Shop Class; Thursday, Second Period [04/01].

[special_rabbit]

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the class with the usual nod, "welcome back. Today, we're going back to a project I haven't done in a while, but I was thinking it would be kind of interesting to go back to, especially since we've already explored one way to generate electricty through unexpected means. One could argue, though, that water is a bit less of an expected way to do it than a potato. But a potato? Is exactly what we're using today."

Because electricity was weird.

"Essentially," Amaya explained, "how this works is that it creates a chemical reaction between the different types of metals we'll be putting into the potato. These reactions, combined with the juices of the potato itself, actually creates a voltage powerful enough to charge something simple and small like a lightbulb, which is pretty neat, really, and probably something that could be useful if you feel you need a little energy but all you've got is a tuber, some coins, and some nails."

Because that's totally a situation that would happen all the time! And she was pretty sure at least one person in this class could do a lot more than just light a lightbulb with that series of materials, but sometimes it was nice to do the simple stuff, right? So she walked them through the steps of cutting a hole in the potato, wrapping the pennies in copper wire, plopping that into the potato, do the same with a zinc-plated nail, being careful not to let the two different metals touch while inside the potato.

"Add more potatoes for more voltage, connecting the penny wire to the nail wire on another potato. Start with one, and then keep adding more until you're able to get your lightbulb to illuminate. To test it, just wrap the ends of the wires around the base of the bulb to complete the current. If it doesn't light up, you just need more energy, and you can get that by adding more links in the potato energy chain."

Electricity was so weird.

"Different sized potatoes will yield different results; you can also use citric fruits, like lemons, to do something like this, and so if anyone also wants to try a lemon lamp, I've got some of those, too, so go for it. We'll have more than enough time to play around with different things. Any questions? If not, we'll just get right to it."

Advanced Team Building, Thursday, April 1st - First period

[imafuturist]

Was it just them, or were phones beeping a lot more often today? Anyway, it inspired the class they had decided on walking from their place in town. "Today we're working on Morse Code!" Steve said. "It, along with the phone number for the Coast Guard if your phone still works, are key components to getting off of a deserted island."

Tony nodded, glancing away from his phone with a frown. "While a bit outdated these days, it's still a good skill to have."

"Plus knowing a secret language is just fun," Steve said, handing out a piece of paper with the alphabet listed on it. "And after this, we can teach you the military alphabet used over radios."

"Or we could do that flag one!" Semaphore, Tony. it was Semaphore.

"Do you know the flag one?" Steve asked.

"We can use google," Tony whispered like the class wouldn't know that.

"Oh!" Steve said, grinning. "I'd forgotten. Let's start with the Morse Code and see where we get, okay?"

"Let's start with this worksheet on the alphabet," Tony said, holding up sheets of paper for the class to take. "And we'll go from there."

If people could be peeled away from their phones.

Guiding the Powerful Yet Incompetent, Thursday, Third Period

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"There is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to get it over with," Yennefer told her students. She took a deep breath, gathered herself, and said, "The king has embarked upon a series of practical jokes." The horror. "Now, if you don't see the problem with this, it's possible you don't remember some of His Majesty's previous, shall we say...ideas?" Strong word. "These jokes range from harmless but not particularly funny--the 'pull my finger' range--to his most recent notion, which is that he wants to have the Duke of...somewhere arrested for treason, and after several hours he will go to the prison and tell the duke that he is 'April's fool,' and have him freed. This seems like not the best idea to you, even if it would be amusing, which I assure you, it will not. How will you redirect the king?"