Foraminifera Pinata

I volunteered to be the games coordinator for this year's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department picnic. The games are the same every year: sack races, water balloon toss, 3 legged race, and a hippie or two bring along frisbees and slacklines and such. Last year somebody made a beautiful pork-yata, depicting the tectonic plates with raw bacon (as an entry to the cook-off under the category "most creative use of pig"). It was filled with pork rinds and it was awesome.

I decided there must be a pinata this year as well. But of course, mine would be a glorious foram. Here is an example of one of the most creative protozoans I know!


I paper mache-ed old scientific papers onto balloons for the first three chambers, then joined them together with yarn. Then I inserted a fourth balloon into the gap, inflated said balloon, and paper-mache-ed over that bad boy to finish.

I was quite pleased with the results, except for some unfortunate gilding of the lily I refer to now as the glitter spackle debacle. It was the biggest foram I have ever seen!