EPISODE 15: BUILDING A TETRAHEDRONAL KITE MATERIALS NEEDED: Box of Plastic Straws Scissors Tissue paper Scotch tape Twine So your brother has asked you to take care of the kids for the day and you have to give up the sports station and beer drinking for a Saturday afternoon. Things don’t have to be as boring as you might think – kids are actually a lot of fun, and if you have the right activity to occupy them, and yourself, you might finding yourself having a great time. Who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself more willing to discuss baby making with your girlfriend when she next broaches the subject. Why not work with the kids to make a cool variation on that old standby – the kite? Tetrahedrons are polygons, three dimensional shapes, made out of triangles. They have long been a source of inspiration for those pioneers of flying, and their strong structure has been found in architecture for ages. To construct a tetrahedral kite, you need first to take your straws and combine them in to double lengths. Twist the end of one straw and stick it into another. For every three double lengths, bend the edge over and make a triangle. Reinforce all the joins with tape. You’ll need four of these triangles for the finished product. Next, make four more triangles out of single straws. Place them upside down inside the larger triangles and tape them together at the corners of the smaller ones. The corners of the smaller triangles should fall roughly at the center of the length of each side of the larger ones. Next, tape two of the completed larger triangles together edge to edge. Repeat with the third triangle and bring them around and tape them so that they form a pyramid. Tape the final triangle to the bottom of the pyramid. To finish off, cover alternating sections of the pyramid with tissue paper. Once the tissue paper is taped in place, attach an end of the ball of twine to the front bottom corner of the pyramid. The kite is ready to fly!

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