And now, the epic conclusion.

Remember how I predicted there would be a few bumps along the way? Yeah...

So before we got started, I hadn't received confirmation on whether tools had been acquired... So I was pretty nervous that we weren't going to be able to proceed. As I waited for all 5 of the classrooms to sign in to the webinar, I chatted with the teachers already present...

  (cue initial panic that the activity may have to be postponed)

  Ms. Kelly's Class: So we are not going to do it today?

  Bethany: It depends -

  Ms. Kelly's Class: We have our cameras and our students ready

  Bethany: Whether we can proceed depends upon whether you have all been set up with all of the tools necessary to open up the cameras

  Ms. Kelly's Class: ...and a tool to open the cameras..Is there anything else we need?

  Bethany: Oh!

PHEW! We then confirmed what the tools were and that they were appropriate (one teacher's chat of, "I have 2 flat heads on my desk. Was wondering what they were for." was my favorite part of this discussion); and then after experiencing some unfortunate time-eating technical difficulties with the webcams, we were able to get underway! Hooray! 

So after going through a 10 minute or so discussion about different types of cameras, what they are used for, and what they all have in common, we moved into the camera disassembly activity. (Any of you loyal blog followers may remember camera disassembly from the Urban League Summer Camp kids.) This was a bit difficult logistically, as there were 5 classrooms of varying sizes, and because of the technical difficulties experienced earlier with the webcams I could not see the classrooms to see how far along they were following my directions. We therefore had to communicate via the chat window so I would know when to go ahead. Some of the bigger classes had to ask to slow down... so while we all waited for them to catch up, I felt kind of awkward just sitting here staring at a webcam, with no idea what was going on at the other end. I started making silly faces, which apparently went over really well, because I started getting requests to do it again. So, I think I handled the slightly-less-than-ideal situation well enough and was still able to keep the kids entertained during the slow parts.

As usual, the big spark and pop from discharging the capacitor was a huge hit - the chat window started blowing up with, "They are loving this!!", "Wow!", and, "How fun!". I only wish we could have had all the webcams going, because that is my favorite part to watch!

As the activity wrapped up, each of the classrooms came back on their webcams and of the students stood up and cheered! I tried to grab a screen shot of this, though I was a little bit late in getting it so some of the classrooms were already taking down their webcams (and the ones who were still cheering were all blurry in their extreme excitement):

Pay no attention to the goofiness of the powerpoint slide. That was the only one that the formatting got messed up on, I swear.

So that barely represents the huge reaction I got... Perhaps it is better summed up by the chat window:

  karam:Thank you so much!!  We really enjoyed this!
  Heather:Thank You!!!!
  Ms. Kelly's Class:Thank you!
  Perra:Thank you!!!
  Perra:Very exciting!

Or, by the conversation I had afterward with the guy whose office is adjacent to mine, who thought I was watching Sesame Street because there was like 2 minutes straight of children loudly cheering which was clearly audible in his office (and we both had our doors closed).

All in all, the activity went really well overall and was a lot of fun. Even though there were technical difficulties, there was a lot to learn from those and I would expect things to go much cleaner next time. (And, I'd remember to send tools ahead of time...) The excited reaction of the kids at the end made it all worth it!

Aaaaaand... Scene! Until next season, THE END.