I am the Borax, I speak for the snowflakes 11/24/2014

DO YOU KNOW HOW COOL SNOWFLAKES ARE!?

Nuh uh.

Check these babies out...

AWESOME.

AWESOME.

AWESOME.

AWESOME.

AWESO...Oh...well, that is kind of hurtful...

So you have to admit now that I have demonstrated through copy & paste the beauty and awesomeness of snowflakes, that they are indeed, awesome.

So I was trying to impart this to my students.  Living in Bahrain doesn't give me the chance to talk about snowflakes very often...kind of like making high pitched kissy noises at a puppy.  Just a head tilt and a "baroo?"

What the hell is a "snew brake" you psycho?  I hate this class...

So I don't mention them often.

Or at all.

You don't get mad at the guy in Greenland not telling his students the meaning of SPF in sun block, so don't you go and judge me.

But I was all about precipitation today, as last night it happened.  

As if my dear blog had inspired the gods of wetness to act, it rained.  Not like, a lot.  Or even, like, "some",..but there were definite drops falling from the sky.  I even tried to film the lightning, but you know how that goes.

AMAZINGLY.

 I AM A MASTER PHOTO TAKER! I MEAN VIDEO TAKER!

Okay fine.  The pictures I took mainly look like this:

Terrifying.

But despite my failure to document the rain and thunder and lightning, it really got me excited for sky water.  

So I came to work and realized I needed to have my high school age students work with a much, much younger group and it should somehow relate to my class AND Bahrain National Day.

Oh boy.  This outta be good...

I don't know anything about kids - other than they carry a massive amount of diseases and it is illegal to fight one in public.  So this was going to be a real test...

Or so I thought...

Then I remembered the rain and the thunder and the lightning - my brain started calculating and remembering facts long forgotten.  Languages unfolded before my eyes.  The Universe bowed to my whims...space and time were my puppets carrying out my commands.

Some people would say I just, "Googled kids science projects" but I really think my description is more accurate.

But my eyes were immediately drawn to something I remember doing in middle school.  

BORAX SNOWFLAKES!

Now...how would one tie a "snowflake" to a desert island that has never...and I mean never...seen a snowflake.

Their knowledge of snowflakes is about as deep as my knowledge of what a girl really wants...that is to say - "zero" "zip" "zilch" "nada" "goose egg" "nil" "zippy" and on and on.

Bahaha...you guys remember DVD's!?  Haha!  What a bunch of cavemen we were 8 years ago...

So I found this project.  Honestly, it is so simple, (and frankly - awesomesauce as well) that you can't go wrong.  Here is how it goes:

Taken from: http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/snow/boraxsnowflake.html

Borax Crystal Snowflake
Grow a snowflake in a jar!

You will need:   string wide mouth pint jar white pipe cleaners blue food coloring (optional) boiling water (with adult help) borax (available at grocery stores in the laundry soap section, as 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster - NOT Boraxo soap) pencil

Directions:

With a little kitchen science you can create long lasting snowflakes as sparkly as the real ones. Cut a white pipe cleaner into 3 equal sections. Twist the sections together in the center so that you have a "six-sided" star shape.  

Pipe cleaners and string form a snowflake base for the crystals to grow on.

If your points are not even, trim the pipe-cleaner sections to the same length. Now attach string along the outer edges to form a snowflake pattern. Attach a piece of string to the top of one of the pipe cleaners and tie the other end to a pencil (this is to hang it from). Fill a widemouth jar with boiling water. Mix borax into the water one tablespoon at a time. Use 3 tablespoons of borax per cup of water. Stir until dissolved, (don't worry if there is powder settling on the bottom of the jar). If you want you can add a little blue food coloring now to give the snowflake a bluish hue. Insert your pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil is resting on the lip of the jar and the snowflake is freely suspended in the borax solution. Wait overnight and by morning the snowflake will be covered with shiny crystals. Hang in a window as a sun-catcher or use as a winter time decoration.  

But how could I tie this into Bahrain culture or pride?

OH SNAP DID YOU KNOW THEY MAKE RED PIPE CLEANERS!!??!!??

So the plan now is to get rid of the blue dye, start with the red cleaners and then just have a clear flake crystallize around it.

RED AND WHITE!

IT WAS BORN TO BE A SNOWFLAKE!

The way I see it, this is going to be a great project!  Some kids have never seen a snowflake!  I have a hard time imagining it, but it is true and I can show them what they (sort of) look like.  

Some of the other students here are from expatriate families - maybe they grew up with snow but haven't seen it in years?

And, to top it all off, they can all make little Bahrain snowflakes together and bond and be Global Citizens and I will just sit right here for my educator of the millennium award.

Shush, I know it is only 2014 but I think we can call this contest right now.

Look what they can make!!

AWESOME.

AWESOME.

AWESO...Oh...Well, you tried...

I tell my high school students, and they are fired up!  

Great!

I tell the teacher of the class we will come to teach the kids how to make snowflakes, and she goes nuts!

Awesome!

Everyone is so excited!

I guess the only thing that could go wrong is I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO FIND BORAX IN BAHRAIN.

In the USA it is practically lining the streets...it never occurred to me that it would be such a hard pull here.  Now, to be clear, I am not saying they don't have it.  I am saying that through translation issues and me being new, I have no idea where to get this stuff.

I am currently scouring the net and people to find this stuff, so if any of you happen to know where I can get this stuff in a hurry - so no, I can't order it - I would be mildly grateful for several hours.

In the end, I know it will work.  This will get sorted out and someway, somehow, even if there is only one box left, I will find it.

Snowflakes will happen.

And each and every snowflake will be different...just like every single other one...

Wait...