It comes as no surprise that Claymation is one of our most popular Galileo Summer Quest majors because using a lump of clay, a video camera and a computer to make a movie is downright exciting. As our campers know, making a good claymation film is much more nuanced than that, but making a beginner’s rough and tumble short – really short – film can be done with basic supplies and a heap of patience. Today’s stop motion films are detailed, beautiful and realistic, like Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline, but parents can remember back to Gumby and Mr. Bill, which are a lot closer to what home claymation can realistically aspire. In fact, it’s a good excuse to gather the kids around the ol’ computer to introduce them to Gumby and Mr. Bill.

There are free software options for making a basic stop motion movie, like Stop Motion Animator for a PC or FrameByFrame for a Mac. GSQ uses more professional programs like iStopMotion and iMovie that allow more finely tuned editing. The software should help with the movie set up, but a visual on a clever way to set up a stationary camera can be found on a video by New York Times Technology columnist David Pogue talking
about doing stopmotion video with his kids.

Once the software-computer-camera system is in place, the next stop is character and story development…or you can give your child a lump of Playdoh and watch the story develop on the fly. While the process of positioning the clay, taking a picture, slightly repositioning the clay, taking another picture again and again is simple, it takes a lot of time and patience. It takes about 30 frames to make up a second of a stop motion film, a fact that puts the skill of feature length films like Fantastic Mr. Fox into perspective.

Luckily in the Bay Area there places to get a quick introduction into claymation films, including Zeum in San Francisco, where included in the cost of admission, those ages five and up can make a little claymation film to take home. We were introduced to DIY claymation when my daughter and her classmates made short films (really short, running only a few seconds) while on a school field trip to the Palo Alto Art Center. Her class only spent a short time making claymation movies, but they talked about it enthusiastically for days.

Here’s the video made by my daughter and her friend:

Her part was the little egg that hatched a snake and her friend’s part was the colorful “snail.” My daughter explained that after the snake is hatched, the snail takes a “quick ride around on the snake,” then the snake cleans up the egg shell pieces. That’s just to clarify because it looks a little questionable, but it’s purely G-rated.

For more inspiration, the work of some of our Claymation majors from last summer are featured at the 1:20 mark in this video:

Designing jewelry can be a lot of creative fun, which is why it’s a popular Galileo Summer Quest Minor. Campers form design teams to dream up and create dazzling, wearable works of art using a variety of materials. If you can’t wait for camp to begin or if you have children too young for Galileo Summer Quest, we’ve got an easy way to create jewelry with homemade shrink plastic, which is a simple, DIY Shrinky Dink. Plus, there’s a little science served up on the side.

First collect clear plastic containers with a #6 in the recycling symbol. These are the containers typically used in salad bars or with bakery goods. Cut them into various shapes. I found that when making squares or rectangles, the corners were pretty sharp and because some of these were for my active three-year-old, I cut more circles and ovals than angled pieces. To make them wearable, use a hole punch to make an opening in the piece, keeping in mind that the hole will shrink a bit with the plastic. I punched holes before my kids started drawing, so they would know which spot would be missing and could draw around it, but the hole can be cut out after the design has been made.

Let the artistry begin using permanent markers (washable markers don’t work). If you want to use colored pencils, sand one side of the plastic a little bit first to help the color adhere.

Preheat your oven or toaster oven to 325 degrees. Place the shrink plastic on a cookie sheet with either a piece of brown paper or aluminum foil to allow the plastic to move freely as it shrinks. Put the plastic in the oven for one to three minutes. The plastic will curl up and then relax to a somewhat flattened state. Once that happens, take them out of the oven and let them cool for another minute or two before they are ready to be handled. When cool, the plastic-turned-charms can be strung with string or a jewelry cord, with beads added, as desired.

Plastic on the left, Shrinky Dink on the right

We used both plastic #6 and actual Shrinky Dinks for comparison. We measured both types before and after cooking to document how much the pieces shrunk during the heating process. The pieces shrunk about 50-60%, about the same for the plastic and the authentic Shrinky Dink, making them more compact and intensifying the colors. The molecules in plastics are called polymers that can be manipulated. When the plastic warmed up, the molecules moved around and the plastic grew pliable. Once cooled, the molecules became more rigid and the piece hardened. When the original #6 container was made, the molecules were warmed, then stretched and became a solid in a thinner, stretched out position. When heated again, the molecules shrank back down into their original form.

Letting your kids play around with shrink plastic is fun, plus it could be setting up the foundation for a scientific discovery as an adult.

(Before beginning the project, I was a little concerned about any off gassing from cooking plastic, but I found the fumes were minimal. We only made one batch and opened the window to be cautious.)