- 1). Blow the red balloon and the two blue balloons up to the same size.
- 2). Cut the the bendy ends off the straws, if applicable.
- 3). Place one blue balloon on the table in front of you. This represents the nitrogen atom within the element. Place one red balloon above the blue balloon. This represents one of the oxygen atoms. Attach two of the straws between the two balloons using tape. Space the two straws half an inch apart. The double straws between the balloons represents the double bond between the nitrogen and oxygen atom.
- 4). Place the other red balloon which represents another oxygen atom on the table below and to the right of the blue balloon. Attach the remaining straw between the two balloons with the use of tape. This straw represents the single bond between the nitrogen and oxygen atom.
- 5). Paint the double bonded straws created in step 3 yellow. Paint the single bond straws created in step 4 red. The straws are colored differently in order to make the different atoms and connections between atoms easily distinguishable.
Source...