LA GRANDE — A number of La Grande School District grades schoolers are having electrifying experiences this week to the delight of their classmates.

The manes and curls of students in third, fourth and fifth grades are standing up, sometimes as much as 6 inches as they learn about the fundamentals of electricity during a program titled “Jolts, Volts and Wires” being presented by Michael Kirby, of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s Outreach Team.

Students are getting excited about electricity, while participating in demonstrations Kirby is conducting with the aid of devices such as a Van de Graaff generator, which generates static electricity by using friction. The generator uses a moving belt to accumulate an electric charge on a hollow metal globe on the top of an insulated column.

If a person holds the dome, they too will become charged and the individual hairs on their head will stand out and spread away from each other, as classmates cheer.

Kirby enjoys the demonstrations as much as the children.

“This is like a dream job,” he said. “I don’t feel like I am working.”

He said that even on days when he encounters groups of students who are hard to instruct, he counts himself fortunate.

“Even when I have students who are difficult, I still feel so lucky,” said Kirby, who rates the La Grande School District’s students among the best he has worked with.

Kirby has put on demonstrations this week in the gyms of Island City, Central and Greenwood elementary schools and then given presentations in classrooms. At each, he has done much more than operate a Van de Graaff generator. Other demonstrations include showing students how to create their own circuit by touching each other’s fingers while standing in a circle. It includes two students holding a tube-like device with LED lights that lights up when a current from the human circuit passes through.

Kirby said this happens because people generate their own electrical current that passes through others they are touching.

“We all have electricity within us,” he said. “It is a source of energy being generated within us all the time.”

The OMSI educator is striving to help children discover that learning about science is fun and that they should not be intimidated by it.

“Everybody has the ability to become a scientist,” he said.

A return of assembly gatherings

At Island City, Central and Greenwood, Kirby has served as one of the first outside presenters in the schools since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Northeastern Oregon in March 2020. The pandemic forced all in-person instruction in Oregon schools to be canceled in the spring of 2020. When in-person instruction resumed, state safety rules still prevented guests from coming into schools or large assembly gatherings.

Kirby has been able to give demonstrations in gyms with minimal restrictions only since February after COVID-19 infection rates began dropping. He said he is booked solid throughout the state for the rest of the school year. He credits the busy schedule to the pent-up demand in schools for outside presenters created by the COVID-19 restrictions.

Island City Elementary School Principal Brett Smith said Kirby’s presentation was the first assembly Island City third and fourth graders had attended since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“They were super excited. There was a lot of anticipation,” said Smith, who added he is always impressed with the OMSI programs.

Central Elementary Principal Monica West echoed the sentiment.

“It was great to have an assembly like this,” she said. “It was something different, something we had not had in two years.”

Kirby will give this week’s final presentation on electricity in the La Grande School District on Friday, April 8, at the Willow School gym. His free presentation will run from 10-11 a.m. and will be for homeschool and La Grande Virtual Learning Academy students and their parents.