Alexis Chernin, 11, left, and Lucas Valero, 10, assist Benjamin Franklin with his “Electrostatic Generator,” during Ben Franklin’s Colonial Assembly: A Museum On Wheels, at St. Marks Lutheran School, in Hacienda Heights. (Correspondent Photo by James Carbone)

Ben Franklin was very frank with the students at St. Mark’s Lutheran School. Electrostatic charges can kill. Just ask Franklin’s colleague, who tried to duplicate the famous inventor’s kite experiment.

Fortunately, none of the kids were hurt by Ben’s electrostatic generator, part of a mobile museum from the International Printing Museum of Carson. But their program on this famous American did spark the imagination of students and staff at the Hacienda Heights campus.

“We study Benjamin Franklin in the fifth grade and I think this program really brings history alive,” said teacher Jenn Estrada, who took her turn holding a fluorescent tube out toward the generator to illuminate the subject.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story FRANKLIN.