As a service to humanity, or at least parents of children
with a scientific bent, I present the Common Household home-made scientific
Halloween costume: the cell.
A cell lurks in the neighborhood
From my perspective, this costume was great. Youngest Daughter bubbled with enthusiasm at
the possibility of being a cell for Halloween. So I handed her an old sheet and
some fabric paint, and said, “Measure twice, cut once. Don’t get paint on the
carpet. Go for it.” That was the full extent of my
involvement. She did all the work
herself.
The first task was to cut a hole for her head. She got out the measuring tape, the stiff metal kind that is useful for measuring rooms and furniture, and measured her
head. She said, “Mommy, do you really
think that my head could be 2 feet around?”
Her brother said, “If you want to get an accurate measurement, use a
string. Wrap it around your head, and then take the string off and measure its
length.” She bounded off in search of
string. She remembered to figure out
where the center of the sheet was before she cut the hole. Whew!
Then it was just a matter of painting the various parts of
the cell. When I was in school, a cell
only had a nucleus. Nowadays a cell is
chock full of all kinds of stuff, including endoplasmic reticulum, which is fun
to say but difficult to explain. My
daughter picked the paint colors herself, and outlined everything in
glow-in-the-dark clear fabric paint.
Okay, bio majors, what's missing here?
Answer in the penultimate paragraph.
This costume had a bonus.
The 7th grade science classes are currently learning about
cells, so my daughter took her costume into class, and explained it in detail. The
teacher gave her not one, but two
homework passes which can be turned into extra
credit at the end of the quarter.
Halloween candy plus a better
grade – there are no losers here.
I have been informed that this cell model is missing
something. When I called my daughter to come downstairs and explain the endoplasmic
reticulum to me, she came half-way down the stairs and said, “I can do that
from up here.” To encourage brevity I
said, “I’ll bet you can do it standing on one foot” (just like Rabbi Hillel). So she stood on the stairs on one foot and
told me what the endoplasmic reticulum does. She revealed that her cell does not include the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, because she didn't have room for it. I didn’t retain much of her explanation, except to note that there is an
awful lot that goes on inside a cell.
What is your favorite home-made Halloween costume? Or do you prefer store-bought?
The benefits of being a cell for Halloween
4 comments:
You've got such fun smart children!
Endoplasmic reticulum! The powerhouse of the cell! Ahhhh...this microbiology major LOVES it!
That is a very cool, creative, costume.
Maybe because I'm not much into Halloween, my daughter's costumes have always been bought. She usually manages to add some touches, but she and her dad do the costume-shopping.
Brilliant! And so darn unique. I wish my boys would go as something other than vampires/zombies/werewolves.
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