STEM Activity: Static Glue

Hi friends! In honor of opening week at the museum, here is a fun STEM activity you can do at home on static electricity!

You can follow along with Ms. Sarah Burton in the video (who you may remember from the summer), or you can follow the directions below. 

Static Electricity happens when an object becomes negatively charged and interacts with another object that is positively charged. In this activity, we are negatively charging the straw with the wrapper! 

I hope you had fun completing this short and electrifying activity! See you next week for another STEM activity!

Supplies Needed:
- A plastic straw in a paper wrapper
- A dry (vertical) surface

Directions:
- Tear the paper wrapper in half
- Keep one half on the straw
- Hold the wrapper in one hand and the plastic straw in the other
- Quickly rub the wrapper back and forth over the straw until it feels warm under your hand
- Remove the wrapper quickly and place it on the surface
- Did the straw stick?
​It should because when negative particles interact with positive particles, opposites attract and they are pulled to each other!