topic. We scoured books, read science and nature magazines, and watched different Discover Channel/PBS/National Geographic shows. Out of thin air, and while watching a cartoon, Holly asked if you could really make a clock from a potato. I said of course you can. She declared her project would be making fruit batteries.
We had more conversations in the following weeks about different fruits and vegetables and if it would power a clock. I started to explain the process to her and realized we had a project - comparing the electrical potential of different fruits. I started laughing and explained the idiom about comparing apples and oranges.
Over a series of Saturdays, we experimented and learned. Abigail and her mom joined us -- I promptly told Kristen her job was to keep me in check and at grade level. She quickly discovered that was a tall order; I have a lot of knowledge on this particular topic and can go quite deep in explaining things. But we had a lot of fun and I think the girls discovered a lot about how batteries work.
