At our August 23rd meeting we got updates from the teams on how their Water Balloon Challenge ‘devices’ are coming along. The Barcus Bunch showed their video on development and testing of the air-compressor powered water balloon launcher for the upcoming Water Balloon Challenge, raising the competition level for all of us making launchers!

Besides the air-powered units, there are reports of the classic latex tubing powered units and rumors of a Gatling gun style unit going for the quickest reload time category. It’s going to be an interesting competition, which will be at Big Walnut Sports Park on September 13th. Please check our events and project page for updates.

Our making project for this meeting was tattooing bananas. After first talked about how skin tattoos worked we then talked about the process of how fruit changes colors when bruised.

After putting bunches of bananas on the table, everyone took needles to bruise the skin so it turns brown. Some used Sunday comics to trace the character outlines on the banana, others just designed their own tattoo free-form. Conclusion: there’s nothing like personalizing your own banana so no one else will mistake it for yours!!