Linda Zajac

This morning I did a google search that led me to fluorescent fishing items. So I drove over to Cabela's, a relatively new store in the area. It was a goldmine of fluorescence! I found a package of 300 little flourescent green balls called bait sac floaters (yesterday I knew not what they were). The clerk was so nice. I asked him if they glowed under a blacklight. He thought for a moment then led me to a different section and opened up a box containing a $50 blacklight that "sometimes they use to go fishing at night." He plugged it into this generator thing (something else he had to take out of a box) and voila - glowing cells! It took me a while to figure this activity out. I wanted kids to be able to add and subtract glowing cells inside a mouse and they had to be fluorescent. For the mouse, I considered many different materials - pinecones, plastic Easter eggs, dust masks, paper mache, styrofoam ovals.....This morning I was in our windowless bathroom with my blacklight testing different material. I settled on a flat mouse made from folding heart shaped interfacing in half and sealing it partway. The kids will insert the glowing cells in between the folds. I envision it to look something like this mouse.