Newport / Costa Mesa / Irvine : COSTA MESA : Demonstration Gives Students a Charge

Erika Beltran, 12, placed one hand on a silver metal globe and waited apprehensively while her classmates watched.

Moments later, children erupted into laughter as Erika’s long brown hair began to levitate and stand on end.

Erika was one of about 120 students from Lathrop Intermediate School in Santa Ana who visited the Launch Pad on Monday to learn about the effects of electricity.

During a demonstration, Erika gripped a Van de Graaff generator, designed to create large negative charges of static electricity. As the machine whirred to life, her body became so charged that her hair began to rise, sticking out in every direction.

“It was like my hand was vibrating and my hair just went up. It was fun. It’s better for us to learn in fun ways,” she said.

During another demonstration, Forrest Love, who works at the Launch Pad, showed the seventh-grade class a Tesla coil--a squat machine that crackled and spat sparks into the air.

With the device, Love broadcast electrical power through the air and lit up a florescent light bulb even though it was several feet away and unconnected to the coil.

Trini Luken, 14, said he learned that science can be interesting, a notion of which he was skeptical before visiting the Launch Pad. “I got more into it” because of the demonstrations, he said. “They’re good.”

The Launch Pad, the preview facility for the Discovery Science Center, is on the third floor of Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa.

After-school science sessions for youth are open through Dec. 23 and from Jan. 2 through April 7. For more information, call (714) 546-2061.